CBS News: Tenet - "It's the most despicable thing that ever happened to me," Tenet says. "You ...

[understandinglife]

... don't do this. You don't throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me."

Tenet says to have the president base his entire decision to go to war on such a remark is unbelievable.

"So a whole decision to go to war, when all of these other things have happened in the run-up to war? You make mobilization decisions, you've looked at war plans," says Tenet. "I'll never believe that what happened that day informed the president's view or belief of the legitimacy or the timing of this war. Never!"

Tenet says what bothers him most is that senior administration officials like Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continue using "slam dunk" as a talking point.

<clip>

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/25/60minutes/main2728375.shtml

Gonna get really hot in the kitchen come Sunday night ...

[fooj]

1. It's a shame that it took Tenet so many years to speak out.

Didn't he appear before a committee and answer questions under oath? So much has happened since then...

[Morgana LaFey]

47. It's a shame he couldn't have done the honorable thing at the time

it would have mattered most and saved lives. A LOT of lives. Oh well. Too fucking bad. He got to live through it and go on and write a book. Many people did not, and many people are still going to die.

Of course, he wasn't the only one, but still ... he had a golden opportunity he did not take. Many others of us (who tried to stop the war) had less power, less cache, less ability to have our voices heard.

[pberq]

50. Absolutely correct. However, if this is what it takes

to finally bring this admin. down, so be it.

[Delphinus]

58. That's the exact same thing

I said about Colin Powell.

Both of them screwed up badly - they both could have done something to stop this senselessness but they looked out only for themselves.

[Th1onein]

66. LOTS of people DID do the honorable thing!

But that never stopped or slowed down this criminal cabal called the Bush Administration. It wouldn't have mattered much what Tenet said. They would have hidden it, just like the always do, when the facts don't agree with them.

[FourScore]

61. He never should have accepted that medal.

He should have shown up, and made an announcement right then and there that he could not accept it and given his reasons live on TV. And why did he allow himself to be the fall guy over and over again? Didn't he make a public statement to the effect that he was responsible for the 16-words? And what about sitting behind Powell at the UN??? If this guy is bitter, well, I think he certainly helped to make the bed he sleeps in.

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to read the dirt he dishes...I'm sure it's ugly. I guess I'm just sayin' that Tenet ain't so squeaky-clean either.

[merh]

62. But the medal, the fact that it was given by the weedking

helps to dispute the "sour grapes" and "the admin asked him to leave for the raunchy job he did" efforts that his admin will try to use.

It dilutes the strength of, if not takes away completely, one of the right's oft used tactics, attack the messenger.

[iconoclastic cat]

Ah, 60 minutes. Doesn't Tenet have a book coming out? nt

[blm]

2. And Gee, Mr. Tenet, why didn't you SAY SO when they were swiftboating others throughout that time?

They took something in your career and DISTORTED IT beyond recognition - You LET them do it - And then you sat quietly while they did it to EVERY ONE ELSE who opposed them publically for FOUR YEARS.

[Solly Mack]

9. $$$$$ blm, $$$$$$$ the ka-ching of a "tell all" book

was a blowing in the wind.....

you might even say it was a slam dunk

[live love laugh]

49. Bingo. nt

[ninkasi]

54. Apparently, his conscience

prevailed when he signed a contract for a lucrative book deal. Disgusting, isn't it? He could have spoken up and spared so many hundreds of thousands of people so much death and pain, but back then, it wouldn't have earned money for him.

[magellan]

13. And on top of all that he accepted the medal of freedom from Bush**

Bought and paid for fall guy thinks he can score points by coming out with this now. His inaction and acceptance of what was done makes him a glorified coward. He wants money from book sales, that's it.

[blm]

28. TRUTH shouldn't be for sale from ANYONE who works in government. PERIOD.

.

[magellan]

34. Well, he's a private individual now

But indeed, you're right. Unfortunately our government would cease to function if the truth weren't for sale just like the lies are. It used to work because politicians had a real sense of honor and integrity stopping them from doing a lot of criminal things. But those days are long gone, and so are the ethics that used to weigh more heavily on our government and kept most politicos in line.

[blm]

35. Yes. I meant that they're REQUIRED to tell the truth AS govt. officials.

I think this country needs to make THAT an amendment to the constitution.

[magellan]

37. Technically that's implied in the oath of office

...for any government official. Whether they're held to it anymore comes down to what's politically convenient. We don't need an amendment, what we need is to get money out of politics. All of it. That's the corrosive, corruptive influence. That's what attracts the sort of politicians who'll stick by a criminal president instead of their sworn oath. And it's only getting worse and worse.

