Posted on 04/29/2007 6:40:23 PM PDT by Valin
SCOTT SHANE REPORTED in Saturday's New York Times that former CIA chief George Tenet's dramatic description in his book, At the Center of the Storm, of an August 2002 presentation at the CIA by defense undersecretary Douglas Feith and his staff, is at the very least misleading. In order to suggest that Feith's staff was utterly out of its depth, Tenet characterized the main briefer, Tina Shelton, as a "naval reservist." In fact, she had been a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst for almost two decades. Tenet also claimed that Shelton said in her presentation of Iraq-al Qaeda contacts, "It is an open-and-shut case." Shelton and Feith both deny she said that. One person who served in government with Shelton told THE WEEKLY STANDARD today he finds it "inconceivable" that Shelton, an experienced analyst, would have made such an unequivocal assertion.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD has now learned of a second, more stunning error in Tenet's book (which is due to appear in bookstores tomorrow). According to Michiko Kakutani's review in Saturday's Times,
On the day after 9/11, he [Tenet] adds, he ran into Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative and the head of the Defense Policy Board, coming out of the White House. He says Mr. Perle turned to him and said: "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility." Here's the problem: Richard Perle was in France on that day, unable to fly back after September 11. In fact Perle did not return to the United State until September 15. Did Tenet perhaps merely get the date of this encounter wrong? Well, the quote Tenet ascribes to Perle hinges on the encounter taking place September 12: "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday." And Perle in any case categorically denies to THE WEEKLY STANDARD ever having said any such thing to Tenet, while coming out of the White House or anywhere else.
According to Kakutani, Tenet concludes by paraphrasing Daniel Patrick Moynihan's comment: "Policymakers are entitled to their own opinions--but not to their own set of facts." How many other facts has George Tenet invented?
True, true.
We could start a pool on how long till it hits the remainder rack?
Tenet holds the dubious distinction of being the first CIA director to preside at a "Gay Pride Day" at the agency. There's no indication that Tenet himself is gay, but the event which took place at the agency on June 6th, 2000 was extraordinary and demonstrates the misplaced priorities at the CIA. Tenet welcomed openly homosexual Rep. Barney Frank to the affair, telling the congressman that the agency is "recruiting very actively" in the homosexual community.
bttt
But he was a useful idiot with his “Slam Dunk” and his remark about Perl is just frosting on the cake. What an idiot. Bush/Cheney get a free get out of jail card from the idiot at CIA.
“GWB’s first and biggest mistake. Not cleaning house immediately upon taking office.”
It was called the “new tone.” In other words it was a way to curry favor from the Drive By Media and the Rats for which most of us knew it would never, ever work.
The Rats play hardball and the GOP play softball. The only Conservative that was able to throw it back in the past few decades was Reagan
It’s an act that does not invoke suspension of disbelief.
His track record is that of a centrist with roots firmly planted in the swamp.
Neither right nor left. Swamp.
So George Tenet is a liar. That is a fact I’ll keep in mind.
By the way, George W. Bush was advised not to “clean house” by his father, who had some notion that appointees like the CIA director shouldn’t be changed by every president. Depending on your perspective, this is one of four things:
#1: Wrongheaded. The president changes the whole cabinet; is the CIA director so much more important than, for example, the SECDEF?
#2: An ideal hopelessly out of touch with reality.
#3: A good, but negligible, idea.
#4: A principle to be followed except in extreme circumstances, such as the CIA director is a closet dug addict.
Are you saying Tenet is a closet drug addict? People who saw him on tv today suggested that he appeared to be on drugs.
Not at all. I was just pointing out how some people might have such commitment to the idea that it would take something extremely wrong with the CIA director before they’d consider his immediate replacement acceptable.
Ha! Almost forgot about that one. In retrospect perhaps I should have said back in 2000:
Run! Pat! Run!
I don’t know if Tenet was on drugs, but in watching his face, his eyes, and his mouth, I found myself definitely not trusting what the man was saying. It is easy to believe he may be gay, perhaps that is what I couldn’t put my finger on. That Tenet admitted the CIA acted on what they “thought”, without evidence, about Iraq, is incredible! The opposition will be throwing up a lot of sand at Bush and Cheney to take our minds off the mediocre Democrat candidates, and gain the confidence of the public, I think. Look for more of the same.
I heard the interview.....Tenet has an axe to grind!
Yeah, I believe Perle. Sure, right.
It sounds like a bad movie script.
This shouldn't be hard for him to prove. Lots of people would remember where Mr. Perle was on 9-11. If Perle lied, he's 100 times the idiot that Tenet is.
Meet me in the betting parlor.
bttt
How convenient...
Tenet is a loser. Definitely a loser.
When we see how feeble and dishonest this man is, incompetently feeding the DBM/Demagogue fantasies about eviiillll neo-cons etc., then it is more evident than ever what a catastrophe it was to have him as head of the CIA through some of the most treacherous years in our nation’s history.
Of course, there is no indication to date that Tenet has taken any critical look at Clintonista incompetence and mendacity, leftist fools in the CIA bureaucracy, distorted intel analysis to suit the worldview of spineless libs, the real facts of Plamegate, WMDs, the run-up to the Iraq war, etc. To think that nearly 6 years after 9/11 Tenet still knows less about the world and about intel than many Freepers, well that is beyond sad......
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