Spooked? (Newsweek's Isikoff and Hosenball on the Tenet Resignation)

[VolcanoJen]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5130488/site/newsweek/

Spooked?
CIA director George Tenet's sudden resignation comes on the eve of two reports on the agency's pre-war intelligence

Excerpt:

But congressional sources said the timing seemed to be influenced by the impending release of a massive Senate Intelligence Committee report that one official described as a “devastating indictment” of the agency’s handling of pre-war intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Another report expected next month from the national commission investigating the September 11 attacks is expected to roundly criticize the agency’s failure to develop sources inside Al Qaeda and piece together evidence—including information in its files on two of the hijackers—that might have helped uncover the plot.

"This seems to have as much to do with the president's re-election as anything else," says one veteran intelligence community official who has long been close to Tenet. "George is a fighter and it's not in his character to walk away like this. I think he read the tea leaves" that the White House wanted him to leave, the official said.

<snip>

But the Senate report will document how major portions of the Powell’s speech—vetted line by line with Tenet and other top CIA officials—turned out to be wrong and much more thinly sourced than the secretary of State had been led to believe, sources said. In the case of the mobile biological-weapons labs—one of the most graphic examples cited by Powell—investigators have found that the story most likely was fabricated by Iraqi defectors who were never adequately vetted by the CIA. The most important source cited by Powell, who was given the codename Curveball, was never even interviewed by the CIA before the speech; investigators only learned later that Curveball was a relative of a top associate of Ahmad Chalabi, controversial leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Chalabi's group also supplied a second informant cited by Powell; unbeknownst to CIA analysts, the Defense Intelligence Agency had already concluded this informant was a “fabricator.”

[JoFerret]

1. The fall guy

.

[Nashyra]

3. It won't work

He is a survior and will turn on the *. It has been said that he was the one along with Clarke telling everyone that there was something seriously coming down the pipleine.

[FleshCartoon]

15. Speaking of Richard Clarke...

...in his various appearances, and in his testimony, he stepped up to bat for Tenet. I can't believe he will stay quiet about this should it be (and I'm sure it is) that Bush forced the resignation.

[VolcanoJen]

16. I'm sure Clarke will appear on "Nightline" tonight.

He's a paid correspondent for ABC now, and he tends to show up on Nightline when his insight would especially be sought.

I think tonight is one of those times...

[Blue_Roses]

25. Actually he was speaking out about this on the ABC evening news

He said that Tenent was one of the ones with him running through the White House with his "hair on fire," before 9/11 saying something was about to happen. Clarke also mention the 44 some odd times that Tenet tried to tell Bush this with no avail. (it's also in Clarke's book where he outlines it more).

He also said that maybe Tenent had gotten too close to Bush and just wanted to do what he thought Bush wanted, regarding the "slam dunk" comment on finding intelligence on Iraq's WMD.

My head is spinning with all the different takes on this story...:crazy:

[Born Free]

21. Not over yet...

I agree, he is the fall guy for the bush team, but it ain't over yet! The CIA isn't going to sit back and let political fanantics destroy them without a fight, and in the end I place my bets on the CIA being the winner.

[Beetwasher]

2. No Mention of the OSP

*sigh* Pathetic...

[Emboldened Chimp]

14. No effin shit

I'm so sick of all the bullshit. Anybody who's been paying attention KNOWS that OSP cherry picked intel with the help Chalabi. It was Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Cheney and Scooter-Boy, not Tenet.

[gonefishing]

4. You gotta love it!

A CNN article said that he wanted to spend more time with his family. I swear my head is going to explode. Do they think we are just a bunch of idiots!

[TrogL]

6. The article said "he said"

"spend more time with family" is code for being asked to leave

[DainBramaged]

24. You all have missed a very key sentence in Tenet's speech

To the CIA this morning;

"FOR THE WELL BEING OF MY FAMILY"

Does that seem a strange comment to make?

