I just finished reading Ron Suskind’s latest book “The One Percent Doctrine” http://tinyurl.com/y6hsnl
I would call it a must-read for those wanting some inside glimpses on many of the Bush Administration players and the background on a number of events and decisions. I’m going to break my notes and thoughts into different posts this week: Suskind and Bush was Monday, Tuesday was Suskind and Cheney, today is Suskind and Tenet. I’ll concludeThursday with Suskind and Miscellaneous. Each post will focus on material in Suskind’s book about that individual.
PART THREE – Let’s start with passages and information that struck me about George Tenet
* “…(George) Tenet was compromised by being allowed to stay on as CIA chief by Bush—he felt gratitude, especially after 9/11…”
**On 9/27/02, Bush defended Tenet to an angry congressman–“at that point, George Tenet would do anything the President asked. Anything. And George W. Bush knew it.”
(Cogitator) Maintaining personal and professional integrity as CIA Director is more important than almost any other government position and not one to be stained by accommodation)
** “…The CIA was viewed as suspect for having missed the rise of the Islamic threat, the Soviet fall, and the Iraq-Kuwait invasion…”
* On April 9, 2002 Bush said: “The other day, we hauled in a guy named Abu Zubaydah. He’s one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.” The CIA knew this to be a lie. When Bush was told this, he said: “I said he was important. You’re not going to let me lose face on this, are you?” George Tenet: “No sir, Mr. President.” (Cogitator: One serves as CIA Director at the behest of the President of the United States but anyone in this position must be incorruptable, principled to the degree that resigning the post is not a road less traveled when faced with such a choice)
* “(George) Tenet, himself, not much of a manager” — more a hustler, an operator, a scrambler, a schmoozer, very good at relationships with foreign heads. (Cogitator: thsi works very well in many ways as Suskind’s book testifies–but the importance of having a topflight manager in the #2 spot cannot be stressed enough)
* After Condi Rice ripped the CIA over the 16-word inclusion about Saddam, Niger and yellowcake in the State of the Union address, the CIA officially accepted blame via a Tenet-issued statement., But the rank-and-file in the CIA fought back and forced Stephen Hadley take some of the blame. This put the CIA on ‘probation’ was viewed as disloyalty and insubordination by the Bush people. (Cogitator: Again, national security is far too important to be viewed through a loyalty prism but when EVERYTHING is viewed as appropriate for political benefit, well, that’s when Katrinas and Iraqs happen)
* * According to CIA analytical chief Jami Miscik: “It wasn’t about what was true, or verifiable. It was about a defensible position…” More, more and more meetings with Chaney’s and Rumsfeld’s people involved trying to slip something past the CIA. (Cogitator: when the CIA has to divert time and energy from national security towards the integrity deficit of a branch of government then that’s treading into treason territory in my book)
* Tenet wouldn’t fight back against Rice’s charges because this would involve George Bush and Tenet had to absolve Bush of any involvement in the 16 word insertion. Tenet’s personal code of loyalty: “never forget a good deed done on your behalf…felt he had returned the favor by doing all anyone could do to protect the country….” “…Bush, though, has a more transanctional view of loyalty than Tenet. It’s more along the lines of people proving their loyalty by doing whatever you tell them to do.” (Cogitator: When you trust the trustless and make a deal with the conscienceless then you have become transformed into a puppet, not a CIA Director)
* On Tenet’s infamous statement “it’s a slam dunk case” about Iraq WMDs, Tenet doesn’t remember saying it. Nor does John McLaughlin, who was also present. According to McLaughlin: “The president’s question was ‘whether we could craft a better pitch than this…it certainly wasn’t about the nature of the evidence.” Bush had said: “Nice try. I don’t think this is quite — it’s not something that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of confidence from.” (Cogitator: We will never know although Tenet did use such a phrase in a different meeting with a different principals–see below)
* George Tenet is quoted as responding to inquiring Western Union execs when asked about invading Iraq: “It’s a slam dunk.”
* In fall 2004, George Tenet, Paul Bremer and Tommy Franks were all awarded the Medal of Freedom. A few days later, the Bush people began a campaign to blame Tenet for anything and everything. According to John McLaughlin: “I know he wishes he could give that damn medal back.” (Cogitator: loyalty, according to Bush, requires being a pincushion)
* In mid November 2004, according to CIA analytical chief Jami Miscik: Dick Cheney wanted a portion of a CIA classified document made public but the item made it seem the Iraq War was helping the war on terror, while the whole report as a whole stated the opposite. Miscik said it wasn’t a good idea. That maddened Cheney and he called Porter Goss, the new CIA chief. Later, a Goss aide called Miscik saying “Porter Goss feels saying no to the vice president is the wrong answer.” Miscik responded: “Actually, sometimes saying no to the VP is what we get paid for.” (Cogitator: Be thankful Porter Goss in no longer the CIA Director but also question his capability for appointment to such a position–and that of the appointer. It brings to mind this question: does Bush prefer loyalty over competence?)
* This is an eyeopener–Tenet blowing up when Bush’s people, in this case Stephen Hadley, kept after CIA analytical chief Jami Miscik to keep rewriting reports. Tenet: “She is not coming over…we are not rewriting this fucking report one more time. It is fucking over. Do you hear me! And don’t ever fucking treat my people this way again. Ever.” (Cogitator: here’s just another instance where the David Broder-types (the oh so reasoned and reasonable) refuse to open their eyes about the numerous Iraq invasion scams)
* Colin Powell immediately tossed out half the White House offerings/suggestions when he was deemed the one to presewnt the U.S. case against Saddam., Powell also demanded thast George Tenet sit behind him. Scooter Libby was quoted as saying this about Powell’s presentation: “it was not an explanation but like what a lawyer would present in the courtroom.” (Cogitator: unfathomable! Half the crap gets tossed immediately and most of what he kept in was still wrong!)
* The CIA always thought Ahmed Chalabi was untrustworthy and were the agency that concluded Chalabi was the one who told Iran that the U.S, had broken the communications code of Iran’s intelligence service. Bush had ordered Rumsfeld to sever his relationship with Chalabi in March 2004–it didn’t happen. Bush then ordered Rice to make it happen in May/June 2004. (Cogitator: Just based on this incident alone, why is Donald Rumsfeld still the Secretary of Defense?)
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Cogitator: Add James Risen’s “State of War,” “Cobra II” by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, “State of Denial” by Bob Woodward and now “Tempting Faith” by David Kuo to the mix and a poisonous, incriminating broth of Mayberry Machiavellian-ism, incompetence, willed ignorance, sadism, childish fantasy and the most relativistic of morality boils over, making the White House and Pentagon little more than cesspools.
Tragically, George Tenet, as CIA Director, was in far too important of a position to allow himself to be compromised–his choice and acceptance of such vulnerability decreased the national security of this country and ultimately put thousands of lives, here and elsewhere, at greater risk. The unanswered question is why was it so important to him to sell out in order remain as CIA Director?
As he should have easily forseen, his Faustian bargain had cataclysmic consequences. All Tenet had to do was look at Tony Blair.
Where are today’s Watergate heroes of yesteryear like Eliott Richardson and William Ruckleshaus, the individuals possessing enough personal integrity and professional rectitude to draw a line in the sand and say they serve their country, not an individual, that their allegiance was to the American people, not the President?
Oh yes, there was Spc. Joseph Darby, Captain Ian Fishback, United States Army Corps of Engineers contracting officer Bunnatine Greenhouse, National Security Council counterterrorism adviser Richard Clark and former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill. Betcha there are getting ready to receive their Presidential Medals of Freedom.
Right.