Because it was the right thing to do. Bush depends on what info intel gives him. This man had to have signed off on the speach. Everyone does before it goes to the President.
Being a Clinton appointee, I'm shocked he's being so ....human!
Maybe that's why he was held over by Bush. Maybe he actually has some integrity?
I and others have long called for his firing. Get rid of him now!
from tenet's statement it looks like he never told bush that the intel on the uranium sale was anything more that sketchy. all the CIA did was sign off on wording that was, after all, technically correct. this sounds like a kid blaming his spell checker for a lousy book report.
tenet said of the october 2003 national intelligence estimate:
"Let me emphasize, the NIE's key judgments cited six reasons for this assessment; the African uranium issue was not one of them."
my question is why did bush choose to highlight the uranium story in his speech at not those other six reasons?
tenet also says: "Some of the language was changed. From what we know now, agency officials in the end concurred that the text in the speech was factually correct, i.e. that the British government report said that Iraq sought uranium from Africa. This should not have been the test for clearing a presidential address."
it sure sounds like the CIA was doing its best to cover the white house by changing the wording so that it was "factually correct" though still highly misleading. it was not the CIA who drafted this speech, and it is ridiculous to lay the blame on them when the white house clearly chose to push what they knew was weak intel (speaking of intel on the uranium sale specifically, not the nuclear program generally).
who wanted to go to war with iraq in january 2003 - the CIA or the white house?
tenet is just trying to save his job.