[Cronus Protagonist]

26. Yup! It hit me like a sledgehammer too

He didn't say it was for himself, but for "the well being or my family" - the BFEE must have threatened him with harm to his family.

Click here for "HERO KERRY ZERO BUSH", "VETERAN KERRY AWOL BUSH" and other fair and balanced yet stunning, insulting, shocking, funny buttons, magnets and stickers

[laylah]

30. Have most of the 'Muricans

proved any differently?

Jenn

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Who here remembers the ever so lovely

Saturday Night Masacre? This is what this is increasingly
reminding me off. No I did not live through it, just read
plenty on it.

[VolcanoJen]

7. It's either "Saturday Night Massacre" or "Night of the Long Knives."

Not sure which yet... :-)

[struggle4progress]

9. I'm concerned it's the "Long Knives"

I never liked Tenet much but I'm not convinced his departure is good news: it may simply mean that Administration hardliners are consolidating their control over the intelligence apparatus; if so, the ride may get even bumpier as we rush off to another war with "good" intelligence from a "reformed" CIA.

[alfredo]

11. You could be right. Rummy wants all the power in his hands

Tenet and Powell had too much power for his tastes. Ashcroft tried to undercut Ridge last week with his phony baloney terra warning. Yeah, there is a power struggle between the insiders and outsiders, neo verses paleo cons.

[struggle4progress]

12. If there's really a power struggle among the various cons ...

I'm not nearly so worried. But I'm not convinced Ashcroft and Ridge were involved in much of a power struggle: I think what happened between those two reflects the "flexibility" (that is, "contempt for orderly bureaucratic process") of the Bushistas, with Ashcroft playing directly out of Rove's book for political gain, Ridge having been left out of the loop (and hence feeling snubbed). But the prospect of complete ideological control of the natural security state apparatus, such as the CIA, really scares me, because that will remain beyond the reach of tools such as FOIA and budgetary control (since the budgets themselves are probably secret).

[alfredo]

18. Homeland security and OSP were both seen as

attacks on the CIA's power.

You know Mueller is licking his chops now. I can see the Pentagon and the FBI will grab as much power as possible.

[DustMolecule]

20. I didn't know what either of those were....

so I googled them up. Very interesting. Here's a couple of links if anyone else might not know this history.

Saturday Night Massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

Night of the Long Knives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives

[NashVegas]

28. SNM Was Nixon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

[Deere_John]

8. I did live thru it.....

...and it scared the crap out of me -- but what's happening now is worse.

[struggle4progress]

10. Agreed.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Oh fully agreed

Three weeks ago I said, we had entered end game. We
are now fully in end game. It is now too obvous to
miss it

[daleo]

33. That was quite prescient

I remember your references. I am still not sure if it will come to that (impeachment), but it is looking more possible.

[burrowowl]

29. I did too

and this is much worse.
There are no checks and balances left and people seemed to be more anesthetized than back then.

[Shadder]

13. Close

But it seems more like a bad episode of Saturday Night Live to me.....

[TahitiNut]

19. More like "Saturday Night on Elm Street"

:shrug:

[Malva Zebrina]

17. Yup, no one knew anything

and stupid people like us just were protesting on hysterical liberal, emotion and not fact. We were "fringe"

Yup, they all knew it all and knew nothing.

there were millions of ordinary people who were not, but they were only the common man, dumb and not privy to the real information and not in the loop of the sophisticated knowledgable belt way hierophants.

Yup--we were stupid, they were smart. Uh Huh and they murdered thousands and have blood on their hands and you know what?

I don't think they even care about the blood on their hands.

Fed up with it all.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

34. They have never cared about blood on their hands,

trust me on this.
As long as they don't have to smell the result.

[phoebe]

23. August 6, 2001

n/t

[NashVegas]

27. Al Queda

The thing is, even if they do have spooks inside Al Queda, it can never be made public.

not while the war on terra is in full swing, anyway.

[spooked]

31. Yeah, I'm Spooked

n/t

[goforit]

32. Good timing on Tenent's backout, Newsweek.....did you plan it?