Tenet Tired of Being Blamed for War

"And the hardest part of all this has been just listening to this for almost three years, listening to the vice president go on 'Meet the Press' on the fifth year [anniversary] of 9/11 and say, 'Well, George Tenet said slam dunk' as if he needed me to say 'slam dunk' to go to war with Iraq," he tells Pelley. "And you listen to that and they never let it go. I mean, I became campaign talk. I was a talking point. 'Look at the idiot [who] told us and we decided to go to war.' Well, let's not be so disingenuous ... Let's everybody just get up and tell the truth. Tell the American people what really happened."

I guess the statute of limitations ran out on that medal of freedumb

Let's everybody just get up and tell the truth. Tell the American people what really happened."

That sounds like a good idea.

Nice work on the Blog, Yav.

POOR BABY: tell Mr. Tenet to get his indignant butt into some fatigues, grab a gun and get into the fray. Or tell him to take his complaints to the GOP loyalty officer. (if they're not in custody)

NEW RULE: You do not support the war if you're not ready to fight it.

Tell the American people what really happened.

The chief spy of spies says what?!

Tell the American people what really happened.

I had to read that twice.

From the chief spy master.

THAT has got to be a story that will rock America. And he can't even tell the really bad parts without likely getting jailed for exposing secrets.

The phrase "slam dunk" didn't refer to whether Saddam Hussein actually had WMDs, says Tenet; the CIA thought he did.

Why did they tell this lie to America for the six years prior to the war?

Mr. Tenet takes blame for the flawed 2002 National Intelligence Estimate about Iraq's weapons programs, calling the episode "one of the lowest moments of my seven-year tenure." He expresses regret that the document was not more nuanced, but says there was no doubt in his mind at the time that Saddam Hussein possessed unconventional weapons. "In retrospect, we got it wrong partly because the truth was so implausible," he writes.

www.nytimes.com
====================

I guess he can get it wrong but Bush lied.

A reporer got ahold of Tenent's new book. Here are some article excerpts.

"WASHINGTON, April 26 -- George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a "serious debate" about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.

The 549-page book, "At the Center of the Storm," is to be published by HarperCollins on Monday. By turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical, it is the first detailed account by a member of the president's inner circle of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the unconventional weapons that were a major justification for the war.

"There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat," Mr. Tenet writes in a devastating judgment that is likely to be debated for many years. Nor, he adds, "was there ever a significant discussion" about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion."

"Mr. Tenet described with sarcasm watching an episode of "Meet the Press" last September in which Mr. Cheney twice referred to Mr. Tenet's "slam dunk" remark as the basis for the decision to go to war.

"I remember watching and thinking, As if you needed me to say slam dunk' to convince you to go to war with Iraq,' " Mr. Tenet writes.

As violence in Iraq spiraled beginning in late 2003, Mr. Tenet writes, "rather than acknowledge responsibility, the administration's message was: Don't blame us. George Tenet and the C.I.A. got us into this mess."

"He describes an episode in 2003, shortly after he issued a statement taking partial responsibility for that error. He said he was invited over for a Sunday afternoon, back-patio lemonade by Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state. Mr. Powell described what Mr. Tenet called "a lively debate" on Air Force One a few days before about whether the White House should continue to support Mr. Tenet as C.I.A. director.

"In the end, the president said yes, and said so publicly," Mr. Tenet wrote. "But Colin let me know that other officials, particularly the vice president, had quite another view."

"Mr. Tenet also says in the book that he had been "not at all sure I wanted to accept" the Medal of Freedom. He agreed after he saw that the citation "was all about the C.I.A.'s work against terrorism, not Iraq."

He also expresses skepticism about whether the increase in troops in Iraq will prove successful. "It may have worked more than three years ago," he wrote. "My fear is that sectarian violence in Iraq has taken on a life of its own and that U.S. forces are becoming more and more irrelevant to the management of that violence."

