Cheney Rejects Tenet's Account of Run-Up to War

[maddezmom]

Source: Washington Post

Cheney Rejects Tenet's Account of Run-Up to War

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 11, 2007; Page A02

Vice President Cheney yesterday rejected former CIA director George J. Tenet's assertion that the Bush administration did not engage in serious debate before invading Iraq in 2003, escalating a public conflict over what happened during the run-up to the war.

In his first comments on the matter since Tenet's book came out, Cheney took issue with the former intelligence chief's account of the months before the invasion when, Tenet says, Cheney and others seemed determined to topple Saddam Hussein and were not interested in discussing whether Iraq posed an imminent threat or whether it could be contained without an invasion.

"That's just not true," Cheney told Fox News during a trip to the Middle East. "I haven't read George's book, but to state that somehow the president didn't spend a lot of time thinking about this or talking about it -- we had extensive conversations. Maybe George wasn't included in those, but the fact of the matter is this decision was weighed as heavily and given as careful consideration as any I've ever been involved in, and I've worked for four presidents."

Cheney likewise disputed Tenet's characterization of his now-infamous "slam dunk" comment regarding the case that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. In "At the Center of the Storm," Tenet says that the "slam dunk" remark, which was made during an internal meeting in late 2002, has been misinterpreted and that Cheney used it to publicly scapegoat him by presenting it as a tipping point.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051002117.htmlH

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hard to know what liar to believe :argh:

[Lasher]

1. I'd say in this case Tenet is telling the truth

But that's mainly because Lord Vader is the biggest liar in all of recorded history.

[ClintonTyree]

2. Well of course they spent a lot of time talking about it.....

they talked about which oil companies were going to be allowed to steal Iraq's oil, they talked about who was going to get the lucrative government contracts after the invasion, they talked about the pallets of money that would be sent to Iraq with no oversight as to it's distribution......they talked about a lot of stuff. They talked about everything but what they SHOULD have been talking about: the need and wisdom of invading Iraq in the first place.

Does anyone listen to Cheney anymore anyway? With approval numbers even lower than Bush's it's a wonder the press even bothers to report anything he says. It's nothing but lies anyway.

[ixion]

3. exactly

and, to the best of my knowledge, "talking about it" and "having conversations" is not, by definition, public debate, of which there was virtually none.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Cheney's tell - "the fact of the matter is"

every time he says that phrase, the big lie follows.

He does it so much it creeps me out.

[rocktivity]

5. Rocknation rejected Cheney

a VERY long time ago--and now NINETY-ONE percent of Americans agree with her.

:headbang:
rocknation