NYT: Ex-C.I.A. Chief, in Book, Assails Cheney on Iraq

[speedoo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/washington/27intel.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

(snip)

George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.

The 549-page book, “At the Center of the Storm,” is to be published by HarperCollins on Monday. By turns accusatory, defensive, and modestly self-critical, it is the first detailed account by a member of the president’s inner circle of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the unconventional weapons that were a major justification for the war.

“There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat,” Mr. Tenet writes in a devastating judgment that is likely to be debated for many years. Nor, he adds, “was there ever a significant discussion” about the possibility of containing Iraq without an invasion.

Mr. Tenet admits that he made his famous “slam dunk” remark about the evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But he argues that the quote was taken out of context and that it had little impact on President Bush’s decision to go to war. He also makes clear his bitter view that the administration made him a scapegoat for the Iraq war.


(snip)

Tenet is, IMO, very much at fault for many things. I am at a loss to understand why he continues to support Bush, for example:

(snip)

Despite such sweeping indictments, Mr. Bush, who in 2004 awarded Mr. Tenet a Presidential Medal of Freedom, is portrayed personally in a largely positive light, with particular praise for the his leadership after the 2001 attacks. “He was absolutely in charge, determined, and directed,” Mr. Tenet writes of the president, whom he describes as a blunt-spoken kindred spirit.

(snip)

I guess Tenet really believes Bush is not as evil as Cheney. OK, I'll buy that, but if that's true, then he is surely stupid, is he not, George?

All in all, of course, it will be a good thing, this book. Because it adds to the evidence that Cheney and his cronies engineered this war.

[BridgeTheGap]

1. fits nicely with Moyer's "Selling the War" piece

But it makes me wonder about Tenet. If he saw it going on, why didn't he resign then and go public with the info?

[speedoo]

2. My guess is, like Powell, he was being a "good soldier".

They both decided badly, IMO. Very badly.