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Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
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More Tenet
April 30, 2007 9:45 AM
Writing in the Washington Post YESTERDAY, the former head of the CIA's Osama bin Laden desk takes issue with former CIA director George Tenet's book.
As we noted in a piece for the Webcast on Friday, Tenet in 2003 and 2004 was a cheerleader for the war in Iraq. Now he's depicting something quite different.
"Tenet now paints himself as a scapegoat for an administration in which there never was 'a serious consideration of the implications of a U.S. invasion,' insisting that he warned Bush, Cheney and their Cabinet about the risks of occupying Iraq," writes Michael F. Scheuer. "Well, fine; the CIA repeatedly warned Tenet of the inevitable disaster an Iraq war would cause -- spreading bin Ladenism, spurring a bloody Sunni-Shiite war and lethally destabilizing the region.
Scheuer notes that on March 24, 2004, Tenet told the 9/11 Commission that he "was talking to the national security adviser and the president and the vice president every day" and "certainly didn't get a sense that anybody was not paying attention to what I was doing and what I was briefing and what my concerns were and what we were trying to do."
"Now, Scheuer notes, "a 'frustrated' Tenet writes that he held an urgent meeting with Rice on July 10, 2001, to try to get 'the full attention of the administration' and 'finally get us on track.' He can't have it both ways."
Scheuer concludes: "Tenet in effect is saying that he knew all too well why the United States should not invade Iraq, that he told his political masters and that he was ignored. But above all, he's saying that he lacked the moral courage to resign and speak out publicly to try to stop our country from striding into what he knew would be an abyss."
Ouch.
What do you think?
-- jpt
April 30, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7)
What coverup does Pres. Bush do? What Lies? The problem here was he should never of kept Tenet on from the Clinton Embarresment. Its a Slam Dunk Tenet!
Posted by: spock | May 23, 2007 3:43:33 PM
I don't know if Tenet just doesn't work well on camera, or he was as big an idiot as Chimpy McFlightsuit. Tenet obviously was covering his butt for not being adamant enough in telling bushie that iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but as we all know, the Bush Administration doesn't listen to information it dislikes. The only option Tenet could do was resign in protest, a lot of good that will do!
Posted by: Steve Savage | May 20, 2007 4:01:20 PM
What he is saying in the book is more the truth than he would have said back when anyone who spoke against the royal word of Bush/Cheney was swatted like a fly flat and dead as can be. Remember how they attacked any and all who piped up with the opposite of their words(lies). It was a very ruthless machine that made sure that everyone said the same thing at the same time like puppets. Only since Bush's 2nd term has this administration's choke hold on all the republicans started loosening up. Maybe now more of them in congress and the senate will go with public opinion instead of a failed president/vice president.
Posted by: Vicki | May 1, 2007 8:48:39 PM
Whether or not Tenet is being truthful now, he missed his chance to take a stand when it really mattered. Rightly or wrongly, his book now looks like an attempt to salvage his name for posterity.
Posted by: DKNY | Apr 30, 2007 3:29:52 PM
Yeah, ouch indeed. But Scheuer didn't speak out publicly either, did he? About the faulty intelligence, that is. So who is he to accuse Tenet of being a moral coward? I'm sure I'm missing the greater point here. But my point is that the public deserves less grandstanding and fingerpointing and more action.
Posted by: cordelia525 | Apr 30, 2007 11:12:46 AM
Public officials don't get to call their own mulligans just because they write a book a few years later. Tenet was a large part of the Bush administration that led us into war, and writing a memoir doesn't erase that history.
Posted by: reyonthehill | Apr 30, 2007 11:05:11 AM
It's clear that Mr. tenet is engaging in revisionist history. Why, after four years and many opportunities to set the record straight, is he now asserting that he was ignored by this Administration, that his dire warnings weren't taken seriously, and that there were no discussions about waging war on Iraq? Two words: book sales. He wants to ensure that his book is a best seller and he wants to clear his reputation, such as it is. With such obvious contradictions from what he has said in the past, I hope that neither of his wishes is fulfilled!
Posted by: chuck | Apr 30, 2007 10:51:48 AM
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