Potential Bush-CIA Crisis

Tenet decided to not be the White House Fall Guy

Published on September 1, 2005 By dabe In Politics

According to this article in the Washington Times, a report has been delivered to Congress this week that discusses the CIA failures to develop a strategy against Al Qaeda and the run-up to 9/11. The article writer describes it as "scathing", and to which George Tenet has come out as refusing to be the White House fall guy to protect Bush and company. Per the article, "Mr. Tenet's response to the report is a 20-page, tightly knitted rebuttal of responsibility prepared with the aid of a lawyer, according to the friendly source. " The IG report is the result of a 17-month investigation by a team of 11 CIA officials. Exerpted below describes Tenet's response:

In criticizing Mr. Tenet for lack of a strategy to fight al Qaeda, the IG report goes to the heart of the September 11 failure. Mr. Tenet's defense inevitably leads to the sensitive issue of the CIA briefings of the president and other senior officials in the summer of 2001.
In deciding not to become the fall guy, Mr. Tenet has made a fateful decision. The latest salvo in the ongoing wars between the CIA and the White House may be about to burst. Until now, Mr. Tenet has kept silent about what Mr. Bush knew and when he knew it. Mr. Tenet's decision to defend his own role in September 11 puts the White House back in the spotlight. The only way he can push off responsibility is to push it higher up the ladder.

This is huge, and I'm sure the White House is looking to quietly bury the story while the New Orleans disaster is preoccupying American minds. But, if I'm reading this right, Tenet is not going to let that happen. Good for him. Good for any of those potential fall guys who refuse to take the heat for the White house failings and decide to blow the whistle.

As the world turns...................

Comments

ParaTed2k

on Sep 02, 2005

This is why I hate (not just simply distrust or dislike, but white hot, unadulterated HATE) the idea that any investigation should be done with an eye on fingerpointing and faultfinding instead of Fact Finding. Fact finding looks to past failed policies and procedures in order to identify weaknesses and make whatever changes are needed to improve the system. Fault finding merely causes the major players to circle the wagons in their own defense... in the end accomplishing nothing.

Unless the evidence shows that someone in government took part an active roll in the planning, training, execution or extraction phases of the attacks of 9/11, I don't care who knew what or when. What I want to know is, how do the major players fix the problems so it doesn't happen again.

Island Dog

on Sep 02, 2005

Dabe where are all your posts about Able Danger and the failures of the Clinton administration in regards to terrorism?

Just like your other posts, this is not huge.

Dr Guy

on Sep 02, 2005

Right Crisises, wrong administration. Clinton is going down, not Bush.

dabe

on Sep 02, 2005

Parated, the reason that I believe finger pointing is important in this case is because, unless those who may be accountable are held accountable, then the issues will never be resolved. Also, if Tenet is indeed willing to admit complicity, but also refuse to take the fall for this administration, then good for him. There is a lot of blame to go around, and we cannot give a pass to those who happen to be at the top of the food chain, just because they are at the top of the food chain.

Puppy, you're a fool

guy, it's always back to clinton with you guys. As far as I'm concerned, clinton should be held accountable if he is, in fact, complicit in some intelligence failures. But, he is no complicit in the iraq mess.

That would be the bush bums. Especially the bush bums. They put us into iraq based on their greedy conflicts of interest and outright lies. clinton may be responsible for not organizing the intelligence agency well enough. But, he's not complicit in killing thousands upon thousands of iraqis or thousands of americans for sending them to their deaths. What a waste of life and resources. It all happened under dubya's watch, by dubya, for dubya and cheney and halliburton.

I'm also sure that were it not for our troops in this wasted effort of a war, then the New Orleans mess would not be the crisis it is in now. But, this is another story, for another thread.

COL Gene

on Sep 02, 2005

Investigations serve two purposes To try and prevent the same thing from taking place and to make sure the responsible parties are held accountable,even if that is Bush.

dabe

on Sep 02, 2005

And, this from the rightie site Newsmax Link

Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 11:00 a.m. EDT
Former CIA Director Tenet Threatens Disclosures?

