Rumsfeld defends Pentagon intelligence unit - "Nobody was bypassed"

[Barrett808]

Rumsfeld Defends Pentagon Intelligence Unit
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defended as "perfectly proper" on Friday the actions of a special Pentagon office that critics say twisted intelligence and bypassed the professionals at the CIA to bolster the U.S. case for war with Iraq.

CIA Director George Tenet said this week he did not know the Pentagon's Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group had gone directly to the White House six months before the war to present its case that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had close ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

During a town hall-style meeting with Pentagon employees, a reporter asked Rumsfeld whether the counter terrorism group bypassed normal intelligence channels by briefing National Security Council staffers and aides to Vice President Dick Cheney without Tenet's knowledge, and whether anyone would be reprimanded.

Rumsfeld said that "nobody was bypassed. There was no mystery."

"Are we going to punish them? No, I think not," he added, saying journalists were making "something out of nothing."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040312/us_nm/iraq_intelligence_rumsfeld_dc&cid=1896&ncid=1480

[EFF BrandyWine]

1. I never cease to be amazed...

by the arrogance and hypocrisy of this administration! Can you begin to imagine what would happen if such a thing came out under Clinton? The very idea of a separate office of intelligence that answered to the office of the vice president and and his aides, about which the director of the CIA was unaware until a short time ago, is absolutely chilling!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. True, but....

Don't think for a secod that Tenet was out of the loop. He either knew he was being shut out(therefore he knew about it), or he was complicit. My guess is "deniably complicit."

[Malva Zebrina]

2. Who believes these liars anymore?

[Just Me]

3. These "frauds" must be anticipating the hammers,...

,...of truth that are encircling them.

[Mountainman]

4. We knew about OSP why didn't Tenet?

We were talking about it here for a few months I think, how is it that the chief of intelligence didn't know it? Lying cooked people!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Tenet's playing the game to put the focus on the OSP...

...which will, in turn, put the pressure on the NeoCons. Do you really believe Tenet knew nothing about the OSP?

[Disturbed]

7. CIA Chief

If he didn't know about OSP he is incompetent. If he knew about it he is complicit. He cannot have it both ways.