On the Brink

The highest-ranking CIA official yet to write a book about the current war in Iraq, retired officer Drumheller looks back on his 25 years in intelligence to lay bare the Bush administration's push towards invasion and its long-term impact on US intelligence-gathering capabilities. He sensationally reveals that a 'very close European ally', believed to be the UK, initially opposed the invasion of Iraq, insisting that the concentration should be on Afghanistan. Central to the author's argument is the familiar story of the White House's reliance on the testimony of an Iraqi defector in making its case for war. There are fascinating glimpses of milestones in the run-up to the war, including a late-night call from CIA director George Tenet the night before Colin Powell's infamous UN address, at which he presented 'dodgy' testimony on Iraqi WMD. The author illustrates how the Bush administration left the CIA scrambling to clean up the ensuing mess. The book is a lucid account of the Bush administration's intelligence breakdown, affecting world peace.