If that’s his explanation, then I don’t see why he’s not apologizing for not making himself clear. Doesn’t seem like it’s the Bush Administration’s fault.
What a sniveling weasel.
George Tenet, ex-CIA Director - can’t believe the President took HIS opinion on Iraqi intention and led our nation to war - and now George expects us to weep with him over HIS ruined reputation? Cry me a river!
Anyone got a small violin?
The DUers have been saying for days that Tenet was going to claim he never said “Slam Dunk” and have taken it to mean that Tenet would claim that Cheney and Bush invented all the evidence.
Now he’s saying that the CIA did think Hussein had WMDs.
Guess they’ll claim that Tenet sold out.
It seems to me the MSM/DBM have been obsessed with the “slam dunk” comment, not the Bush administration.
Kerry has been helping him with the nuance issues getting ready for the book.
I wonder if this little gem will actually make it into th 60 minutes broadcast?
He meant a "slam dunk" case could be made to the public that Sadaam had WMD.
Can anyone tell me the significant difference?
I mentioned on an earlier thread that the only reason 60 Minutes (one of the BS Channels), is that somewhere he bashes the Bush Administration and by extension, Donald Rumsfeld, and/or Dick Cheney.
No way would 60 Minutes EVER have anyone on from the Bush Administration unless he/she bashed President Bush!
From Jay Garner blaming Bremer to Colin Powell's people knocking Cheney's people to Tenet's begging-off of responsibility to military personnel's ceaseless complaints against Rumsfeld, it was a 576-page blame game. On that theme, the gist of Tenet's claims here were recited in Denial.
But however important Tenet was to the president's decision, the fact is that, as the CIA director, he absolutely assured the president of the United States that a dangerous, America-hating dictator had WMD. And he had the misfortune to do it memorably.
I expect nothing less from a Clinton appointee.
He was a useful idiot. By uttering “It’s a slam dunk”, and being a Clintoon appointee, he gives Bush/Cheney a CIA get out of jail free card in the upcoming impeachment trials. By cooking the intel, Tenet is responsible for misleading the Congress and the nation, not Bush/Cheney.
This is such utter BS I can smell it through the my broadband.
That the "CIA thought he did" IS a slamdunk in regards to whether they gave Bush a rational basis to move forward on pressing Iraq to comply and then eventually ending the 12-year ceasefire and recommencing military action. Of course WMD was not the only reason - numerous violations/ignoring of various provisions from the original ceasefire over twelve years was more than enough to justify action and Tenet admits as much.
Tenet is playing a semantical game where he knows W can't counter by producing notes of the meetings without comprimising national secrets and at the same time diminishing executive privilege. If the case to made to the public was a slamdunk then the judgement of the actual intelligence should obviously match. Otherwise Tenet is essentially saying - "We've got a slam dunk public case that the actual intelligence doesn't verify."
What a pathetic person.
...and there you have it.
If you are elected President and you love your country, and there is a Demosocialistcrat anywhere, in any position with any power at all when you get to Washington,
FIRE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIRE EVERY ONE OF THOSE SCUMBAG WEASELS EVEN IF THEY ARE ONLY FRIENDS OF DEMS!!! FIRE THEM!!!!
W should have never kept Tenet or anyone from the Clinton Administration in his administration.
Translation (in a whiny voice):
“It’s not my fault.”
“Tenet says to have the president base his entire decision to go to war on such a remark is unbelievable.
This lying sob knows full well that the decision to depose Saddam was not solely based on WMD, although that certainly was a sufficient reason. We were in a continuous state of war with Iraq since the first Gulf War. Clinton refused to do anything about the problem.
>>>Ex-CIA Director George Tenet says the way the Bush administration has used his now famous “slam dunk” comment — which he admits saying in reference to making the public case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — is both disingenuous and dishonorable.<<<
Doubtful. After all, Tenet is a hard-core liberal, initially appointed by Bad-Boy Clinton (who only appointed hard-core liberals to any post). Further, everything Bush told the public prior to the Iraq Invasion was previously stated by the Clinton administration and leading liberals (including Chuck Hagel) while Bush was still the governor of Texas. Even further, Bush’s policy of regime change in Iraq was Bill Clinton’s policy, which was endorsed by all liberals in the congress when Clinton proposed it.
The entire argument by the left would not have been possible except for President Bush’s so-called “New Tone” approach, which gave the vultures of the left unlimited targets within the Bush administration, with no concern for retaliation.
The left is right on one point: Bush is an idiot. Only an idiot would believe leftists would play fairly.