[blm]

40. You hit the nail on that one - whether or not they're HELD to their oath

does seem to be the main issue for folks like me on the anti-corruption, open government wing of the Democratic party.

[magellan]

42. I'm definitely with you on that, blm

Any law that isn't enforced is abused. Ignoring lawbreakers only emboldens them to break more laws, and others to follow in their footsteps.

[LSparkle]

3. Why doesn't he give back his Medal of Freedom, then?

[understandinglife]

4. Let's all be sure to ask him to do so ... on his upcoming book tour ...

... Plenty of opportunities to do just that ...

Peace.

[dchill]

6. He might as well give it back...

or just toss it. They're meaningless since Shrub started using them as bribes and payoffs.

Paul Bremer. Jesus.*


*Jesus didn't get one - that's just an epithet.

[LSparkle]

17. "Jesus didn't get one " ... LOL!

[Jackpine Radical]

21. And Jesus AIN'T GONNA git one neither.

Sumbitch keeps tawkin bout peace an like that alla time ain't gonna git no Meddil a Freedum.

[dchill]

29. And damn him...

for not sayin' anything about killin' the non-believers.

[speedoo]

5. Heckuva job, Georgie.

You'll have about as much success extricating your involvement from this disaster as ole Colon did.

Burn in hell, asswipe.

[Disturbed]

14. Tenet cared more about keeping his job than the Truth.

If had integrity he would have resigned before attending that UN performance of Powell's lies. He and Negroponte sat right behind Powell and that gave weight to the charade.

[robinlynne]

25. I'm guessing he valued his life more. seriously.

[Morgana LaFey]

48. Yeah, he valued it way more than the lives of 3300+ Americans and

an unknown number of Iraqis.

You do have a point, in which case his life is still in danger.

[Reader Rabbit]

7. If that's the most despicable thing that ever happened to him...

...he's frickin' lucky. How would dying for these lies rate on Tenet's despic-o-meter? How about losing a loved one.

Tenet, you shit for brains, this thing didn't happen to you, it happened to the American armed forces and the Iraqi people.

And now he's trying to make a buck off it?

That's despicable.

[Robbien]

8. Who is he figuring will be on his side?

GOPers will ignore him. Liberals are too smart to be taken in after four years of silence.

The guy is an idiot if he believes he has any support out here.

[Toots]

24. I don't support him but I am interested in what he has to say

I want for him to spill his guts. Of course he is going to try and put himself in the best light possible but he was there. He had a lot of insight into what went on. I am sure there will be some lies told but also a lot of the truth. Might be enough there to launch more investigations and eventually Impeachment will become mandatory. As the evidence piles up it will be too hard for even Peloisi to look the other way...

[AlCzervik]

10. did accepting that medal of freedom help him get over the disgust?

[understandinglife]

11. Tenet: "Well, let's not be so disingenuous … Let's everybody just get up and tell the truth. ...

... Tell the American people what really happened."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/25/60minutes/main2728375.shtml

Yes. Do. Tell. The. Truth. ... FINALLY.

I wonder what the neoconsters will do to try to get that 60 Minutes program canceled ....

[BlooInBloo]

12. I'll be curious to see what he has to say about it all.

[Mandate My Ass]

15. It would have been useful to hear this in ummmmm...errr 2003

Now, not so much.

Cry me a river, Tenet.

[Beaverhausen]

16. So he waits 4 frickin' years to say something about it? What an asshole

:mad:

[understandinglife]

You can imagine how many folk are going to remind him of that fact ...

... on his upcoming book tour :evilgrin:

He has no idea how big a fire storm he's about to unleash. No idea at all.

And, he better be wearing really thick asbestos underwear every time he appears at a Barnes & Noble ...


IT IS TRIBUNAL TIME IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

[Beaverhausen]

31. Ooh- I hope Jon Stewart gets him

He's the only one on any "news" show who asks the tough questions.

[mod mom]

18. He's another: Screw your country for the almighty $. These guys make me sick

to my stomach. That's one book I WON'T buy! Sorry, George...you're a little too late!

[quiet.american]

19. He's certainly making a dubious distinction.

He's quibbling that he didn't say the information was a "slam-dunk" case to go to war, but that he said the information made a "slam-dunk" case to sell the war (?) -- or as he puts it "make the public case" for war.

Still hardly worthy of a medal of honor.

