April 30, 2007
George Tenet: Bush’s First Mistake (John Feehery)
After watching George Tenet being interviewed by Scott Pelley last night on “60 Minutes,” one thing became clear to me: President Bush should have put his own guy at the CIA at the beginning of his first term.
Tenet seems like he was passionate about his job. He truly wanted to protect the nation from terrorism. Of that, I have no doubt. But let’s face it. He was Clinton’s guy, and he presided over the destruction of the CIA as a fully functioning intelligence agency while he served President Clinton. He should not have stayed on with President Bush, if for no other reason than he was the choice of the president who had the lowest regard for the intelligence community in our nation’s history.
Because of this mistake made by President Bush, we have had a low-grade civil war brewing between the White House and the CIA for close to seven years. The CIA doesn’t trust the White House. The White House disregards the CIA. Joe Wilson is sent by the CIA on an expedition to embarrass the White House. The White House outs a former covert agent. The rest of the world must wonder what the hell is going.
George Tenet can disagree with Vice President Cheney all he wants. But not when he is working for him. And unlike George Tenet, the vice president stood for election and won twice.
Tenet failed. He wasn’t alone. There have been many failures over the last six years in all parts of this administration. Probably the biggest failure is its consistent inability to tell the American people what has gone right in the war on terror. From stopping actual terrorist attacks on American soil to putting pressure on terrorist networks across the globe, there have been successes. But you wouldn’t know it by watching the news or listening to former administration officials spill the beans.
George Tenet was an honorable public servant, but Bush should have never had him there in the first place. That was his first of many mistakes.
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Tenet said the CIA as an organization believed there were WMDs in Iraq. He said people who do it for a living, honorable public servants, under no pressure thought so. No more "Bush lied". Bush sold a message he believed in and the CIA agreed to. Bush did not deal well with not finding the WMDs. But Bush told the truth.
Next time, build a CIA that can actually do covert operations, instead of shifting the emphasis to analytics. Next time don't gut human intelligence like Bill Clinton had done.
Comment by Igor R. — April 30, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
What you don't understand is, Tenet WAS along for the ride, at the time. They, not only fudged the "interpretation" of the inteligence leading up to the war…they ACTUALLY fudged the intelligence themselves!
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ExCIA_analyst_Forged_yellowcake_memo_leads_0430.html
You smarmy disgusting butt licking DC pundits all owe this nation an apology.
And as far as I'm concerned, you should all hand in your resignations for being "complicit" in the lie that drew us into a war of agression that's taken almost a million lives so far and cost us a trillion dollars.
You're just as criminal as Cheney.
Comment by Dan — April 30, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
George Tenet was nothing more than a supporting actor in this tradgedy. Tenet wa the lackey, a Gomer. The die was shaken long before Tenet the dufus figured it out. At best, bythe time he tried to do anything, the dye was cast. They kicked out Scott Ritter.
Comment by Chris in NM — April 30, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Yes, Dan, Ray McGovern who is your source is a spokesman for "Not in Our Name" founded largely by the members of the Revolutionary Communist Party. He is one of 100 signatories to a petition "which calls for immediate public attention to unanswered questions that suggest that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war." He accused both Reagan and the first Bush of manufacturing intelligence after preparing intelligence briefings for both of them and keeping quiet until his retirement. While retiring in 1990, he managed to keep so abreast of the developments in the CIA as to know that George Bush was about to lie before Bush's State of the Union Speech in 2003. What a guy!
Comment by Igor R. — April 30, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
Igor, they can use you comments over at DrudgeReport and RedStateBlog. That's where all the Neocons seem to be hiding out. Go join em'.
Comment by Marco Arena — May 1, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Three words: Medal of Freedom! Tenet did EXACTLY what Bush wanted him to do, and he was rewarded.
Comment by Lusk — May 1, 2007 @ 4:02 pm
Marco, this is not the freaking DailyKos. And anyway, all you're doing is demonstrating the intolerance of the rabid left towards any dissenting points of view. All the comments like "go and live in the liberated Iraq" and "go post somewhere else" come from the ultra-leftists. My advice: go and enjoy a romantic relationship with yourself.
Comment by Igor R. — May 1, 2007 @ 4:38 pm
This post is a complete joke, of course. First Mr. Feehery takes a typical swipe at President Clinton's record without any supporting facts, then he suggests that things would have been much better if Mr. Bush would have simply appointed a CIA director that was enough of a lickspittle Bushie to agree with everything he said. I suppose Brownie and Harriet Miers were unavailable at the time.
It seems that the Medal of Freedom bought Mr. Tenet's silence for a time, but no longer. Most of the country already figured out a long time ago how they were lied to by the administration, but further evidence is always a good thing (my old friend Laurence always seemed to be looking for it).
Comment by Derek D. — May 1, 2007 @ 10:49 pm