The plot sickens

Josh Marshall snags another fine detail. It appears that Thomas S. Ryder, the Dept. of Energy's intelligence chief who vetted flawed intelligence on the Iraqi nuclear program based on the forged Niger documents, was put in his position having only a background as a human resources manager, and a friendship with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Ryder directly overruled [the department's] technical experts who wanted to dissent from the NIE findings on an Iraqi nuclear program.

Then after the NIE was published and just before the war began, Abraham awarded Ryder a $13,000 bonus for "exceeding performance expectations."

This was in addition to an earlier $7,500 bonus he awarded Ryder prior to the NIE's publication.

And then, job done, Abraham moved him to another position. In short...

Spencer Abraham taps a friend for a position for which he seems to have no qualifications whatsoever. Then that friend overrules his technical experts to greenlight a finding that Iraq is building nuclear weapons. Then Abraham gives him a big bonus for outstanding performance -- performance so outstanding that he doesn't keep him on in the job. -- Josh Marshall