Former CIA spymaster fires back

[cal04]

He was America's top spy in charge of covert operations at the CIA. Now, in a rare and revealing interview, he's speaking out about 9/11, the war in Iraq, the hunt for Osama bin Ladenand what some have described as the tense relationship between the CIA and the White House. James Pavitt: "We failed to stop the attacks of the 11th. And nobody carries that burden greater than those of us who were in the intelligence business."

Three years after 9/11, as he revisits Ground Zero, James Pavitt lives with regret about his inability to stop the attacks. He says the CIA believed something big was imminent, but didn't know exactly when or where.
Pavitt: "And that's the terrible tragedy. We knew they were coming."

Hansen: "In Bob Woodward's book, he quotes your former boss, George Tenet, as telling President Bush of the case against Iraq. It is a quote, ‘slam dunk.’"

Pavitt: "Chris, I wasn't at the meeting, so I do not know-- what-- what transpired. I don't know what was said."
Hansen: "Would you have ever used those words to characterize the case against Iraq for going to war?"

Pavitt: "I would not have used those words for the case against Iraq on weapons of mass destruction. I in fact sat in a number of meetings and I said, you know, "There may be a number of reasons for going to war, but I do not see the intelligence that we have on weapons of mass destruction being one which carries the day."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6256256/

[Ivote]

1. Could it be ?

When Tenent said "It would be a slam dunk" it was because they knew there were no weapons to begin with?
I wouldn't use those words if I knew there were weapons.

[Rose Siding]

3. We only have Woodward's second hand account that it was ever said

Tenet, when confronted, wouldn't confirm or deny.

I don't think he said it. It sounds more like Bush than Tenet.

[jdj]

4. I think it sounds more like Woodward.

I don't like this Woodward dude.

I believe his creds come from Watergate, but I got the same feeling listening to his interviews that I always get when watching the end of gone with the wind, if you just listen to the cadence and forget the meanings of the words:

"...wherever will I go, whatever will I do?

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. (slam).

Oh well. I can't think about this today, I'll go crazy if I do. I'll think about it tomorrow, after all, tomorrow is another day." (cue music, pan away to backdrop, cue credits).

I guess Tenet was the hunky macho Clark Gable and Bush was the vulnerable longsuffering Vivian Leigh, it is just so freaking OVERWROUGHT, purple prose to Woodward's yellow journalism.


The real meeting went like this I bet:

Bush: "Git me some intel, boys, I wanna kill me some camel jockeys." (takes a swig of Jim Beam).

Tenet: "But sir, Iraq doesn't have a WMD program, and any left from Gulf one are no longer viable."

Bush: "AH SAID GIT ME SOME INTEL! AH'M THE BOSS OF YOU!"

Tenet leaves room, muttering "damn drunk".

Bush: "You bet your ass it's a slam dunk, so get out yer crayons and color me up some yellow-cake."

[Rose Siding]

5. ROFL

Tenet leaves room, muttering "damn drunk". :D

[The Zanti Regent]

9. Woodward is a liar

Woodward has lied so many times for Bush he DESERVED his crowning as Mwdia Whores Online's WHORE OF THE YEAR for 2003.

[RainDog]

10. Some Woodward info

according to Silent Coup, by Colodny and Gitlin, Woodward was a briefer in the Navy right out of college (a stint that he rarely mentions) just before he became a reporter. for a short time thereafter, he worked at a small paper in, Maryland, I think it was, just before he got a job at the WaPo.

Woodward knew Admiral Welander, one of the JCS during the Nixon administration, as well as Alexander Haig via Woodward's stint in the Navy.

Colodny and Gitlin offer lots of convincing evidence that Haig was deep throat, and, unlike the story that is the "watergate" story, the reasons for Watergate are more complicated than Nixon's quest for re-election.

For instance, the JCS was spying on Nixon and Kissinger b/c the two were opening talks with the commie Chinese. on the other hand, Nixon and Kissinger were working on the "Vietnamization" of the war...making it the Vietnamese's fight, not America's, and the JCS were not privvy to the things Nixinger were doing. The JCS were worried about the troops, but they were also rabidly anti-commie and didn't think we should have any dealings with China.

Haig was Kissinger's second and he helped arrange the spying.

Woodward, for whatever reasons, was often a conduit for Haig's view of events, again, according to these authors.

Haig also double-crossed Nixon once Haig was promoted after Watergate started coming out...and Haig worked to hide his own complicity in events that lead to the revelation of Watergate (a polygraph on the guy who was spying for the JCS's when Nixon was trying to find the source of a leak to Jack Anderson.)

anyway, the Watergate break in wasn't the first one, it seems. Dean, according to Gitlin and Colodny, had tried to run some dirty tricks on Dems with call girls, but found too many Republicans were also implicated. So, instead, the Nixonians were taping conversations out of a governer's office in the dem headquarters that was used, on the side, by a guy who helped arrange "dates" for dems.

When the burglars got caught, Dean was busy covering his tracks while Nixon had no idea what was going on. Dean sat in on the FBI investigations about activities he was involved in, unknown to the FBI agents...

pretty interesting stuff to read...you can get a copy of the book for cheap via ABE.

the paperback is the best version because it includes an afterward about the way the two authors' work was suppressed by mainstream media.

But, as far as Woodward goes, it seems he's a republican, but not part of the Talibornagain wing. I think Woodward initially thought that Bush would come through, but now I think Woodward has seen what the Bush administration is about, and as Suskind noted today, it's not a very comforting picture for "reality-based" Americans.

[RebelYell]

2. Simple case of right and wrong

Imagine that, someone with a conscience.

[shraby]

6. The slam dunk remark probably was in

reference to the invasion itself...it will be a slam dunk to invade Iraq.

edited for clarity.

[Poiuyt]

7. I took it to mean that it was a slam dunk that he could convince the

American public. Not necessarily that it was true, just that it would be a good excuse and the people would buy it.

[RebelYell]

8. Tenet is/was a whore n/t