"If it were a fact, it wouldn't be intelligence"

[priller]

From the excellent article on msnbc today:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4767542/

Later, when the invasion was over, Tenet acknowledged to associates that the CIA should have stated upfront in the National Intelligence Estimate that the evidence was "not ironclad, that it did not include a smoking gun," writes Woodward. (In a revealing scene, Woodward describes Michael Hayden, the director of the National Security Agency, explaining the uncertainties of intelligence to his wife as they wash the dishes. "If it were a fact," says Hayden, "it wouldn't be intelligence.")

It's possible that George "Slam Dunk" Tenet comes off looking worse than Bush in the Woodward book. He basically flat-out lied to Bush when he said the WMD case was a "slam dunk" when he very well knew it wasn't. Good lord, what does it take to get someone fired in DC these days?