[Cameron27]

20. Oh boo f'n hoo.

He capitulated. Period.

"The phrase "slam dunk" didn't refer to whether Saddam Hussein actually had WMDs, says Tenet; the CIA thought he did. He says he was talking about what information could be used to make that case when he uttered those words. "We can put a better case together for a public case. That's what I meant," explains Tenet. "

WTF??? They had no case to go to war, none, zero. He doesn't like his "slam dunk" used, but it looks like he had a better one ready.

[SoCalDem]

22. I'm sure all the families of the war dead FEEL for HIM..

How utterly shameful of him to not speak up when it would have mattered:grr:

[illinoisprogressive]

23. I think what Tenant has to say is going to be very interesting

[DearAbby]

26. Is that money from your book and that medal

giving you piece of mind, Mr. Tenet? You sold your soul to the devil, now having buyer's remorse? Nawh, if that were the case. You would have revealed it when it was happening. With held vital information, that could have saved lives, for your tell all book. Piece of shit.

[BootinUp]

27. Its kinda hard to feel bad for Georgie Tenet

as he goes on trying to justify the enhanced interrogation techniques. Read page 2.

[Eurobabe]

30. Supposedly this book doesn't just take aim at BushCo, he gets his digs

in at Clinton for 'defunding' the CIA. Just telling ya what I heard.

[understandinglife]

32. Lot's of folk at HuffPo calling bullshit ... too ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thenewswire/comments/2007/04/26/46952

[Canuckistanian]

43. A few selections:

Splash! The sound of another rat deserting the ship. Hope that medal can float.
O.K. so the Medal of Freedom is worth how many years of silence? Does he (Tenet) have to give it back now? Pathetic and predictable.
By: WTFbush on April 26, 2007 at 04:31pm

The time for this "confession" was about 3 yrs ago...You could have saved thousands of American and Iraqi lives. I hope u rot in Hell!
By: anangryamerican on April 26, 2007 at 04:37pm


Tell me: Who feels sorry for Tenet or Powell. Especially Powell. He was the first Obama. A rock star who could have been president. And he let himself get punk'd by a couple of draft-dodgers.

Sucks to be them.
By: peskyliberal on April 26, 2007 at 04:54pm


Tenet is a hack's hack, and he ruined his own reputation.
He deserves to be remembered as a tool and a traitor.
By: shb on April 26, 2007 at 05:18pm

[stellanoir]

33. between him and Goodling

we may at long last get a "slam dunk."

too little too late from him though my friend,

Peace backatchya.

:hi:

[Herman74]

36. Hey, George, if you play in the dirt with the snakes...

...don't complain when you get bitten.

[Jack Rabbit]

38. Tenet has had unnatural relations with his dog

Expect that story, or one like it, to surface with Karl Rove's fingerprints all over it by Monday.

[blueworld]

39. So Tenet is the true victim in this horrible mess?

Why in Jezuz name are they always helpless f***n' victims? The head of the bloody CIA for two administrations with thousands of spies under his you-should-pardon-the-phrase "leadership" and now he wants us to feel SORRY for him and ignore the great book deal?

Get bent, George. :spank:

[w4rma]

41. Is he trying to reimage himself for a Hillary/Obama cabinet position?

Edwards wouldn't hire him, but I'm not sure about Hillary or Obama.

[Venus Dog]

44. Tenet has the blood of thousands on his hands

and it's never going to wash away. :cry:

[leftchick]

45. then george? uh, give back the fucking medal!

asshole!

[file83]

46. Tenet, F. U.!!!!

That scum sucking dirt bag - only now that Bush is at his most unpopular, does this grease ball come forward and claim "I didn't help convince Bush of the war! Wasn't me!"

Well Tenet, Fuck You. You're hands are just as bloody as Bush's, Cheney's, Rumsfelds, Wolfowitz's, Rice's, etc.....

Just like 9/11, Americans will "Never Forget" your participation in one of the ugliest ventures in this country's history: Iraq War II

To late to back out now, you asshole.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

51. Don't buy the book, check it out of the library. I would like to read

the book, but, I will not give him 1 cent, he is a traitor!

[understandinglife]

55. Better yet, go to one of his book signings and demand he give a copy ...

... to the familes of every dead and injured American service person ... and, of course, ask him why he didn't have the courage to call Bush, Cheney and all the neoconsters on their criminal lies before March, 2003 -- that WAS HIS JOB.


Peace.

