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.”
>>close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke<<
Then its BS.
I will never understand why Clarke hasn't been charged with perjury for his testimony before the 9/11 Commission.
You mean the strategy that The Most Ethical Administration In History could have adopted after the first WTC incident (in Feb 1993)?
He wanted to "...set a new tone in Washington." His words, not mine!
Of course the Democratic obstructionism in the setting up of a transition office also played a part.
A logical conclusion to draw is that he knew things that would embarrass the administration and they were encouraging him to keep quiet. Why else would you give a medal to someone who presided over these monumental intelligence failures?
"........with Able Danger surfacing...."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surfacing my foot! It's sunk!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475454/posts
So that's why Bush gave this treacherous POS the Presidential Medal of Freedom not long after Tenet left the CIA in June of last year. Bush should have fired Tenet within a month of taking office back in 2001.
Tenet should be in jail. He was the one who did not substantiate the false information collected and given to him on WMD.
"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."
Oh sheesh, there were all these tell-alls before the election and they didn't do a thing to Bush. I think most people are smart enough to process this stuff for themselves. I think the amount of these books before the election if anything served to point out in peoples' minds the lengths Bush's enemies will go to in order to discredit him. Tenent will just look like another petulant child trying to take the blame off his shoulders.
I wondered what THIS means???
Why wasn't Clarke charged with perjury?? Do you think the same panel that allowed Jamie Goerlick's incompetence as Deputy Attorney General to go unnoticed would have the gumption to accuse Clarke of perjury?? Surely we couldn't lay a hand on the media's darling Dickie Clarke who touched us so with how he hugged the 9-11 victims' families after his testimony!! He's a dear, sweet man above all raproach! I mean he HUGGED PEOPLE! He can't be a perjurer!! Just like Clinton can't be because he was a hugger too! Aren't Democrats just so cuddly and cute????
Bush won't blame Tenet. It's just not his way.
Buy that man a canoe. I'll bet he'd want to use it so much he would leave a half-eaten meal on the table to dash out for a quick paddle.
When I was debriefed after years in the intel business I was told that if I ever disclosed anything that revealed how I did what I did I would go to jail.
Maybe it's time to measure Mr. Tenet for a set of leg irons and belly chains.
Having the CIA director allege the stuff is MUCH, MUCH bigger than anything that has come out so far. Look how big Clarke turned out to be when he was just a little pissant.
You are seriously underestimating how serious a problem it would be if the CIA director at the time came out to attack Bush on 911.
It would be huge.
But you're just a "little people", not an "important people". We never throw "important people" in jail.
BS, he was the boob who said "its a slam dunk", when pressed for whether Iraq had WMD..
The idiot should have been escorted from the building by armed guards at about 9:15 on 9/11/01. Had he held this position in the Soviet Union under somebody like Stalin, he would have executed within an hour.
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