Officials dispute claims in Tenet's book

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/29/07 | Katherine Shrader - ap

[yuta250]

Saw the interview, he says the evidence for Saddam having chemical and biological weapons was solid, the CIA estimate as to when he would acquire nukes was ‘07-’09. Claims the “slam dunk” comment was deliberately leaked out of the context in which it was used, and that he was made the fall guy.

[Bahbah]

Keeping Tenet was a huge mistake, but I don’t know if anyone can see things like that coming.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

This man presided over the largest, most deadly intelligence failure in US History on 9/11. He then went on to screw up the intelligence on Iraq. Now, to escape blame for historic incompetency, he does what all Democrats do, blame Republicans in a book. All the while knowing the dishonest, disgraceful media in this country will help him in his mission. What a total POS this guy is.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Fake but Accurate!!! Can you believe these people? Have thye no shame at all?

Critics have started picking apart the book's accuracy. In a dramatic preface, Tenet said he ran into former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle coming out of the White House on Sept. 12, 2001, and Perle told him Iraq had to pay for the attack. "They bear responsibility," Tenet recalls Perle saying.

On Sunday, Perle categorically denied the exchange to the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and noted he was out of the country until Sept. 15. Tenet's associate said the date may have been wrong, but the exchange took place.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

You watched the interview huh?

It was a despicably biased interview. They even repeated the Plame lie as fact (White House leaked her name to destroy Wison). The MSM is so biased and dishonest they are posing a very real risk to the health of the Nation.

[operation clinton cleanup]

On Sunday, Perle categorically denied the exchange to the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard and noted he was out of the country until Sept. 15. Tenet's associate said the date may have been wrong, but the exchange took place.

So Tenet lied, but an unnamed "associate" told the truth?

[ClaireSolt]

Amen to that. Why was the intel wrong? That’s the important question.

[sruleoflaw]

A half-dozen former CIA officers — including counterterrorism experts Larry Johnson

NOW THERE IS A REAL LOSER — Larry Johnson. Every time we see good ‘ole Larry’s name we should remember that this is the man who predicted a month or two before 9/ll (in the NY Times) that terrorism wasn’t really a threat against the U.S. One would think he would have the decency to keep his mouth shut, but no.

[Dilbert56]

If “the date was wrong” why was the quote that Iraq had to pay for what happened “yesterday”. Caught fabircating, Mr. Tenet. Perhaps his name should be pronounced Ten-ay - in recognition of his Gaullic perfidity.

[gotribe]

I’ll read the book and decide. Not taking the school marm’s word for anything.

[Thebaddog]

one-time head of Tenet's Osama bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer

Intelligence failure? He is one of the culprits, but he's now some sort of savant.

[Thebaddog]

And another thing, wasn't the slam dunk comment related the the early attack on Saddam with smart bombs on some farm. It blew the surprise and was completely wrong. I remember Tenet using the grand statement for that big boner and I was not surprised when Bush promoted him out of service.

[xmission]

Many were found. See my homepage here for more info.

[Northern Alliance]

I don’t know if you can pin it on him, but the pre-war misinformation was the worst intelligence failure since the Trojan horse and has done a huge amount of harm to the US and indeed to the whole world.

[HawaiianGecko]

I have only seen one thing earth shattering in Tenet's remarks.  He clearly states that he believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  He takes fault & blame for the NIE of 2002 that indicated Iraq had WMD.  He did say "it's a slam dunk." 
 
What IS earth shattering is that there are so many that believe the President should NOT have believed his head of the Central Intelligence Agency, the combined consensus of 15 other intelligence agencies herded into the NIE and the consensus of every other government on the face of the planet including Iraq and the former U.S. administration that he did have WMD.

Now, just how crazy, foolish and stupid would President Bush have looked if he said five years ago that all of these people were nuts and wrong.

[carola]

I agree. Also, knowing what we all know now, all of the Plame and Wilson stuff was completely misrepresented in the interview. Tenet seemed so outraged, and it was all so phony.

[ken21]

agree.

but that’s NOT how it’s reported in the news media.

[operation clinton cleanup]

He did refuse to comment on the whole Plame thing, but with Pelley’s questioning, it made it seem like he agreed with the accusation. It would be interesting to see the whole interview uncut.

[jackv]

“Tenet’s associate said the date may have been wrong, but the exchange took place.”

Good grief...the way tenet stressed “it was September 12th!!” makes this lie even worse. Much more than just a mistake.

And the way he went on and on about the WH revealing plames name was sickening. Lost ALL credibility.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!