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2007-04-30 Home Front: Politix

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Posted by ryuge 2007-04-30 07:58|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 ...Sadly, all this means is that the MSM will ignore the facts entirely in order to make it appear as if the White House had it in for Saddam from the beginnning.

While I'm on this subject, let me ask a question -it's always assumed that Bush goes after Saddam because Saddam (among other things) tried to kill his father. Frankly, would you have a lot of respect for a man who WASN'T pis*sed at the man who threatened to kill his father?

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2007-04-30 09:34|| 2007-04-30 09:34|| Front Page Top

#2 When I heard Tenet yesterday all over the telly I said to myself: "Self, methinks that guy is hawking his book."

Posted by JohnQC 2007-04-30 09:55|| 2007-04-30 09:55|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm not against the administration having it out for Saddam from the beginning. Hell, I think we should have taken him out in '96 at least. But to lie about it to hawk a book to the liberal-unhinged is beyond disgusting and bordering on sedition.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-04-30 10:02|| 2007-04-30 10:02|| Front Page Top

#4 You gotta like this.

George Tenet Sings Toby Keith
by Jed Babbin Posted: 04/30/2007

From what he's said about it, former CIA director George Tenets memoir sounds like a country song minus the good music. His "Sixty Minutes" interview made me think of that sorrowful line in one of Toby Keiths songs: Yeah, I wish somehow I didnt know now what I didnt know then.

Posted by Sherry">Sherry 2007-04-30 10:20|| 2007-04-30 10:20|| Front Page Top

#5 Just say "George Tenet of Tenet Accords."

Posted by gromgoru 2007-04-30 10:25|| 2007-04-30 10:25|| Front Page Top

#6 Tenent likes to deflect blame on others; However, His Tenure at CIA predates Bush by a few years and he missed many intelligence events. The attack on the USS Cole, Somalia militias, embassy bombings, etc. If we knew nothing about these events then what in the hell were our intelligence assets directs at? The culture and mindset at CIA and State Department lead directly to leaving this country vulnerable to attack. Prior to 9/11 they would never have taken a threat from a jihadi seriously because it would paint them in a racists light. How can we suffer these blunders and NOBODY in intelligence isnt called to account? I heard about Gen Odom becoming the latest General/Celeb to Monday morning quarterback the war on terror. Well folks I served under Gen Odom the mid-late 1980s and I heard him give a speech about Glasnost. He claimed that it was nothing new and there was no fundamental change in the function of the Soviet State. He like other Intelligence Professionals had painted a picture about the Soviet Union and they were not about to change it for anyone. Tenent and his gang of idiots did know anything because they had painted a picture of terrorists and they could not (for the life of them think) that they were capable of large-scale attacks. I would really like to read some of the post-embassy bombing reports as to who, what, why, and how it was carried out. That would tell you everything you wanted to know about their culture and mindset. I will bet they blame Bush for that too.

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2007-04-30 11:40|| 2007-04-30 11:40|| Front Page Top

#7 TENNET: I don't know what's happening here. The intelligence community's judgement is he will not have nuclear weapons until the year 2007, 2009.
"The CIA has recently been pressured into accepting the idea of devoting the bulk of its attention to such global issues as pollution, health, natural resources, and endangered species. In 1991, President Bush signed a directive to this effect and the Agency quickly fell into line, creating a National Intelligence Officer for Global and Multilateral Issues. According to Robert Gates, the CIA was planning in 1992 to devote 40 percent of its resources to international economics and only 34 percent to Russia and the other successor states to the Soviet Union. One can only view such a shift of emphasis as a desperate attempt to find a make-believe role for the CIA in the post-Soviet world. [Note the leftist fantasy that the world is all sweetness and light since the demise of the USSR. ed.] But intelligence has only one function: to uncover foreign threats to national security. International terrorism and nuclear traffic clearly come within its purview. Global economic or environmental problems just as clearly do not: along with other ills afflicting humanity and the earth, they are best left to international organizations". Richard Pipes, "What to Do about the CIA," Commentary Mar. 1995

Posted by Deacon Blues 2007-04-30 12:39|| 2007-04-30 12:39|| Front Page Top

#8 On 9/11 Bush probably should have fired Tenet. Unfortunately, he probably reasoned that, given the immediate need to attack al Queda in Afghanistan and elsewhere, he probably thought he could not afford the short term impact on organizational effectiveness associated with making a change at that time. I am sure his decision was also influenced by the fact that his father thought well of Tenet.

This is likely why he did not fire Tenet on 1/20/01 as well, though the politician in him probably saw value in keeping on an old Clinton hand until he and his team had a full grasp of the national security program.

According to Bob Woodward, Tenet did not have his a-players working Iraq for years prior to the invasion. This resource allocation decision came after Saddam had completely fooled the CIA in 1990/1991 by concealing a robust program and while the Air Force was patrolling the no-fly zone and often exchanging fire. I cannot understand what was more important.

Now we see Tenet as primarily concerned with a) cashing in on a book deal and b) making sure that he is back in the good graces of his fellow lefties on the dc cocktail circuit. Patriotism, the need to protect intelligence, the importance of being fact based: none of these things matter to him.

What a horrible decision Bush made in hiring and keeping this man in such a critical position

I assume that there are patriotic, aggressive people working for the CIA on the ground in the crappiest corners of the Earth. However, at the leadership level in DC, they are more interested in attacking the Bush admin with lame ops like the Plame/Wilson affair and this book than attacking the otherwise vulnerable governments of our enemies, like Iran. It may be unreformable.

Posted by JAB 2007-04-30 15:41|| 2007-04-30 15:41|| Front Page Top

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