Former CIA Officer Reveals Shocking Details From War Meeting With Dick Cheney | John Kiriakou

the day before we actually crossed the border there was a final it's called an order of battle meeting so George asked me to be the notetaker in this meeting George Tennant the director of the CIA George is at the head of a conference room table and I'm sitting directly behind his right shoulder taking the notes and everybody else is on a TV screen right and then the general says if all goes as planned we can be in teron by August George is sitting there and then he leans forward and turns off his microphone and he says did he say Baghdad or did he say Teran and I said he said teron and George says have these people lost their minds and then he turns the microphone back on and just sits my station Chief in Pakistan on the strength of the Abu beta capture was promoted to associate deputy director for operations so he calls me and he says you need a job I said actually no I just got a job they put me in charge of Counter Intelligence for uh Alex station and he said yeah well they just made the made the associate deputy director and he said I want you to come up to the seventh floor and be an executive assistant I said oh done done so my first day on the job was the following Monday and I go in and I said okay so what are we doing and he says I actually can't tell you you have to go to this room on the sixth floor and there are some secrecy agreements for you to sign and then we'll tell you what we're doing and I said okay so I went to the sixth floor and knocked on the door and I knew the guy who told me to come in and I said oh hey what are you what are you doing he said so you're the new executive assistant wow you've made a a heck of a a heck of a path for yourself I said yeah I got lucky Pakistan was totally positive um I said what are we doing and he said well why don't you sign these first and then I'll explain everything so there were six of them and I signed six secrecy agreements saying I'll never ever reveal what I'm about to learn unless it's Declassified which it has been and so I sign I go okay what's up and he goes well now this is this is May of 2002 2002 he goes well next year in February we're going to invade Iraq we're going to overthrow Saddam Hussein and we're going to open the largest Air Force Base in the world so that we can move all of our air assets out of Saudi Arabia and deprive Osama Bin Laden of the ability to say that we're polluting the land of the two holy mosques I was dumbfounded and all I could even blurt out was but we haven't caught Bin Laden yet and he said buddy the decision's been made and the battle lines have been drawn he said he said CIA is opposed to this state is opposed to this and The Joint Chiefs are opposed but the ones that are for it are ovp the office of the vice president OSD the office of the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council and I said so the decision's been made he said the decision's been made yeah so I walked back downstairs and the boss says so you're readed in and I said are they out of their minds and he said yes they are but we're not a policy agency we're a support agency and if they tell us to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein that's what we're going to do and so that's what we worked on until we invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein so tenant was the director at this time right yes and uh didn't you I don't know if it was the same day or not but walk by his office and see him doing a little art project in there oh it wasn't tenant okay I went up to the uh it was the chief of something called the Iraq operations group um I had to pick up a briefing book uh there was a principal's meeting a the principal meeting it's it's a policy meeting chaired by the Vice President um and it has the Secretary of Defense Secretary of State National Security adviser um CIA director NSA director and chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff so I went to pick up the book and uh and the chief of the Iraq operations group he's sitting there with a piece of paper and he's got these Crayola um what do you call them the Crayons no not the crayons but the magic markers I go whatat are you doing he says oh I'm designing the new Iraqi flag I said don't you think the Iraqis should design the new Iraqi flag he goes I don't know I thought I'd do it and I said you're using the colors of the Israeli flag like this is what happens when they put a Mexican guy in charge of the Iraq operations group I said buddy the Iraqi flag is is the colors that it is for a reason right you got to have green because it represents Islam you have to have red because it represents the ethnic minorities right you got to have the three stars because that represents uh the the sunnis the Shia and the Kurds you can't just take the Israeli flag and change it around a little bit so thank God nothing ever came of that but they were serious it it got worse than that that was minor it got way worse than that how so people just getting too big for their Bridges well the day before the day before we actually crossed the border um there was a final it's called an order of battle meeting I always hated the order of battle meetings because I'm not a military analyst and I just don't care where elements of the Fifth Army Corps are in comparison to the third infantry division I don't care right let the generals figure that out I trust in their judgment you don't have to tell me that the the 23rd Infantry mounted division is I I don't care so George asked me to be the notetaker in this meeting George Tennant the director of the CIA asked me to to be the notetaker and um the meeting was chaired by the Vice President so it was Cheney and his guys like scooter Libby and a couple of other people coni rice Colin Powell um the chairman and vice chairman of the joint Chiefs Don Rumsfeld ki's Deputy um Hadley Steve Hadley Steve Hadley I couldn't remember his first name he was there and then General I forget his name he was commander of centcom at the time he had replaced uh you know Schwarz and [ __ ] and all these other people that had come after Schwarz General was it Taylor Maybe Taylor can't remember anymore so Cheney starts the meeting General why don't you give us the order of battle I'm like so I'm sitting George is at George is at the head of a conference room table and everybody else is on a TV screen right and George's microphone is right in front of him and he's just sitting there like this and I'm sitting directly behind his right shoulder taking the notes so we're sitting there and they're like the Fifth Army Corps is in this position and the 23rd infantry is here and they're going to move north and this one's going to move west and this one's going to come South and the blah blah blah blah blah and I'm writing it all down and then the general says if all goes as planned we can be in teron by August George is sitting there and then he leans forward and turns off off his microphone and he says did he say Baghdad or did he say teron and I said he said teron and George says have these people lost their minds and then he turns the microphone back on and just sits so I'm taking all the notes and one of these idiots from the NSC says when we cross the border they're going to throw flowers at us and I wrote it down the meeting ends I go back to the deputy director's office he said how'd the meeting go and I said did you know we were going to invade Iran and he goes ooh are they still talking about that and I go yeah they said we could be in Iran by by August and he goes listen we're not invading Iran we're probably not even going to be successful in Iraq but these guys don't know anything about the Middle East nothing we're not going invade Iran they talk about it like they they think they know what they're talking about and they don't know anything I go okay I I hope you're right and sure enough we got bogged down in Iraq never never went anywhere near Iran what's up guys thank you so much for taking 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