"The book recounts C.I.A. efforts to fight Al Qaeda in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mr. Tenet's early warnings about Osama bin Laden. He contends that the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most of 2001.

"The bureaucracy moved slowly," and only after the Sept. 11 attacks was the C.I.A. given the counterterrorism powers it had requested earlier in the year.

www.nytimes.com

There was never a serious debate

Great Tom Tommorow political cartoons:

www.workingforchange.com
www.huffingtonpost.com

Cheers-

TH

That line stand out, eh?

As does this....

".... the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most of 2001."

Just another johnny-come-lately.

If Tenet had resigned in protest of invading Iraq the whole rationale for the war would have been turned upside down.

If things had gone well he'd be writing different book.

If Tenet had resigned in protest of invading Iraq the whole rationale for the war would have been turned upside down.

It does look as if Tenet wants to have it both ways: he cooperated with the Administration and received praise (did he get a medal of freedom?), but now he wants to say, "I tried to talk them out of it." Oh, really?

The piece of garbage who brought torture into the relm of acceptable american policy. May he die a slow, painful death

He kept his mouth shut and thousands of people are dead now so I don't think he really gets to claim he was misrepresented. Keeping quiet when they claimed you said it and actually saying it have the same result.

If someone is misrepresenting what you said and you give a shit about the consequences, YOU FUCKING SAY SOMETHING.

George Tenet defends himself, perhaps somewhat truthfully but why is Valerie Plame still prevented from publishing her book by the CIA???
Freedom of the Press....anyone remember that????
The Bush administration operates as the dictatorship that they think they are.

I wouldn't buy a book by George Tenet if you paid me.

Excuse me if I don't shed a tear over this jerk's fate. He allowed himself to be used. He has a mouth...he could have used it at any point during his tenure at the CIA by going to Congress and spilling the beans. In return for his silence and for being thrown under the bus he got a cushy job working for an arm of the Carlise Group which was a nice pay-off. If he thinks he is entitled to more, too bad. His newly-found conscience is as phony as the rest of this mis-administration.

Poor baby indeed.
Tenet's piss poor inteligence got American soldiers killed for nothing.
Tenet though is still breathing. And he should be haunted by this till the day he dies.

I have no respect for the man. Saying nothing on an issue as serious as this and not correcting a known falsehood or resigning is the same as endorsing what was said. To try to correct the record so long after you leave only serves to show why nobody trusts him.

The rule is if you are prepared to take the job, you must do what you think is right. If you cannot, you must step down. Once you leave office, you have no right to critize those who were giving you a paycheck.

If something unethical was going on, it is your job to correct the record and prepare to leave office. If you remain in office, under those situation, it is assumed you are not prepared to leave and your values are not being compromised.

It's like Colin Powell. His recent rantings are meaningless since he made a lot of the speeches without validating what he was saying. When he is hired, he is only a yes man and nothing else.

Those positions are designed for office holders to make quick exits when they feel their values are compromised.

Neither Powell or Tenent can undo what they said are didn't while they knew full well what they were letting on was deliberately misleading the public.

here is another person sayin forget what i said then
jasman

I'm still seething over the fact that Tenet seems to think he deserves sympathy.

Thousands of good people had their lives wasted and he willingly played a part in it. Now he wants sympathy. Fuck him. The guy who does the right thing and loses his job because of it deserves sympathy. Tenet deserves to be remembered as a piece of shit.

He should be issued a license tag that says SLAMDUNK. He should be taunted by juvenile delinquents continuously with that phrase while they bounce basketballs 24/7 outside his window. He will be always remembered as George "Slam Dunk" Tenet the tool who was manipulated by the unholy Rove/Cheney/Bush triad. He should be slam dunked headfirst into an RV park outhouse and forgotten.

"It's the most despicable thing that ever happened to me," Tenet says. "You don't do this. You don't throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me."

waaa, waaa, fucking waaa... If you don't want to get poked in the ass don't get into bed with the devil.

