Dowd: "Head Spook (Tenet) Sputters"

[DeepModem Mom]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Head Spook Sputters
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: April 15, 2004

WASHINGTON


....Only a couple of weeks after the endlessly vacationing President Bush got his Aug. 6, 2001, briefing with the shivery headline "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," the C.I.A. chief, George Tenet, and other top agency officials received a briefing about the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui after his suspicious behavior in a Minnesota flight school. And that had another shivery headline: "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly."....

***

Asked by the commission member Timothy Roemer about whether he had shared this amazing news at a Sept. 4 meeting with Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Clarke — the meeting on Al Qaeda that Mr. Clarke had been urgently begging for since January — Mr. Tenet said no. Asked if he had ever mentioned it to Mr. Bush in August, during a month of "high chatter and huge warnings," Mr. Tenet said no.

The Man Whose Hair Was Allegedly on Fire told the commissioners that he had not talked to the president at all in August. Mr. Bush was in Texas, and he was in Washington. Or he was on vacation, and the president was in Texas. Quel high alert.

("Aides to Tenet" later called reporters to say Tenet had "misspoken": he met with Bush 8/17 in Crawford, and 8/31 in Washingon.)

I'm not sure whether Mr. Tenet — a mystifyingly beloved figure even though he was in charge during the two biggest intelligence failures since Pearl Harbor and the Bay of Pigs — has a faulty memory, which is scary. Or if he's fuzzing things up because he told the president more specifics than he wants to admit. But in a town where careers are made on face time with the president, it's fishy that the head spook can't remember a six-hour trip to Crawford for some....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/opinion/15DOWD.html

[jimshoes]

1. I suppose the next question is

What exactly did you talk about on Aug 17 when you met with his lowness? I hope they kept some notes.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Am I the only one that thinks that Tenet comes across a little rough?

His body language just doesn't jive with his position as head of the CIA. As I watched his testimony, I felt he came across more like a mafia boss giving testimony, than an intelligence officer working for the U.S. government.

[Simeon Salus]

3. It's not just you. He has a thug-like visage.

I think he looks and acts like Luca Brasi from "The Godfather."

"...and I hope your first war on terrorism is a masculine war on terrorism."

[Richardo]

4. Funny, Buster...I used the Luca Brasi photo as a "separated at birth"

a while back...

Glad to see I'm not alone. :)

[powergirl]

5. MY FAVORITE QUOTE ABOUT ADMITTING MISTAKES

Great article. I love the quote I copied below.


"After the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy spoke to newspaper publishers and said: "This administration intends to be candid about its errors. For as a wise man once said, `An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.' . . . Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive.'"


Who does this NOT remind you of.

:grr:

[jbfam4]

6. Love the first paragraph

"If only Osama had faxed an X-marks-the-spot map to the Crawford ranch showing the Pentagon, the Capitol, the twin towers and the word "BOOM!" scrawled in Arabic."

It's obvious this white house wanted a special engraved invitation.

How they missed this is incredible.

How they con cocked the reasons for the war of choice ( Bush's War) is unconscionable.

[SeattleDem]

7. Isn't it obvious Tenet knows too much/is covering for Shrub?

Why does Tenet still have his job? Precisely because he can put the nail in this administration's coffin.

His memory isn't faulty - he is indeed "fuzzing things up" because he DID do his job. It was the vacationing Shrub who failed to act.

If Tenet were fired, he'd write a tell-all book a la Dick Clarke and Paul O'Neill. There is a reason Bush keeps him on, and I wonder what else he's been offered for his silence/fuzzing it up.