[Wetzelbill]

52. in two separate books it was reported he used "slam dunk" as an expression

to two different questions. Richard Clarke's and, of course, Woodward's.

I always thought he may just use it as a go to figure of speech. Not that it was a "Slam dunk" he would find wmd, but like it was a "slam dunk" that he'd get the job done finding the right intelligence if it was there. Maybe he always uses it. I thought it was unfair for RWers to put it all on him too. I mean we had the Office of Special Plans and all that stuff too. Tenet didn't gin up this way, Bush and Cheney and the rest of the ideologues did.

[UTUSN]

53. Uh, KICK!!1 n/t

[Peace Patriot]

56. It WOULD'VE been a "slam dunk" if they had successfully PLANTED the WMDs in Iraq,

as I strongly suspect that they tried to do. I think that's what the Niger forgeries were a set up for. And I think that's why the Niger/Iraq nuke allegation kept getting put back into Bush's speeches--ever after the Niger docs were proven to be bogus. They had to have Bush make the allegation official--it ended up in his State of the Union speech--and very prominent. THEN, when the planted nukes were "found" by the US troops who were "hunting" for them after the invasion, they could say, "Nyah, nyah, SEE! We were RIGHT. You all were wrong. Nyah, nyah, na, nyah, nyah!"

But something went wrong. Somebody found out. Somebody foiled it. Maybe the Brewster-Jennings WMD counter-proliferation network was still doing its job.

So, is that it? That when Tenet said, "It's a slam dunk," he meant that it was a "slam dunk" to get the weapons planted in Iraq (in the deliberate chaos that Rumsfeld created), have them "found," phony up or fuzzy up their provenance, and make the triumphant announcement that would justify the war, and cement Bush and Blair's political positions?

Remember spring/summer 2003? They had control of the news narrative and kept pumping it and pumping it, as if....as if they knew, with certainty, that WMDs would be found. Then, when they weren't, they started switching the language (remember "WMD related program activities"? --late summer/fall), and soon, "freedom and democracy" was the reason. But for a while there it was NON-STOP PUMPING THE EXPECTATION that weapons WOULD BE found. And the military kept saying they'd found evidence, and then that turned out to be some harmless powder in a storage building. Every other day, another story feeding this narrative. And then...poof! Nothing!

And maybe that's why Cheney & Co. were so pissed off at the CIA: either because Tenet couldn't get it done, OR because another faction of the CIA--the folks who believe that their job is preventing war, not manufacturing it--was operating AGAINST the Bushite plot.

There is a lot more to this theory--the WMD-planting theory of Plamegate. It is one of the better theories of the affair, because it answers so many puzzles (like, why did so many top Bushites put themselves in jeopardy of treason charges, by outing a CIA unit?). But I never thought about Tenet's "slam dunk" remark in this context. It makes a lot of sense: the Bushite CIA vs. the real CIA. I had figured it was a project of Rumsfeld's intelligence/black ops shop--the "Office of Special Plans." In fact, I've been wondering if that is why Rumsfeld is gone, with no policy change Iraq. Because he failed--and Cheney and gang have had to sweat the legal and political fallout from Rumsfeld's failure. But it could have been the brainchild of a partially Bushite-purged/toadies-installed faction of the CIA, perhaps in cahoots with the OSP, thinking up this outrageous deception, and then getting foiled by the people who were into PREVENTING the spread of WMDs (or someone in the BJ network, for instance, who didn't even know the origin of the WMD movement they detected and acted to stop it).

IF this was what Tenet was talking to Bush about--how to create a "slam dunk" with the public, by a phony "find" of WMDs in Iraq--the remark makes a lot more sense!

As it is, it makes little sense. It is simply a lie that the CIA thought Saddam had WMDs. Everybody else in the world knew that he didn't! So why did Tenet say it? I've tried to explain it to myself as Tenet toadying to Bush, saying what he wanted to hear. And that's a possibility. But I'm liking this theory that the "slam dunk" remark was embedded in a fuller conversation about the prospects of planting the weapons and "finding" them.

As with so many parts of the WMD-planting theory, suddenly you think, "Ah! That explains...". It makes a while lot of things make sense. They were scheming to plant the weapons--and to reap the political benefits from their "discovery." And something went wrong.

[understandinglife]

57. "They were scheming to plant the weapons--and to reap the political benefits from their "discovery."

... And something went wrong."

One wonders ....


Peace.

[opihimoimoi]

59. The poor gop dufuses...they couldn't pull it off......I think it was too complex

or, nobody wanted to risk it.....