He would have been happy to throw someone else overboard. He was just the most convenient one at the that juncture.

Of course he has a book coming out. A book with less hard info in it than the average Joe can get surfing the political blogs, I'm sure.

The only thing this shithead is concerned about is his reputation and how much cash he's losing these days.

Listening to Chet Baker intimate to his 'My Funny Valentine'.. Mister Tenet knew this was the direction his participation in affairs would eventually get to. Sitting behind Powell shaking that little vial was such an expansive embarrassment. But he knew historically what he was doing for their "greater cause".

Let him squirm a little more before dissection. There's icky black stuff leaking now, who knows what else he can regurgitate? Maybe he'll end up desperately slam-dunking his Medal at Cheney's webbed feet? A quick disappeared later and nobody will come forward ever. Vacationland ad infinitum.

Where was all of this in 03? What a POS this man is. If it was sooooooo wrong, than you should have spoken up MR Tenet.

Just trying to sell books........

George Tenet may be doing a little conscience cleansing. If so, too little, too late.

He seems more concerned about the misrepresentation of his "slam dunk" comment and how he'll be remembered.

I don't hear any remorse over the 3300 dead American G.I.s. I don't hear any remorse over the prisoners the CIA tortured in their secret prisons.

Thanks anyway but I think I'll reserve my sympathy for the thousands of dead people George Tenat left in his wake.

I hope their tortured screams haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.

"The book recounts C.I.A. efforts to fight Al Qaeda in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mr. Tenet's early warnings about Osama bin Laden. He contends that the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most of 2001.

There ya go.......

I never heard his apology for 9-11. As head of the CIA he does bare some responsiblity along with Bush, Cheney, Rice.

The headline of the story as written is:

"White House" distorted 'Slam Dunk' Tenet says

RCADE rewrote the title, but the facts are that Bush/Cheney did DISTORT not only Tenet's remarks, but all the other intel so America saw it through the prism of an urgent and immediate need to invade. All while before 9/11:

"The book recounts C.I.A. efforts to fight Al Qaeda in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, and Mr. Tenet's early warnings about Osama bin Laden. He contends that the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most of 2001.

"He contends that the urgent appeals of the C.I.A. on terrorism received a lukewarm reception at the Bush White House through most of 2001.""

Then he should have resigned. He should not have just continued business as usual if important intelligence was being ignored. I have no sympathy for those who remain quiet while knowing that the leaders are ignoring real threats.

It was so cowardly of (Powell and Tenet) not to scream, yell and push back with every fiber of your souls against the Cheney-orchestrated, trumped up run up to war. It is almost as cowardly now to claim that you knew all along that it was a bad idea and that you had wished that the administration had found another way of insuring that Saddam was defanged.

Tens of thousands of lives have been lost, hundreds of billions of dollars spent making us less safe, more hated and the region even more destabilized.

And you write a book to clear your name?

When Colin Powell spoke before the U.N. and accused Saddam of harboring al-Zarqawi in northern Iraq I remember screaming at the television, "Liar! Northern Iraq is Kurdish controlled and in our no-fly zone. There are already more U.S. Special Forces there on the ground than Iraqi troops." And yet General Powell has the balls to leak to Bob Woodward that he lobbied to avoid this madness.

Tenet and Powell should worry more about the lives that they helped ruin than their precious reputations. They should march over to Walter Reed and empty bedpans for now legless soldiers, read Tom Clancy novels to now sightless marines. If they were Japanese they would have long ago fallen on their swords.

I do not want that for them, or for anyone. However if these two men truly want to restore honor to their reputations they need to dedicate the rest of their days to atoning for the pointless misery that they helped unleash on our country, on Iraq and the world. www.huffingtonpost.com

If the Democrats had a 1000th of the gaul that Republicans do, every proponent of going to war as we did would be up on charges of treason against the United States. Since they aren't, isn't the least we can do is stop idolizing and enriching those who've cost this nation so much more than it can ever hope to recoup from their criminal misjudgements and complicity after the fact?