Former CIA director George Tenet, said to be the target of what the Washington Times called "a scathing report by Inspector General John Helgerson” - may go public with embarrassing disclosures about the Bush administration and its actions leading up to Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA report, prepared as the result of a 17-month investigation by a team of 11 CIA officials, blames Tenet and several top CIA officials for its failure pre-9/11 to deal with al-Qaida.

But former Reagan White House aide and intelligence expert John B. Roberts II, quoting an anonymous source close to Tenet, wrote in Thursday's Washington Times that the former chief spook has no intention of taking it lying down.

The report, delivered to Congress this week, recommends punitive sanctions against Tenet, former Deputy Director of Operations James L. Pavitt and former counter-terrorist center head J. Cofer Black.

Roberts writes, "George Tenet is not going to let himself become the fall guy for the September 11th intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet.”

In retaliation, Roberts says that Tenet may turn the tables and put the blame on President Bush.

Tenet, he claims, has already written a fiery, 20-page, "tightly knitted rebuttal” to the Inspector General's report. But Tenet's response has been marked "classified," in contrast to usual CIA practice. Also unavailable to the public is the report itself.

Roberts says Tenet's decision to strike back could be very bad news for the President.

Wrote Roberts, "Mr. Tenet's decision to defend himself against the charges in the report poses a potential crisis for the White House.

"According to a former clandestine services officer, the former CIA director turned down a publisher's $4.5 million book offer because he didn't want to embarrass the White House by rehashing the failure to prevent September 11 and the flawed intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.”

Quoting a "knowledgeable source,” Roberts wrote that Tenet "had a ‘wink and a nod’ understanding with the White House that he wouldn't be scapegoated for intelligence failings.”

Roberts claims a "deal" was made between Tenet and Bush, one that was sealed with the President’s award of the Presidential Freedom Medal to the former CIA head.

In his rebuttal, Tenet, Roberts warns, "treads perilously close to affirming the account of Richard Clarke, the former NSC terrorism official who claimed the Bush administration's had delayed adopting a strategy against al-Qaida."

Current CIA Director Porter Goss is between a rock and a hard place, according to Roberts, who explains that Goss will be criticized for covering up if he does nothing. But if he follows the IG's recommendation to convene formal hearings as a prelude to sanctions, Tenet himself may go public to defend his reputation by damaging the President and his administration.

Roberts concludes: "The $4.5 million book offer may soon be back on the table, and this time Mr. Tenet might take it.”

Dr Guy

on Sep 03, 2005

guy, it's always back to clinton with you guys. As far as I'm concerned, clinton should be held accountable if he is, in fact, complicit in some intelligence failures. But, he is no complicit in the iraq mess.

No, it is not always clinton. But it was his watch that the mistakes happened. Read it again.

ParaTed2k

on Sep 04, 2005

Also, if Tenet is indeed willing to admit complicity, but also refuse to take the fall for this administration, then good for him.

The entire reason Tenet is on the hot seat is because no one seems to care about fixing the problem, only placing the blame. The hot potato is in Tenet's hands, so now the only thing that matters to him is getting rid of it. It was passed to him by someone in the same position and found Tenet's hands empty...

As long as fingerpointing is the primary focus on investigations, nothing will be gained except a lot of wasted time and money.

Apparently though, people are all for infantile blame games, so as long as the crowd in the Colliseum gets to play their "Thumbs up/Thumbs down" roll.... people will continue to play and stupidity and ignorance will continue to dominate the investigations.

How are you thumb drills coming folks?

kingbee

on Sep 04, 2005

where are all your posts about Able Danger

he don't seem to be payin attention to his posts about able danger...why should you be expected to do his dogly work for him.

Fact finding looks to past failed policies and procedures in order to identify weaknesses and make whatever changes are needed to improve the system. Fault finding merely causes the major players to circle the wagons in their own defense... in the end accomplishing nothing.

couldnt agree with ya more.

do i really need to point out the similarity between failed policies and plotlines? there are really only a few originals in each category. the rest are just variations. one of the classic failed policy templates is the one in which something is exchanged for silence.

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