There is no attempt to call attention to what has never been revealed before. In fact, if Veil has a major flaw, it relates to the author’s self- effacement about what is newsworthy in its pages. Finally, making headlines is not primarily what Veil is about its purpose is instead to detail how Casey shaped the CIA during the six years of his directorship, and how the results were seen from his own perspective, from that of the White House and from that of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. For one thing, at this late point in the book it appears self-evident that the CIA director knew of the “contra diversion.”įor another thing, there appear to be more important assertions in the book, most of them having to do with the extent of the CIA’s illegal covert activities under the leadership of Casey.

Casey, to admit with a nod that yes, he knew about the “contra diversion,” meaning, one assumes, the use of profits from the sale of arms to Iran to finance the activities of contra rebels fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.īut despite the headlines, this story seems almost irrelevant in the context of Woodward’s 500-page book - a mere grace note, or, more accurately, a mere clumsy note, considering how vague the story seems in the telling, how lacking in the sort of vital detail that would have made it plausible. Among the many newsworthy stories in Bob Woodward’s highly revealing new book, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, the biggest headlines seem to have been grabbed by the deathbed scene at the end, in which the author describes how he walked into a guarded hospital room and got the dying director of central intelligence, William J.

Veil by bob woodward