Sunday, April 03, 2005

'Curveball' Debacle Reignites CIA Feud

Forgive me, for I am no expert on base ball. I thought a curve ball was the equivalent of a googly or a wrong'un in cricket, something utterly deceptive. I guess this spy was just America's little joke on us Brits about going to war.

"'Later, I remember the guffaws by myself and others when we said, 'How could they have put this much emphasis on this guy? � He wasn't worth [anything] in our minds,' Pavitt said.

Tyler Drumheller, former chief of the CIA European Division, said he and other senior officials in his office � the unit that oversees spying in Europe � had issued repeated warnings about Curveball's accounts.

'Everyone in the chain of command knew exactly what was happening,' said Drumheller, who retired in November after 25 years at the CIA. He said he never met personally with Tenet, but 'did talk to McLaughlin and everybody else.'

Drumheller scoffed at claims by Tenet and McLauglin that they were unaware of concerns about Curveball's credibility. He said he was disappointed that the two former CIA leaders would resort to a 'bureaucratic defense' that they never got a formal memo expressing doubts about the defector."

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