Oh man, that hurts.

His book was not published until June 2004. His first book came out in 2002. The 3-part test for current employees of the CIA, pursuant to which the anonymity condition was imposed (highly unusual, said CIA sources at the time) would not have applied to him if he quit, which he did in 2004. Okay, but exactly what would've changed had he resigned? Even under his own name, I doubt it would have had any impact. So why throw away his pension? As it is, he was taking a big risk publicly criticizing the administration, who could have jimmied up a reason to fire him, which they eventually did. Now let's compare him to Tenet, who surely would have been taken care of had he resigned. His speaking fees alone would have kept him in clover. Yet Tenet didn't resign. Not only that, he stuck with the President for two more years, and then accepted a Medal of Freedom for his work. The worst you can say about Scheuer is that he was afraid of losing his pension, no small thing. But Tenet, Tenet sold his soul for a trinket.

Derek, the book in question was Imperial Hubris. That was the book that raised the issue concerning Iraq, and you simply made a mistake about it being published before the war. As to Scheuer being fired, Scheuer publicly stated on November 12, 2004 when he announced his resignation: "My decision is entirely my own. I have been in no way forced to this decision by the CIA. ... I have concluded that there has not been adequate national debate over the nature of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and the forces he leads and inspires, and the nature and dimensions of intelligence reform needed to address that threat. It is my intention to articulate a series of views in the hope of producing a more substantive debate than what has heretofore occurred." Therefore, your statement that the administration "jimmied up" a reason to fire him contradicts Scheurer's. You doubt that his resignation would have had any impact. I disagree. Of course, we'll never know because he didn't.