Whose Side Is Pelosi On?

Nancy Pelosi and her band of impostors masquerading as congressional lawmakers should resign in shame after adding all that pork to the military appropriations bill to get votes. Congress may call it partisan gamesmanship but they sold their votes! I feel they are guilty of bribery.

The congressional armchair generals want to publish a pullout date for our troops so that terrorists will know when we will leave for Kuwait. I think the terrorist factions will be right behind us all the way to Kuwait, inflicting as much damage to life and equipment as possible. The road to Kuwait will be a rocky one. What would make one think that terrorism will stop at the Kuwait border? Thank you, Nancy Pelosi and crew, you have done a wonderful job of trying to guarantee failure.

Whose Side Is Pelosi On?

Posted by jjdj1187 at 2007-04-27 05:00 PM

Get lost spammer. This isn't Craigslist's Rants/Raves.

JJDJ1187

Don't worry. The taxes you pay on your dead end job are going straight to Iraq.

They DO offer tax credits and writeoffs for going to school.....hint hint

Thank you, Nancy Pelosi and crew, you have done a wonderful job of trying to guarantee failure.

JJDUMBASS

If true, only superceeded by the incredible failure by Bush and Cheney - who've had unencumbered control of the Iraq War for 4 years. Pelosi's been Speaker for 3 months.

superceded

remarkable how Tenet's self-righteous indignation and marked separation from the administration's invasion plans are made public the week before the release of his book. He must have been too busy researching and writing said book for the past several years to have spoken up about the blow to his honor. This is akin to -insert celebrity's name- having some public break-up, arrest, or other sort of scandal right before a movie/album/whatever release.

Reborn...

See 4.19pm post above....

Tony-very true. How falsely sanctimonious for Tenet to speak of 'lost honor' when thousands of Americans have lost much more-not to mention the Iraqi military and civilian tolls. I'll agree with Tenet that Cheney and Bush didn't need him to give them the OK to invade, and that his voice was just one among many, but to deny his part in it all is, to use his own word, dishonorable.

And not to sound too jaded or pessimistic about our society, but would anyone bet real money against Tenet's book becoming a bestseller?

Most of us have already heard his song and know the lyrics verse by verse. The only ones needing further persuasion likely don't want to read what he wrote anyway. But I do agree with your notion, for many of us want further acknowledgement that we were right in the first place in never trusting a word Bush and his minnions said.

I really would like to see a member of the administration come out with a book telling the truth about the conversations and decision-making leading up to the invasion. Not some 'you fired me now I'm getting even' kind of crap, but some real information as to who said what, who told who to say what, who knew what... all that stuff. I had hoped Colin Powell would have the balls, guts, honor, whatever to do something like that. It really took the wind out of my sails to find out he probably knew his speech to the U.N. was, at best, based on shaky evidence. I had a lot respect for him.

Wow! I find this thread upsetting.

Here we have a guy who is making the record straight, when if doing nothing would not hurt him in the least.

Yet, here we have a guy who is now showing responsibility to his actions, yes late, but none the less, if he said nothing this would be a dead issue.

Tenet is whistle blowing per say and what is everyone giving him, fry the messager.

Now, by this reaction, none of the people in the know trying to keep their jobs will say a damn word.

Americans really don't think they just react, and sadly that is all Bush does.

How does it feel you people to be in the same Bush league.

By and by, it is not Tenets job to justify going to war which is exactly what he is pointing out here.

His job is to gather information and REPORT it and let the power to be decide what to do with the information.

The CIA is not the blame, if memory serves Bush did not want information that negated reasons to go to war, he only wanted information that possibly justified going to war.

Well, only accepting onesided information is not Tenets fault, it is Bush's.

Emotions and anger cloud the eyes to actually understanding at all the political maneuvering Bush did to keep any decision made away from him.

It is sad watching so many chastise one who is willing to come forward and tell all when know harm to him if he just kept quiet.

