President Asserts He Still Has Faith in Tenet and C.I.A.

[hedgetrimmer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/international/worldspecial/13TENE.html?ex=1059057713&ei=1&en=9505d93081474c0c

~SNIP~







By RICHARD W. STEVENSON


BUJA, Nigeria, July 12 — A day after the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, took responsibility for the use of unsubstantiated information about Iraq's nuclear program in the State of the Union address, President Bush said today that he retained confidence in Mr. Tenet and that he considered the matter closed.

Speaking to reporters here at the conclusion of a five-nation tour of Africa, Mr. Bush said he "absolutely" had faith in Mr. Tenet and in the C.I.A. generally. Mr. Bush's comments followed a strikingly open effort by the White House on Friday to place the blame on Mr. Tenet for not stripping from the State of the Union speech a line, based on unreliable intelligence, asserting that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium in Africa for a nuclear weapons program.

In response to a question from a reporter about whether he had confidence in his C.I.A. director, Mr. Bush said: "Yes, I do. Absolutely. I've got confidence in George Tenet and in the men and women who work at the C.I.A."

The matter has set off a political storm, with some Democrats seizing on it as evidence that the president might have exaggerated the threat from Iraq in advance of the war. Members of both parties have raised questions about the C.I.A.'s handling of the intelligence and its vetting of Mr. Bush's speech.

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WOW! tenets face is amazing!

yeah, george has confidence, this whole thing has got media spin and tenet is the spinner... he should say, "i have confidence that the cia will spin this with the media and cover my ass... unless you read the articles and then you know the headlines are lies but headlines are meaningless anyway... next question, wait! i said at the beginning only one question... if you can't participate by rules you are outa here... next question..."

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[are_we_united_yet]

1. Wow

Still has faith. I'm speechless. WH is just too good to the CIA.

<BOLD><FONT INFINITY> SARCASM </END FONT></END BOLD>

[bobthedrummer]

2. *'s faith was based on the infallacy of these 26 words

"THIS IS AN ADMINISTRATION THAT WILL NOT TALK ABOUT HOW WE GATHER INTELLIGENCE, HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO, NOR WHAT OUR PLANS ARE."
* to the press at Camp David, 9-15-2001

[w13rd0]

4. That's funny...

...and now we know why. Because their 'intelligence' is bogus, and they are lying criminal bastards...

[bobthedrummer]

7. There's going to be a lot of terrible questions from the people answered

now, and a lot of new inmates for all those Halliburton Corrections facilities too!

BTW, I want to thank the ADMIN. of this great American website, and the entire DU membership that have given so much to help US as we take back our government, this is a historic night IMO, I'm glad to be here, and I hope that all US servicepeople throughout the world will someday serve in a Department of Peace.
:hi:

[KuroKensaki]

3. Falling on his sword

Of course he still has faith in Tenet, because Tenet did nothing wrong. This is just an act of public hara-kiri. Tenet did tell the White House that the Niger info was bogus. And he originally had -said- that he told the White House and they didn't listen.

But then I'm sure he was given two choices--either take the fall, or we make you fall.

So now he has been publicly shamed, and * is "vindicated" or at least the blame is gone from him, and George can make a show of compassion and keep Tenet on.

Why would he kick Tenet off? He's a good spook, and he's shown that his loyalty lies with the * junta more than with the people and the truth.

I've edited my post because I notice others have been replacing the B word that means shrub with an asterisk--anyone mind filling me in as to why?

[ClintonTyree]

8. The "*" stems from........

A Doonesbury cartoon many moons ago where Bush was addressed as "*" instead of his name. I believe it was an empty cowboy hat with an asterick next to it. In the same vein as the Dan Quayle was portayed as a "feather". The asterisk of course meaning the stolen 2000 election, ie. there should be an asterisk along Bush's name in the annals of history. I hope I haven't muddied up the explanation too badly.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

10. The Doonesbury reference

It's very rare that a real politician's face is shown in a Doonesbury cartoon. In fact, I think it was only done for Henry Kissinger and Jeb MacGruder, very early in the strip's history. Throughout the 70s and early 80s we only saw speech balloons over a White House backdrop, or occasionally from "off camera".

Around the middle of the Reagan administration, Trudeau introduced "Ron Headrest", a computer-generated construct of Reagan based on a half-remembered piece of 80s pop culture called Max Headroom. This allowed him to feature the president in his cartoons without actually drawing the real president.

A bit later, Trudeau started putting real politicians into his strips. When vice president George H.W. Bush first appeared in Doonesbury, he was portrayed as being completely invisible except for a *-shaped spot that his speech balloons came out of. This was partly to avoid drawing the real George Bush's face, but it was also a comment on how he was practically invisible next to Ronald Reagan.

The gag stuck, and now most politicians are portrayed as floating objects. Dan Quayle is a feather, Bill Clinton is a waffle, and Newt Gingrich is a bomb. Ari Fleischer is never represented by an object, although we sometimes see his distinctive silhouette in far shots of the White House press room. The Thief-in-Chief was originally represented by a * wearing a huge cowboy hat, but he's recently traded it in for a Roman centurion's helmet.

[bluestateguy]

5. Karl Rove at it again

* expresses "confidence" in Tenet in publci but allows the attack dogs on Capitol Hill and among the chattering classes to savage Tenet, paving the way for his resignation: to spend more time with his family, of course.

[indictrichardperle]

6. "and the men and women of the CIA"

translation : "Please dont leak any more damning truth, pretty please"

:evilgrin:

[dArKeR]

9. Who has faith in the liar who said that?

http://www.geocities.com/darkerxdarker