Tenet changes his story

[Killarney]

You know how he said he never met with Bush in August because Bush was on vacation? Now his "spokesperson" says he misspoke and did fly to Crawford a couple times. WTF?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=ap/sept_11_tenet
Tenet Misspoke About Not Meeting Bush

WASHINGTON - CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet misspoke Wednesday when he told a federal panel reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks that he did not meet with President Bush (news - web sites) in August 2001.

[Racenut20]

1. These guys need to get one lie writer and stick to it.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Something's up.

Like Tenet wouldn't remember if he met with Bush at the ranch? There is some major shit going down that I think is going to break soon. Stay tuned.

[loftycity]

16. I think Tenet wants Bush and Cheney to explain what happened

He is not going to take the fall for these creeps. Plus Tenet knows that BFEE is getting in to deep and close to the edge. Tenet might just give them the farewell boot. There is always a suckerpunch to all of this.

[Old and In the Way]

19. Mutual co-blackmailing?

I think Tenet has the goods on Bush....and Bush has something on Tenet.

Why didn't Bush (Rove) dump 9/11 on Tenet and pin him with the blame....he was a Clinton nominee, after-all.

And why not after all that bad intel that caused Bush to have to attack Iraq? Surely, a 2nd failure of intelligence must be addressed and punished?

But whatever it is, something is keeping Tenet in check....

Curiously not.

[loftycity]

23. Remember Bush's first speech after 9/11 was in front of the CIA

Saying what a good job the CIA had done. Your right they could of fired Tenet the Clinton leftover. Tenet told them and BFEE did what they wanted to do. Now let Bush explain what Tenet and he talked about in August down in Crawford. Just another way of looking at the mess.

[King_Crimson]

40. Was it just me or did Tenet seem...

to be awfully nervous and fidgety? Rarely would he look directly at anybody questioning him and only did so when replying!

[aquart]

3. Why bother to lie? Odd.

Of course, it's possible that George simply made no impression.

[Goldmund]

7. I think...

...that the truth is probably something none of us suspects. Something more sinister than anything we could come up with.

[ET Awful]

4. I say it's bullshit . . . .

There's no way he'd NOT remember flying to Texas, it's complete bullshit.

[proud patriot]

12. Texas in august no less

:eyes:

[spanone]

27. I agree, bush* had only been in office 7-8 months - he'd remember

[Postman]

5. This is the same DCI that "allowed" the Uranium Lie in the SOTU address..

Tenet is just as criminal as the rest of them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. He does have shifty body language.

*

[chimpymustgo]

6. Okay...post your theories. Keeping up with their lies and their reasons

for lying is full time work.

I'm stumped on this one.

[Goldmund]

9. So I wonder...

...what the subject of those briefings he was hiding was? And isn't it odd that he only met Bush twice in August (once on Aug 31st), and then six times during the first 8 days of September?!?! So basically, they met seven times in the 12 days preceding 9/11, and only once in the month before that?

Maybe he lied so he doesn't have to face the followup question "So Mr. Tenet, what were those briefings about?"...

[Killarney]

10. REALLY good point!

"Maybe he lied so he doesn't have to face the followup question "So Mr. Tenet, what were those briefings about?""

He says under oath in front of the commission they didn't meet.

Then, later has a spokesperson say he misspoke and makes the correction publicly... but not in front of the commission.

SO THAT THE COMMISSION CAN'T ASK FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS!

What are they going to do... call him back to ask him about this? You know they won't. He knows they won't.

I think you got it right there.

[lapfog_1]

14. Tenet

wasn't in the loop. Not part of the LIHOP plot. Neither was
acting FBI director Pickard.

But Tenet might well be part of the, rather minimal, coverup.

[Goldmund]

18. You definitely seem to be in the loop.

[lapfog_1]

25. Not sure what you mean.

The evidence from Richard Clarke is that George Tenet was running
around "with his hair on fire" and that more senior admin officials
(The President, Veep, NSA, AG) were the ones NOT understanding or
not wanting to listen.

So it's my educated guess that Tenet wasn't part of the 9/11
plot.

I happen to believe LIHOP. The evidence is convincing.