Have pity on the CIA. They are nice people.

In the linked article Tenet talks about how disinterested the Bush administration was about Al Qaeda, in spite of countless warnings from the CIA regarding their actions.

All the rightie koolaid drinkers should read the article THEN come back and tell us what a wonderful job Bush did, and has done regarding terrorism.

Bush would already be an asterik had the 9/11 attacks not occured. Sad thing is he used it to start the war he was going to fight before most of ever heard of Al Qaeda, and did a horrible job of everything he touched.

Amazing! Once Dubya got into the Oval Office, dick Cheney's staff was busy re-writing directives to make the viceroy the most powerful VP ever. He got Dubya to formally make the VP one of the most important members of the National Security Council, even to the point of letting dick run the Council's meetings in the president's absence!!! (Even if the absence was voluntary, such as to let the prez ride a bike or cut brush!!) What an amazing set of directives!

Tenet had to know what he was dealing with in Cheney. And yet he let Cheney push around his organization like it was a rag doll! Since when before in the CIA's history did a VP run around Langley as if it was his office? And since when in history did a VP direct what analysis would be considered suitable or correct?

This is/was BS! Tenet let the CIA become politicized, and never went to Congress. Worse, he let it get politicized y a scheming demonic VP who may not have had the full blessings of the President. This was a prima facie conflict of interest, and Tenet had a duty to call for a private meeting with (a) Bush to get the Executive branch out of the CIA's business on the intimate basis Cheney was taking it; (b) to tell Bush about Cheney's interference with analysis and see if the actions were being conducted with Dubya's full understanding; and (c) bring this concerning development to the attention of his congressional overseers.

TNC

I posted an article on my blog about Doug Feith, who replaced every single important intelligence post in the hands of Bushie military men. VERY interesting reading. Explains how all the intel outside the CIA (until Tenet left) was filtered through these people.

I posted the entire article

(Doug) Feith based Intelligence
How America's intelligence was hijacked by Bush
www.drudge.com

replaced every intelligence post WITH Bushie military men.

here is another person sayin forget what i said then
jasman

Sounds like the standard introductory line for everything the Admin has said, fro "dead or Alive" to "Last throes".And let's not forget Powell's stand-up routine at the UN.

it took him a long time to get pissed-most people get angry right away when they are the subject of lies
jasman

danni
it is on rare occasions we agree but this is one -all the people who are sayin now they knew at the the time the war started it was wrong -are not credible they- for the stake of their reps they kept quiet-bush may have been wrong ,that could be argued -but one thing that can't be argued is he was in the company of cowards
jasman

The reason many politicians with access to classified material were "sure" Hussein had WMDs was that we provided the means while the Germans provided the raw materials. The split arrangement provided the CIA with their media face "plausible deniability", while implementing the worst possible deaths to Iranian soldiers. Fact is we installed the Baathist Party in Iraq against the will of the Iraqi people, just like we shoved the Shah of Iran down Iranians throats. Only a fool believes these behaviors have anything to do with providing Freedom and Democracy to the Arab community.

ALL OUR GOVERNMENT CARES ABOUT IS THE OIL, THEY DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT ARABS, whose living conditions have been deteriorating for decades while oil is pumped at a furious pace. The oil pumping pace is driven by personal greed, whether for Rockefellar or the Saudi Royal Family. We can thank laeaders of both parties for creating a larger worldwide population than a world without oil can support. Our problem is we let Rockefellar pump our supplies dry
first. Not a good position to be in.

But when Hussein was squeezed hard after losing Gulf War I, he spent his oil revenues on Palaces rather than armaments. Bush/Cheney were willing participants in that shell game as Pennzoil and Haliburton created phoney offshore offices to skirt the US imposed embargo. Then the Republican fuckwads that own the media blasted Clinton for pardoning Marc Rich for doing the same thing.

Still Tenant bowed to the White House and played along for a very long time, even accepting a medal for it. Medals are supposed to be for acts of courage, not cowardice.