Reply #27: Interesting LTTE in the Boston Globe re Woodward [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2004/06/10/tenet_was_hung_out_to_dry_on_dubious_information/

Tenet was hung out to dry on dubious information

GEORGE TENET is being served up as a convenient scapegoat for the Bush administration, and the Globe seems to be facilitating the process by repeatedly reporting that Tenet told President Bush that prewar intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk."

The only source of this claim is Bob Woodward's book "Plan of Attack." Has the Globe staff forgotten that Woodward in his book "Veil" about the Iran-Contra scandal claimed to have conducted a long deathbed interview with former CIA director William Casey even though Casey's wife and his doctors insisted he was incoherent at the time?

Every other fact surrounding Tenet and the current Iraq scandal indicates the exact opposite of what Woodward claims. Bucking intense pressure from the Pentagon, the CIA refused to sign off on "evidence" of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that was presented by the Office of Special Plans, an intelligence-gathering unit cobbled together by neocons who insisted that the CIA was not properly assessing the threat posed by Iraq. The OSP had obtained this so- called evidence from Ahmed Chalabi, a man the CIA had discredited years ago.