CIA Head Interviewed in Leak Probe

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

It's buried in a story about Rice testifying. But the news is Tenet. He spoke to the prosecution a week or so before he abruptly told Bush he was resigning.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=5519271

(snip)

Outgoing CIA Director George Tenet was also interviewed in the investigation, a month or so ago, a U.S. official said, but gave no further details.

[webtrainer]

1. I wonder if his story changed once . . .

he decided to resign?

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

4. ... or maybe he told the truth from the outset ...

... and said that, yes, he got a request from high up in the WH to confirm a spy's identity. In learning, via his interview, how much investigators already knew, he realized that, contrary to their remarks, Bush et al were not doing all they could to unmask the treason. So he had no conscionable choice but to tell the president he would be leaving the government.

[webtrainer]

6. I think you're right sniggles n/t

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. I think Tenet knew from the start that the NeoCons would never reveal....

...the name of the individual, or individuals, responsible for exposing Plame and her global network.

Why else would the CIA have made a formal request to the DOJ quite some time ago to appoint a special prosecutor?

Why else would the CIA have given permission to the former CIA officers to speak in public?

Why else would the CIA have begun leaking details that only the CIA AND the NeoCons would know about a variety of subjects?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. And what do you think was Tenet's original story?....

Is it the Neocon storyline that blames Tenet for everything including the "slam dunk" quote in Woodward's book that nobody else can verify except other NeoCons?

Or is the story that Tenet had been telling all along...that there were no Iraqi WMDs and that FratBoy and Colon should never have used references to such devices in their public speeches?

I think I'll go with Tenet's version since the NeoCons have peen proven as liars on nearly every single subject since seizing power in December 2000.

I'll also go out on a limb and state that Tenet is no longer under the control of the NeoCons...he can now say anything he wants to say.

[lancdem]

2. I figured Tenet's resignation was related

to the Plame investigation.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. If it is, then the NeoCons finally figured out what most of us....

...already knew...that Tenet was the driving force behind the outraged former CIA officers speaking in public, and the steady outpouring of leaks from the CIA which continue to this very day.

Guess what, FratBoy? Directors of the CIA may resign, but they never quit.

[KoKo]

3. What's more important is that article reveals Condi was interviewed months

ago but Bush didn't tell anyone. Makes me wonder why this was revealed as Bush is in Ireland, if you look at where the Reuter's report is coming from.

Also that Scott McClellan said again today that anyone who revealed Plame's name would be fired. Scotty must be pretty confident that some "low level" will take the blame for him to say that again.

[lancdem]

8. I didn't know McClellan said that

Sounds to me like they know indictments are coming, because that's much more specific than his normal vague spiel of "the president wants to get to the bottom of this."

I suspect the plan is to fire those who are indicted in the hope of salvaging Bush's presidency. I don't think it'll work, especially if some people are indicted for lying as well.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

11. sounds like there needs to be a convcition before anyone's fired

So if there's only an indictment, the indictee could hold on to his position until and unless found guilty.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

10. help me on the Tenet resignation -- it was awkward and quick, right?

Wasn't there something about a rushed, 5-minute talk that Bush gave to Cheney, Rummy and Rice just before he announced the resignation publicly? And didn't Bush, out of character, speak to the press without a script?

[snippy]

12. In September 2003, Rice denied knowing anything about the leak.

I thought she was lying then and I still think she is lying. This is what I wrote then.

The White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, was formed by Andy Card in August of 2002 to market the invasion and coordinate all of the lies, including the yellowcake and other nuclear weapons lies, to support the invasion.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

. . .

In its initial meetings, Card's Iraq task force ordered a series of white papers. After a general survey of Iraqi arms violations, the first of the single-subject papers -- never published -- was "A Grave and Gathering Danger: Saddam Hussein's Quest for Nuclear Weapons."

. . .

The document offers insight into the Bush administration's priorities and methods in shaping a nuclear message. The white paper was assembled by some of the same team, and at the same time, as the speeches and talking points prepared for the president and top officials. A senior intelligence official said last October that the president's speechwriters took "literary license" with intelligence, a phrase applicable to language used by administration officials in some of the white paper's most emotive and misleading assertions elsewhere.

The draft white paper precedes other known instances in which the Bush administration considered the now-discredited claim that Iraq "sought uranium oxide, an essential ingredient in the enrichment process, from Africa." For a speechwriter, uranium was valuable as an image because anyone could see its connection to an atomic bomb. Despite warnings from intelligence analysts, the uranium would return again and again, including the Jan. 28 State of the Union address and three other Bush administration statements that month.

. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conten...

Having been involved in the development and coordination of the uranium lies, I doubt that she would allow herself to be taken out of the loop when the lies were revealed. Even if the leak occurred without her prior knowledge, I think she would demand to to be kept informed. Or she would demand to be kept uninformed to maintain deniability in which case I consider her just as involved.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=136932#137034

Another post about the WHIG.

I think nearly every single fact and allegation about the entire Wilson affair indicates that it was an operation of the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG. The WHIG was formed by White House Chief of Staff Andy Card in August of 2002 to market and create support for the invasion of Iraq. It also was charged with framing the debate so that republicans would benefit politically from the invasion. WHIG's responsibilities included the creation and coordination of all of the lies to support the invasion, including the yellowcake and other nuclear weapons lies. Scooter Libby was a participant in the WHIG.

From an excellent article describing the WHIG:



The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

The first days of September would bring some of the most important decisions of the prewar period: what to demand of the United Nations in the president's Sept. 12 address to the General Assembly, when to take the issue to Congress, and how to frame the conflict with Iraq in the midterm election campaign that began in earnest after Labor Day.

A "strategic communications" task force under the WHIG began to plan speeches and white papers. There were many themes in the coming weeks, but Iraq's nuclear menace was among the most prominent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&conten...

The WHIG not only chose what lies to use, it also chose when, where, and how the lies would be disseminated. And by whom.

The fact that at least two people in the administration were shopping the story indicates that a decision to disclose the information was made. It was not casually revealed during the course of conversation. It was an actual decision made by someone. The fact that at least two people in the administration were shopping the story also indicates delegation and coordination by someone.

If lies about Iraq's nuclear weapons program are involved, it is a WHIG operation. If a decision about a communication concerning any of the Iraq lies was made in the White House, WHIG was involved in the decision. If the job of making that communication was delegated to two or more people and coordinated, WHIG was involved in the delegation and coordination. That means the White House Chief of Staff, Andy Card and Turd Blossom Rove were involved.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=142863#142952

[lancdem]

13. Thanks for posting that

I didn't know she was in that deep.