Posted on 09/02/2005 8:47:53 AM PDT by wagglebee
Former CIA director George Tenet, said to be the target of what the Washington Times called "a scathing report by Inspector General John Helgerson” - may go public with embarrassing disclosures about the Bush administration and its actions leading up to Sept. 11, 2001.
The CIA report, prepared as the result of a 17-month investigation by a team of 11 CIA officials, blames Tenet and several top CIA officials for its failure pre-9/11 to deal with al-Qaida.
But former Reagan White House aide and intelligence expert John B. Roberts II, quoting an anonymous source close to Tenet, wrote in Thursday's Washington Times that the former chief spook has no intention of taking it lying down.
The report, delivered to Congress this week, recommends punitive sanctions against Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorist center head J. Cofer Black.
Roberts writes, "George Tenet is not going to let himself become the fall guy for the September 11th intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet.”
In retaliation, Roberts says that Tenet may turn the tables and put the blame on President Bush.
Tenet, he claims, has already written a fiery, 20-page, "tightly knitted rebuttal” to the Inspector General's report. But Tenet's response has been marked "classified," in contrast to usual CIA practice. Also unavailable to the public is the report itself.
Roberts says Tenet's decision to strike back could be very bad news for the President.
Wrote Roberts, "Mr. Tenet's decision to defend himself against the charges in the report poses a potential crisis for the White House.
"According to a former clandestine services officer, the former CIA director turned down a publisher's $4.5 million book offer because he didn't want to embarrass the White House by rehashing the failure to prevent September 11 and the flawed intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.”
Quoting a "knowledgeable source,” Roberts wrote that Tenet "had a ‘wink and a nod’ understanding with the White House that he wouldn't be scapegoated for intelligence failings.”
Roberts claims a "deal" was made between Tenet and Bush, one that was sealed with the President’s award of the Presidential Freedom Medal to the former CIA head.
In his rebuttal, Tenet, Roberts warns, "treads perilously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official who claimed the Bush administration's had delayed adopting a strategy against al-Qaida."
Current CIA Director Porter Goss is between a rock and a hard place, according to Roberts, who explains that Goss will be criticized for covering up if he does nothing. But if he follows the IG's recommendation to convene formal hearings as a prelude to sanctions, Tenet himself may go public to defend his reputation by damaging the President and his administration.
Roberts concludes: "The $4.5 million book offer may soon be back on the table, and this time Mr. Tenet might take it.”
I smell somthing..........
Oh sorry that just a book deal.........
What is this loyality to Clinton?
I'm sure Tenet and clinton haven't talked recently - clinton doesn't have a hand in this, right? /sarc
900 FBI files.
Bush administration's had delayed adopting a strategy against al-Qaida."
This has been hashed and rehashed and the Bush administration adopted the previous administration's policy pending an overall review. If that's all Tenet's got he's pretty much toast.
Why Bush kept these clintonistas is beyond me.
Tell it ALL.
Both sides, all parties involved. Let the chips fall wherever they may.
Our National security DEMANDS an honest disclosure of all relevant information.
Tenet totally strikes me as someone who will try to take down the ship with him if he thinks he's going. It was a weakness on Bush's part to have kept Tenet in his administration.
He ought to have been fired the first day the President took office.
If he does talk, even if it is all lies, and it connects to what Clarke said, it would be a political disaster and could be the end of the Bush presidency.
I hope he doesn't try to retaliate.
The only CYA that Tenet's doing is for Slick, who appointed him in the first place. Nothing quite like rewriting history to protect your own.
Let's get it on Tenet, you punk.
Where is the REAL CIA when you could really use it?
Tenet better be glad he and the clinton communists destroyed it.
Dubya was in office for, what, eight months before 9/11? How many months were Tenet and Clinton in office before 9/11???
> If Tenet had a shred of dignity, ...
He'd explain why he told Bush that WMDs in Iraq was a
"slam dunk".
Bush has made a few mistakes, and not firing this bozo
early on was one of them.
Yep, in the old days, Tenet would have simply disappeared.
And it would have paid off in eight months, when the cells and resources were already in place?
Remember, George: "It's a slam-dunk!"
Exactly, and how many times did Tenet meet with Bubba?
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