George Tenet Speaks Out

Former CIA Director George Tenet speaks out against Cheney and the Bush administration on the run up to the Iraq war. Tenet’s book “At the Center of the Storm” will be published on Monday. Tenet’s book probably won’t reveal anything that we already don’t know or suspect, but it might shed light on life in the Bush inner circle.

According to the New York Times: “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.”

(LA Times) Tenet was even more forceful in his criticism of Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that the two had destroyed his reputation by repeatedly using the “slam-dunk” line to pin blame on him for the decision to go to war. “It’s the most despicable thing that ever happened to me,” Tenet said in the “60 Minutes” interview, according to an excerpt CBS released Thursday.

You can bet Bush will insist that Tenet is a disgruntled past employee and dismiss the book as nonsense. Maybe Tenet is a pissed off ex-employee, but then there have been many employees past employees that have left this administration pissed off. Tenet will appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday.

Waxman letter to Tenet asking him to testify.