[Goldmund]

33. I believe LIHOP too.

But who knows who was pulling what strings and who was in on what part of the conspiracy. I'm not ready to give anybody, much less Tenet, a pass.

[DeepModem Mom]

20. Was Tenet under oath in his earlier meetings...

with the Commission?

"(Asked on Wednesday if he had ever mentioned Moussaoui's arrest to President Bush, Tenet) said he did not tell Bush or bring it to the attention of other senior officials. A report issued by the panel earlier said Tenet had said no connection between Moussaoui and al Qaeda was apparent to him before Sept. 11...."

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=851377&tw=wn_wire_story

[KayLaw]

41. So

They had this flurry of meetings the first 8 days of September, then Bush went to Sarasota on the 10th? I wonder how far in advance the Florida trip was planned and announced?

[DeepModem Mom]

42. The number of questions raised by this Tenet story...

boggles the mind.

[Must_B_Free]

11. Maybe Clinton didn't really lie either

I am becoming convinced that Bill merely mis-spoke.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. There's an LBN thread on this, and this article about Moussaoui:

Moussaoui Riddle Hangs Over 9/11 Hearings

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 7:16 p.m. ET
By Deborah Charles


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Does accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui hold the key to what some have called the greatest intelligence failure in U.S. history?...

***

Moussaoui was the subject of a report entitled "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly" submitted to senior CIA officials in late August 2001....

***

....In late August, CIA chief George Tenet and other top CIA officials were told of the case.

(Asked on Wednesday if he had ever mentioned Moussaoui's arrest to President Bush, Tenet) said he did not tell Bush or bring it to the attention of other senior officials. A report issued by the panel earlier said Tenet had said no connection between Moussaoui and al Qaeda was apparent to him before Sept. 11....


http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=851377&tw=wn_wire_story


Edited to add link to the LBN discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=486052&mesg_id=486052

[SimpleMan]

15. Well, he forgot one...

He was there on the August 24, 2001 (at least).

From the White House web site:

-----------

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010825-2.html

----------

President Gives Tour of Crawford Ranch
Remarks by the President During Tour of the President's Ranch
Prarie Chapel Ranch
Crawford, Texas


Q    When you have those business meetings, like the Joint Chiefs briefing, do you like to keep it separate from the living quarters on the ranch?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Actually, you know, what we call the governor's house, the place where you all came out during the -- that's where we went.  Condi and Karen Hughes stayed there.  And right across the street from that is a -- it's a nice looking government doublewide.  (Laughter.)  And that's where the mil aide, the nurse, the WHCA head, the doc, they stay.

     The CIA briefings, I have on our porch, the end of our porch looking out over the lake.  When Tenet came up, that's where we visited, out there.

     You know, everybody wants to see the ranch, which I'm proud to show it off.  So George Tenet and I -- yesterday, we piled in the new nominees for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Vice Chairman and their wives and went right up the canyon.

[mouse7]

17. Indict Tenet for perjury immediately.

Tenet lied while under oath.

Indict him and make him come to court and say on the stand which story was true.

[OneTwentyoNine]

21. Hummm....used to known as PERJURY,punishable by Law...

Now is known as "misspoke".

But this is the Bush WH,anything goes..and does.

David

[mouse7]

22. There is no such thing as "misspoke" under oath. Indict Tenet.

Charge Tenet with perjury. NOW. Make him come to court and swear on the stand whether he was lying or telling the truth before the 9/11 commission.

I'm done with these idiots. It's time they started serving time.

[DeepModem Mom]

24. According to "Slate," another story changed:

"The official story about the PDB is that the CIA prepared it at the president's request. Bush had heard all Tenet's briefings about a possible al-Qaida attack overseas, the tale goes, and he wanted to know if Bin Laden might strike here. This story is almost certainly untrue. On March 19 of this year, Tenet told the 9/11 commission that the PDB had been prepared, as usual, at a CIA analyst's initiative. He later retracted that testimony, saying the president had asked for the briefing. Tenet embellished his new narrative, saying that the CIA officer who gave the briefing to Bush and Condi Rice started by reminding the president that he had requested it. But as Rice has since testified, she was not present during the briefing; she wasn't in Texas. Someone should ask: Was that the only part of the tale that Tenet made up? Or did he invent the whole thing—and, if so, on whose orders?"