[stellanoir]

63. Some say that Brewster Jennings busted the WMD's in Turkey

and were tracking the connection between "crashcart" & AQ Kahn's nuclear secret WalMart he was running in Pakistan.

Thus, they outed Plame to blow the whole operation apart.

Peace indeed.

[Peace Patriot]

69. Stellanoir, you got a url for the Plame/B-J Turkey bust? I hadn't heard of that one. nt

[riderinthestorm]

64. Interesting theory. And of course, nobody at the WH or anywhere else can refute Tenet's spin

or they will blow the WMD context. That context is even worse for the WH than the schlock Tenet is peddling now.

So do you think Tenet is doing this whole book show now to try to rehabilitate his reputation or just stick it to BFEE?

Tenet WAS a loyal toady and the Medal WAS to buy his silence but now something HAS gone wrong and Tenet is off the rez. Why? And why now?

[Peace Patriot]

68. Yeah, I think something has "gone wrong" but I'm not sure what it is.

It started back at Katrina, behind the scenes, inside the WH, maybe the Libby vs. Rove war (who would be the fall guy?). Or maybe that was a symptom of something deeper. I sure get the feeling that a deep rupture has occurred, maybe the result of "good guy" insiders finding something out, and confronting the Bush Junta with exposure, unless they...get rid of Rumsfeld? stop the war on Iran? stop torturing prisoners for fun and profit?

Possibilities: Rumsfeld-9/11 (why is he gone--with no policy change in Iraq?). Cheney arms dealing or 9/11 money trail? Bushite complicity in David Kelly's death? Could be a generalized thing, that Bush/Cheney has become "bad for business," but it has the feel of something more specific.

Or, some combo of this (insiders, powers-that-be, threatening big exposure) and the American people outvoting the machines to get themselves a half-decent Congress (investigations, at least).

Stellanoir mentions Turkey re: Plamegate. Interesting. I had figured Turkey as the best route for phony WMDs to Iraq (thru Kurdish territory). But there were also reports (in the Islamic press) of US WMDs at the Basra port, and a botched WMD operation in the interior somewhere (not specified). There is also the Edmonds gag--re Turkey (v. dirty Bushite dealings). But I hadn't heard about what Stellanoir mentioned--a Plame-BJ bust of the Bushites in Turkey (re WMDs). That's news to me.

Re: Tenet. A whole lot of people are trying to distance themselves from Bush/Cheney, pronto. And a lot of others want no part of them. Look at the generals who turned down "war czar." The NYT becoming a newspaper again, and not just Rumsfeld's toilet paper. Even WaPo, to a more limited degree, is trying to hedge its bets. It sure feels like some major shit is about to hit fan (or threatening to hit fan). As I said, could be a combo of things--including, for instance, a very rearranged world political scene. I noticed a news report about a month ago of a meeting between Russia, China and India on how to stop the US bully from attacking Iran. There are also major developments in South America not going the Bush Junta's way. And the World Bank debacle is related to that, and to Iraq. And I'm still wondering about Pelosi's trip to Syria during the Iran/Brit sailor capture thing. Was that the trigger for Cheney's war--and it got defused?

Anyway, Tenet--like others--may be responding to this combo of things, and wanting to distance himself (and rehab, too). OR, some one big thing is prompting major defections, freeing whistleblowers, and empowering better people to take charge in certain areas. Things are moving too fast to get a good read on them, and a lot is happening behind the scenes--an offense to my democratic beliefs, but undeniably true.

Something prompted Daddy Bush to try to intervene--and that started back during Katrina. Also, I tend to think Fitzgerald is involved in some way, in curtailing Bush/Cheney, in ways that we cannot yet see. Something he found out maybe--and gave it to others to solve (Congress?).

Stay tuned.

[PearliePoo2]

67. excellent post

would they "plant" WMD?
Yes indeed.
something went terribly wrong for these goons.
It is mind-boggling and scary beyond belief.

[in_cog_ni_to]

60. Tenet should have stopped the RAT BASTARDS IN-THEIR-TRACKS

when they started their blame game...slam dunk game....cherry picked intel game! He should have ordered a press conference and set the record straight! HE'S COMPLICIT AND HAS JUST AS MUCH BLOOD ON HIS HANDS AS THE CABAL DOES!

[Ganja Ninja]

65. I don't buy all this phony bullshit.

This man stayed on as CIA Director even after they outed one of his agents. If he were truly not a member of this cabal he would have resigned and started singing right then and there.