Not necessarily a problem,
Agree .... but what did Tenet take the hit for? The 16 words weren't a lie and were never wrong but Tenet issued the following words in a press release.... Thus he's adding fuel to the fire and basically saying the CIA screwed the pooch on this one.... thus the continuing fallout.....
From Tenet's statement....First, CIA approved the President's State of the Union address before it was delivered. Second, I am responsible for the approval process in my Agency. And third, the President had every reason to believe that the text presented to him was sound. These 16 words should never have been included in the text written for the President.
End Snip
Tenant took the hit because he made a mistake.
You said it yourself in post 27 .. "But that's part of the problem you see.... Using unvetted info that couldn't be documented at the time....."
Because it was unvetted and couldn't be documented or corroborated by the CIA (even though it came from trusted allies), Tenant is saying he should have operated on the side of caution and had them take out the reference all together.
I understand this to mean even the broadbrush statement using "Africa" instead of "Nigeria", since Britain has been unable to share sources with the CIA so they could verify any and all intelligence.
Just my take.