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098861/

[swag]

26. Who doesn't want a DCI with a casual approach to the truth,

particularly when under oath?

[spanone]

28. These people are so far removed from any truth.............

[Toby109]

29. So Moussaui detained on Aug. 16, Tenet to Crawford

the next day. And again on the 24th. After testifying that he didn't see the President in August. There is something going here. It could be that they are letting the story out very slowly. You know the public, they'll panic at the drop of a hat(their opinion). Or maybe they're hoping they can just baffle us with bullshit. Tenet may well turn out to be the hero here.

[Bozita]

30. Tenet's on the edge of a "Profiles in Courage" moment

And I think he realizes it now.

[Bozita]

31. Which way will he go?

The good soldier is being asked to fall on his sword.

[rman]

32. they sure misspeak a lot don't they

accidentally saying "yes" when they mean "no", and vice versa.
did other administrations misspeak that much?

[truthspeaker]

34. either Tenet perjured himself or his spokesperson is lying

Lots of potential for both possitiblities. When I first read the headline I assumed Tenet had told the truth to the commission, then someone from the White House called him on the carpet for going off-script and made the "correction" (sort of like how they called CNN about the yawning boy).

Or, maybe Tenet did lie to the commission, and someone realized the truth was out there, and ordered the correction.

[truthspeaker]

35. I just emailed this story to [e-mail]

Suggested they call Tenet back for clarification.

[Terran]

36. Why would he lie about something so easily verifiable?

That's what really puzzling me. Maybe he really did just forget.

Also, denying he briefed Bush in Crawford seems to me like an attempt to get Bush off the hook. Fewer briefings means less urgency for him. I want to know what was in those briefings. If Tenet was so on fire about bin Laden, then surely these briefings included that and therefore Bush should have been on fire too, which he obviously wasn't.

[DeepModem Mom]

37. Maureen Dowd on Tenet:: "Head Spook Sputters"

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

[theboss]

38. Why does Tenet still have a job?

That's the one thing I don't get.

I don't see any conspiracy in this change of statements. I just think Tenet is incompetent. I mean, it's pretty goddamn easy to find out if Tenet was in Texas that month.

[kcwayne]

46. J.Edgar Hoover left some pictures in his office

of Bush senior servicing a Saudi Sheik.

[Catherine Vincent]

39. Tenet is being handled with kid gloves from the Commissioners.

Did you guys see what happened after his session yesterday? Three or four of the members got out of their chairs and walked over to Tenet as he was leaving and shook his hand and smiling. I don't know if they did all of the witnesses like that but that is what I saw.

[spinbaby]

43. Misspoke?

Sounds more like lie to me. I wonder what they have on Tenet.

[Oilwellian]

44. There's a glaring question we're missing here

If Tenet learned about Moussaoui in August, at the same time his "hair was on fire" with all of the various intel he was receiving from around the world, some of which included terrorists using planes as weapons, WHY didn't he follow up on Moussaoui???????

[Avalux]

45. He was instructed not to.

He's being blackmailed, IMHO.

[lostnfound]

50. Hard to imagine what blackmail material could make a man turn his back on

3000 of his dead countrymen and 300 million living ones, in such times as these, with bozo and the scary man in the whitehouse.

[truthspeaker]

47. maybe he thought it was the FBI's job

in which case, Mueller fucked up.

[Oilwellian]

49. That's just it....

During Clinton's term, Tenet knew how to "shake the tree" so to speak. WHY didn't he call Pickard and tell him this Moussaoui person fits the MO which verifies the intel we're receiving. Let's immediately get a FISA warrant to investigate his home. Let's see if we can gleen any information from his computer; who's funding him; who are his friends; what do his phone records show; et al."

It just boggles my mind WHY Tenet wouldn't immediately jump on Rowley's information at the same time he was getting intel stating Al Qaeda was planning to hijack airplanes and use them as weapons. Rowley's report should have been to Tenet like Bush's tie at Tuesday night's press conference was to us.

[sadiesworld]

48. Bush, Cheney, Tenet, Rice.

They're all in it up to their eyeballs...

Here's to a few inches more inches of shit :toast:

:evilgrin: