I Was Cheney's CIA Briefer: This is the Dick Cheney I Knew

"During the presidency of George W. Bush, the President and Vice President's PDB briefers met and traveled with them six days a week, sometimes seven. We would awaken every morning around 1:00am to prepare what is known as the "Book" and accompanying material. The Book was the President's Daily Brief itself, a brutally concise, relatively short collection of intelligence analyses produced at that time, by just the CIA; it went to a short list of designated policymakers."

"All who received it also got morning briefers to accompany and expand on the content as needed and to take taskings, but only those for the President and Vice President routinely traveled with them. In addition to the PDB, there was "behind-the-tab" material for all recipients except the President. In Cheney's case, I decided-with zero supervision or coordination-what he also needed to see, per my judgement. Raw intel, press pieces, book summaries, graphics, and anything else that I thought could be useful."

A week before meeting Vice President Cheney, the briefer broke a left foot and received a purple cast but still secured the position. The briefer and colleagues prepared the President's Daily Brief, or "Book," by waking around 1:00am and producing a concise intelligence collection primarily from the CIA for a short list of policymakers. Morning briefers accompanied recipients to expand content and accept taskings. Only the President's and Vice President's briefers routinely traveled with them. The Vice President received additional "behind-the-tab" material and personally curated items including raw intelligence, press pieces, summaries, and graphics without outside coordination. The briefer conducted briefings at the Naval Observatory and accompanied Cheney to Camp David, initiating a rapid, daily learning curve about the Vice President.

Read at The Cipher Brief