CIA official blasts White House in anonymous book
From Wolf Blitzer
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It's not every day that a top CIA counterterrorism official -- still serving in the government -- is allowed to publish a book that blasts the White House.
But that's precisely what has happened.
The book is titled "Imperial Hubris." The author is a veteran of the CIA for more than two decades, and is identified only as "Anonymous."
Sources say he ran the hunt for Osama bin Laden from 1996 to 1999.
Among his charges:
-- That Saddam Hussein posed no immediate threat to the United States.
-- That the war in Iraq undermined the overall war against terror and actually played into bin Laden's hands.
-- That the United States is now losing that war on terror.
"Anonymous" also predicts that al Qaeda will attack the continental United States and that it will be even more damaging than the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
He says the biggest mistake made after 9/11 was that top intelligence community leaders were not fired.
Sen. Bill Nelson, who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, says he agrees with the author's assessment:
"As we try to prepare ourselves in this new era of terrorism, we have to just assume that we're going to have an attack. And the only way that we prevent it is to have accurate and timely intelligence."
