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| Tenet resignation ahead of harshly critical Senate report |
| 2004-06-04 |
| EFL, but thereâs a lot of stuff covered here. The director of central intelligence resigned yesterday as a Senate-authored report indicting his handling of pre-Iraq war intelligence awaits declassification at the CIA. Administration officials and sources familiar with the reportâs content tell The New York Sun the assessment of George Tenetâs role as the leader of the American intelligence community would be devastating. These sources say the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reviewed the analysis of intelligence and its collection and concluded that assessments given to President Bush about Iraqâs weapons of mass destruction were wrong. More WMD brouhaha? Iâd say the main problem is that we didnât learn where they went (Syria, etc.). A CIA spokeswoman insisted that Mr. Tenetâs resignation had nothing to do with the pending report, likely to be released this month. Administration officials insisted that Mr. Tenet was not pushed out. Anyway... In recent months Mr. Tenet has defended his prewar Iraq assessments while simultaneously distancing himself from some of the more robust claims made by others in the administration. Last summer Mr. Tenet famously issued a statement in which he said members of his staff warned a deputy national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, not to include a reference to Iraqi attempts to procure uranium in Africa in an October 2002 speech the president gave in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oddly, a source familiar with the Senate Intelligence Committee report told the Sun his panel concluded that the claim about Iraqi procurement of uranium in Niger had more merit than Mr. Wilson said last summer in numerous press accounts. Well no duh. Wilson, lying liar that he is, admitted in his book that the Niger story was true. The report is far less accommodating to Mr. Tenet. Another source familiar with its content said, âIf he is looking at what is in front of him then he will see that the case we made for war is wrong. It was not because we did good work, we did poor work and you are the guy who will have to answer for it.â Specifically, the report takes to task both the CIAâs analysis and its lack of human sources on the ground in Iraq. For those human sources the agency did have in Saddamâs country, the report is critical of their handling, according this source. Of course, this will be spun as "no WMDs! we shouldnât have attacked that nice Saddam!" The Senate panel also concludes that an office inside the Pentagon created after September 11, 2001 had little impact on the intelligence communityâs process. The Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, as it is known, was a two-man office created to connect the links between state sponsors of terror and Al Qaeda. The organization has come under scrutiny from both the press and Senate Democrats. Sorry, canât pin it on Rummy. The 9/11 commission plans to release its report on among other things intelligence failures next month. If the final report is anything like some of the preliminary staff reports issued over the spring, Mr. Tenet will likely be singled out for failing to properly coordinate the flow of intelligence to the White House. This oneâs Gorelickâs fault, if anyoneâs. Also expected to be released this summer is the Armyâs final report on the abuses of detainees. The report from Major General Antonio Taguba for example said that people attached to âother government agencies,â a euphemism for the CIA, were present during interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison. âIf the CIA is involved, which it appears it was, any comprehensive report would have to include an examination of its role in this,â a Pentagon official said. Oops. Of course thereâs the danger that this will spill over to cripple interrogations of AQ baddies... But now that folks can scapegoat the now-departed Tenet for everything, it may damp down overreaction. |
| Posted by:someone |
| #2 Hindrocket over at Powerline makes the following comment and I have to agree...To my knowledge, none of the terror-related "investigations" have looked into the role of Congress. What did Congress do about the threat of terrorism between 1979 and 2001? Little or nothing, other than cut the CIA's budget and try to prevent the agency from carrying out any but the most antiseptic operations. |
| Posted by: AF Lady 2004-06-04 1:43:00 PM |
| #1 Or there is this comment from a ABC news pundit I heard on the radio yesterday, "that there was speculation that Tenet was taking the fall, as the President must be protected at all costs." You know there is news and then there are talking points. News pundits, is there nothing the don't know. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-06-04 12:32:46 PM |