Tenet On Perle Conversation: ‘I May Have Been Off By A Couple Of Days But The Encounter Occurred’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/30/perle-kristol-tenet/

Tenet On Perle Conversation: ‘I May Have Been Off By A Couple Of Days But The Encounter Occurred’

On 60 Minutes last night, George Tenet claims he ran into Pentagon adviser Richard Perle at the White House on the day after 9/11. Tenet says Perle was already urging at attack on Iraq:

“He said to me, ‘Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday, they bear responsibility.’ It’s September the 12th. I’ve got the manifest with me that tell me al Qaeda did this. Nothing in my head that says there is any Iraqi involvement in this in any way shape or form and I remember thinking to myself, as I’m about to go brief the president, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’” Tenet remembers.

Leaping to his fellow neoconservative’s defense, The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol challenged Tenet’s account as “an imaginary encounter.” Kristol writes, “Richard Perle was in France on that day, unable to fly back after September 11. In fact Perle did not return to the United State until September 15.”

This morning on the Today Show, Tenet was confronted by Tom Brokaw about this contradiction. Tenet said, “I may have been off by a couple of days. The encounter occurred. The conversation occurred. … So I may have gotten the days wrong, but I know I got the substance of that conversation correct.” Watch it at link~

Perle has told The Weekly Standard that he “categorically denies” ever having mentioned Iraq to Tenet in the days after 9/11. But Tenet noted that his recollection matches what Perle was saying publicly soon after 9/11 — that Bush should take action against Iraq.

On September 20, 2001, Perle signed a letter — along with 40 fellow participants of the Project for the New American Century — addressed to President Bush that stated the following:

ven if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.

Another co-signer of that letter? Bill Kristol. Read it here.

Transcript:

BROKAW: Let me just clean up something here at the very beginning. You have a very dramatic opening to the book. You have Richard Perle, a well-known neo-conservative, who is an adviser to the Pentagon. You say you see him leaving the White House the day after 9/11 saying Iraq has to bear responsibility for this. What happened yesterday, they have to pay the price.

Overnight, as you know, Richard Perle said, Not possible. I was in France.

TENET: Well, Tom, I know the conversation occurred. I may have been off by a couple of days. The encounter occurred. The conversation occurred. It reflects what he has said publicly soon after 9/11.

So I may have gotten the days wrong, but I know I got the substance of that conversation correct.

BROKAW: And you wanted to leave the impression very strongly that there was a strong core group that came into office determined to go after Iraq.

TENET: Tom, it’s ironic that in the days or weeks after 9/11, Iraq would already be on an agenda item for some people.

BROKAW: And from the CIA point of view, at that point there was no connection whatsoever between Iraq and the attacks of 9/11?

TENET: No, there was none at all.

[speedoo]

1. Tenet's a freakin' disaster.

He will have zero credibility soon.

[wordpix]

3. Tenet has a hell of a lot more credibility than Bill Kristol, PNAC chickenhawk

[Lobster Martini]

4. Zero credibility soon? More like from the moment he opened his mouth

This quote from the transcript of the "60 Minutes" interview tells you everything you need to know about George Tenet: "...my business is not always about the truth..."

[wordpix]

2. Bill Kristol is a known PNACer, diehard neoconservative & BushCo apologist---in fact, he's a charter

member of BushCo, IMO.

I wonder how much BushCo pays him to spout his pro-BushCo propaganda. The guy should be stripped of his "credentials," whatever they happen to be. Anyone know?

[Rydz777]

6. Kristol

was Chief of Staff to V.P. Dan Quayle, i.e. a kind of proto-Scooter Libby.

[asjr]

5. It is almost as if Tenet didn't know

what kind of regime he was dealing with throughout the run-up to the Iraqi war. Is the only reason he comes out now is because they are blaming him for the war? Stupid man. He knew it was all false and should have said so then. Colin Powell is another stupid man. I blame him more than Tenet. Powell has the reputation of being a "good guy" and yet went along with the charade. I do not know how these people can live with themselves. I consider them traitors, yet Tenet will make money off of his book and Powell makes money going on talk circuits. This administration has had, and still does have, enough enablers to continue to pull the wool over our eyes.