The Neocon Architects of War: Where Are They Now?
HH&C
snip
GEORGE TENET
Role In Going To War: As CIA Director, Tenet was responsible for
gathering information on Iraq and the potential threat posted by
Saddam
Hussein. According to author Bob Woodward, Tenet told President Bush
before the war that there was a "slam dunk case" that Saddam
possessed weapons of mass destruction. Tenet remained publicly silent
while the Bush administration made pre-war statements on Iraq's
supposed nuclear program and ties to al Qaeda that were contrary to
the
CIA's judgments. Tenet issued a statement in July 2003, drafted by
Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, taking responsibility for Bush's false
statements in his State of the Union address. [CNN, 4/19/04; NYT,
7/22/05]
Where He Is Now: Tenet voluntarily resigned from the administration
on
June 3, 2004. He was later awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
[Washington Post, 6/3/04]
Key Quote: "It's a slam dunk case." [CNN, 4/19/04]
unsnip
So I'm reading a new book, Blank Spots On The Map, Trevor Paglin,
ISBN978-0-525-95101-8.
pgs 249-250
CIA director George Tenet envisioned his own agency acting as the
sharp tip of the war's spear. Immediately after the attacks, he began
frantically assembling a top secret dossier: the CIA's proposal for
what this war on terror might entail. Working together with CIA
director of operations James Pavitt, Tenet sent cables to the CIA's
regional stations arount the world asking for "wish lists." What new
powers would his operatives like to have? Tenet encouraged his agents
to imagine "novel, untested ways" that the CIA might conduct overseas
operations. The global covert action Tenet anticipated would "include
paramilitary, logistical, and psychological warfare elements as well
as claccical espionage."
The weekend following the attacks the Bush administration's principal
cabinet members met at Camp David. George Tenet, the director of
central intelligence, handed out a packet entitled "Going to War" --
the result of the agency's fast brainstorming and wish-listing. It
called for a wide-ranging campaign of financial espionage,
paramilitary operations, and surveillance. But "Going to War"
contained much more.
Tenet's proposal was a vision of the future, a future in which the CIA
would have "exceptional authorities," as he called them. Ne secret
wars would begin across the world. Old ones would expand. Strict
rules about congressional and executive oversight of covert operations
would be a thing of the past. The agency would no longer have to get
individual covert actions approved by the president. Age-old
complaints about covert actions getting"lawyered to death" would now
be gone. The CIA would be able to snatch people from around the world
at will, and would now be able to kill.
The CIA director's vision saw new relationships and deeper
collaborations with foreign intelligence services in Egypt, Jordan,
and Algeria, whose cooperation the CIA would encourage with generous
subsidies. There would be new covert relationships with regimes like
Lybia and Syria. Foreign intelligence services would serve as CIA
proxies and force multipliers. At the same time, cooperation with
states likeEgypt and Morocco would help keep American fingerprints off
the nastiest incidents that were bound to occur.
On Monday, Sept 17, the president announced that he intended to
support every one of Tenets requests for expanded powers. Bush
scrawled his name on Tenets memorandum of notification.
---------------
Tenet, a democrat, and a Clinton appointee.