George Tenet, the former CIA Director, is making the rounds of talk shows and the like, in order to promote his book, At the Center of the Storm. As have so many opportunistic ex-administration officials before him, Tenet has chosen to pump up sales by claiming that he was wronged by the President and Vice-President with regard to the "leaking" of his comment that finding WMD in Iraq would be a "slam dunk".
He now claims that his comment was taken out of context and did not relate to WMD. He further said that the "leaking" of that comment was the "most despicable" thing that ever happened to him in his years of public service.
Despicable is a good word to use with regard to Tenet. A holdover from the Clinton Administration, he never saw eye-to-eye with President Bush. Clearly he did little to prevent anti-administration CIA officials from taking various steps detrimental to the President, including leaking sensitive information regarding national security operations. While it does not appear that he had a direct role in sending Joe Wilson to Niger, he certainly knew of and/or directed the Justice Department referral into the alleged Valarie Plame "outing", despite the fact that her "covert" status (or lack thereof) did not support prosecution of any crime.
Most hypocritically, he calmly accepted the Medal of Freedom from the President (picture above). I don't remember any complaints being aired at that point.
Victor Davis Hanson expresses similar questions about Tenet's revisionism in this article posted at the National Review Online. Hanson quotes Tenet from a pre-war Washington Post interview wherein he reiterated his certainty about finding WMD:
“CIA Director George J. Tenet, questioned about the value of ongoing inspections by the United Nations, said there is “little chance you’ll find weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq unless Hussein cooperates with inspectors. On the other hand, Tenet said he would expect U.S. troops “will find caches of weapons of mass destruction, absolutely,” were they to invade the country."
The interview (quotes from which Hanson's article excerpted) also included Tenet making the Iraq/al-Qaeda connection through Abu Musab Zarqawi (the now dead leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq). Tenet clearly saw Zarqawi as a threat. Hanson subtly points out that Tenet wants credit for his good call on Zarqawi but wants to distance himself from his bad prediction on WMD.
Here's my prediction, Tenet will be viewed as a hero by fever-swamp liberals, who, before his conversion, hated him for helping the administration make the case for war in Iraq. The truth is that Tenet is just another opportunistic back-stabber who decided to cash in while he could. So much for public service and loyalty.
2 comments:
You predict that Tenet will be viewd by fever swamp liberals as a hero. Please - just what is a fever swamp liberal? Being a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, I don't know if that qualifies me to be in the fever swamp camp.
As a social liberal , I see the Bush Administration full of opportunistic back stabbers, Tenet having been one of many. He did not need to "SEE EYE-TO EYE- WITH THE PRESIDENT. He needed to present hard intelligence to the President. Period. End of story. Tenet was not, nor should he have been a policy maker. It appears that rather than present unbiased intelligence, he used intelligence to advance his position within the administration. That make him just another political weasel, more concerned with his career- the country be dammed. He has never been, nor will he ever be in my mind, anything other than a small man. I believe he did a disservice to his country by shading his data in a way that he decided would fit the inner circle's policy. No integrity there.
Likewise, Colin Powell will always be less than he was in my mind. Personalities aside, any Secretary of State of either party, must resign when he/she does not agree with a core policy. By resigning, he/she allows the country to more clearly understand the various policy options and to have healthy debate. Staying when he/she disagrees with core policy is self-centered and deprives the country of needed airing. The last Secretary of State to resign was under President Carter - he did so because he disagreed with policy - despite the fact that he very much wanted the job. Any President needs men and woman of ingegrity around him/her. That integrity means giving their best data and their best thoughts to the President without regard for how the author of those thoughts will be viewed. Just another argument for public service at all levels to be short - and then back to the private sector.
Anon:
Fever-swamp liberals are the ones who criticise George W. Bush for everthing including the color of his ties.
You are appraently not one of them since you see through Tenet's weak attempt to re-write history and exonerate himself for his part in the Iraq fiasco.
Post a Comment