Michael Morell served as Deputy Director, and twice as Acting Director, of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also spent time in the important, interesting, and historic role of being the president's daily intelligence briefer, including on September 11, 2001. He is the author of "The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism—From al Qa'ida to ISIS."
Twenty years ago today, his title was "Associate Deputy Director for Intelligence for Strategic Programs" which made him the third most senior person in the analysis side of the Agency.
On this 20th anniversary of the us invasion of Iraq in 2003, Mr. Morell joins the show to discuss the CIA's failures and successes -- and there were both, but the failures were more important -- in the run-up to the invasion and in the aftermath of America's removal of Saddam Hussein and the disastrous "de-Ba'athification" of Iraq.
Michael J. Morell – The Cipher Brief: "Michael was the only person who was both with President Bush on September 11th, and with President Obama on May 1st, when Bin Laden was brought to justice."
U.S. invasion of Iraq 20 years later — "Intelligence Matters" - CBS News