Tyler Drumheller
Drumheller in January 2009
Born
Tyler Scott Drumheller

April 12, 1952
Biloxi, Mississippi
DiedAugust 2, 2015
Falls Church, Virginia
Burial placeColumbia Gardens Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
EducationUniversity of Virginia (B.A.)
Georgetown University
SpouseLinda Blocher
Children1
Espionage activity
CountryUnited States
AgencyCentral Intelligence Agency
Service years26

Tyler Scott Drumheller (April 12, 1952 – August 2, 2015) was an American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who served during the Cold War and early War on Terror, advancing to chief of the European division for clandestine operations in the Directorate of Operations from 2001 until his retirement in 2005.[1] He later became known for exposing the Bush White House's use of intelligence from Curveball, an unreliable Iraqi intelligence source managed by the German BND, to mislead policymakers and the public in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Early life

Tyler Scott Drumheller was born April 12, 1952 in Biloxi, Mississippi, to a US Air Force chaplain and his wife. Part of his childhood was spent as a military brat in Germany before attending the University of Virginia. He graduated in 1974 with a bachelors in history and attended postgraduate studies in Chinese at Georgetown University before being hired by the CIA in 1979.[1]

Drumheller met his wife, fellow CIA officer Linda Blocher, while she was working as a secretary in the Africa division, and proposed to her in a stairwell at CIA headquarters after learning that he would soon be sent to Zambia. The two had a daughter together.[1]

Career

Drumheller claimed the CIA had credible sources discounting some weapon of mass destruction (WMD) claims made during the Iraq disarmament crisis before the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. He received and discounted documents central to the Niger yellowcake forgery prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has also stated that senior White House officials dismissed intelligence information from his agency which reported Saddam Hussein had no WMD program.

According to Drumheller the Bush administration ignored CIA advice and used whatever information it could find to justify an invasion of Iraq. The CIA, brokered by the French intelligence service, recruited Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri in Europe during the late summer of 2002.[2] Sabri told the CIA in September that Hussein had no major active weapons of mass destruction programs, had no fissile material and that biological weapons were almost non-existent, although he claimed that there were chemical weapons. This information was then transmitted to the White House, but it was ignored in favor of the information acquired by Germany's intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) coming from a source known as Curveball.[3]

On September 6, 2007, Sidney Blumenthal, reporting at Salon.com, supported Drumheller's account: "Now two former senior CIA officers have confirmed Drumheller's account to me and provided the background to the story of how the information that might have stopped the invasion of Iraq was twisted in order to justify it."[4] In March 2011, Blumenthal sent an email which included "apparently highly sensitive information" to then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with details received from Drumheller, who had spoken with a CIA colleague, mentioning the name of an intelligence source.[5]

Drumheller retired from the CIA in 2005 after a 26-year career, where he spent more than 25 years as an intelligence operative.[6]

Retirement

After retiring, Drumheller wrote On the Brink: An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence, with Elaine Monaghan, published by Carroll and Graf in 2006 (ISBN 978-0786719150).

Death

Grave of Drumheller in Columbia Gardens Cemetery

Drumheller died on August 2, 2015, from pancreatic cancer at the age of 63 in Falls Church, Virginia.[1][7] He is buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.[8]

See also

William D. Murray

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Miller, Greg (August 6, 2015). "Tyler Drumheller, CIA officer who exposed U.S. reliance on discredited Iraq source 'Curveball', dies at 63". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ Roston, Aram; Myers, Lisa (March 20, 2006). "Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details - Saddam's foreign minister told CIA the truth, so why didn't agency listen?". NBC Investigative Unit. NBC News. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ Müller, Ute; Wiegelmann, Lucas; Banse, Dirk (August 27, 2011). "USA haben BND für Irak-Krieg missbraucht". Politik Deutscher Geheimdienst. Die Welt (in German). Axel Springer SE. Retrieved August 22, 2015. Trägt Deutschland Schuld am Ausbruch des Irak-Kriegs 2003? Nein, sagt Ex-BND-Chef Hanning und bezichtigt die USA, seine Behörde für den Krieg missbraucht zu haben
  4. ↑ Blumenthal, Sidney (September 6, 2007). "Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction". Salon.com. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  5. ↑ Isikoff, Michael (October 8, 2015). "Benghazi committee, under fire, releases more Clinton emails". Politics. Yahoo!. Retrieved October 9, 2015. Tyler spoke to a colleague currently at CIA, who told him the agency had been dependent for intelligence from [redacted due to sources and methods]
  6. ↑ Miller, Greg (2015-08-06). "Tyler Drumheller, CIA officer who exposed U.S. reliance on discredited Iraq source 'Curveball,' dies at 63". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  7. ↑ Hattem, Julian (August 7, 2015). "Author of Benghazi memos sent to Clinton dies after cancer battle". The Hill. Capital Hill Publishing. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ "TYLER S. DRUMHELLER". legacy.com. 2015-08-07. Retrieved 2021-10-24.

Bibliography

  • On the Brink : An Insider's Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence (Carroll & Graf, November 2006); ISBN 0-7867-1915-X
  • Wie das Weiße Haus die Welt belügt: Der Insider-Bericht des ehemaligen CIA-Chefs von Europa (Hugendubel Verlag, August 2007); ISBN 3-7205-3013-2
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