Tenet Had to be Pushed to Take Responsibility

[Nambe]

NewsMax (Media toilet bowl)

--- "Tenet took responsibility hours after he got a phone call from here in Africa from Condoleezza Rice," reported ABC Radio News White House correspondent Ann Compton Saturday morning.

"The national security advisor called him and said, 'Remember, you got a copy of that speech. You didn't tell us to take that out,'" Compton revealed.

The ABC reporter said Rice "made it quite clear" during her phone call to Tenet "that President Bush wasn't going to be doing any apologizing" for repeating the claim that Iraq sought uranium in Africa in the speech Tenet had approved. ---

Tenet had remained mum on the controversy since it exploded on Tuesday, when an unnamed White House official told the Washington Post, "Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech."

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[Frances]

1. The tone of this article

is that the "mistake" was all Tenet's fault. It sounds as though poor little boy Bush is an innocent victim. How could anyone support a president who is so phony and so incompetent?

[Rose Siding]

6. I think the tone is one of Tenet being pressured

More political pressure on the CIA to do the admins bidding- that's not in this article, but the quotes here do support that- Tenet being called and told what he did and what Bush won't do (apologize)

[1monster]

8. Since when is The State of the Union Address the responsibility of

the CIA????

Last I heard, they just provide information and analysis.

From Tennent's statement, it sounds like he gave them the correct info and analysis, but the WH decided to split hairs...

[ROakes1019]

11. British intelligence

And since when do we go to war based on British intelligence,
especially when the CIA told Britain back in the fall that
this particular intelligence was bogus?

[shocked_and_awed]

15. TENET DID NOT ACTUALLY TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

I absolutely agree.

And if you read the text of his 'apology', Tenet did not take responsiblity for the fact that forged information was used in the SOTU. He says:

"Portions of the State of the Union speech draft came to the CIA for comment shortly before the speech was given. Various parts were shared with cognizant elements of the Agency for review. Although the documents related to the alleged Niger-Iraqi uranium deal had not yet been determined to be forgeries." -TENET from apology letter yesterday

NOT YET DETERMINED TO BE FORGERIES!!!! Really. I thought the fact-finding mission - a YEAR earlier ordered by our government and shared with State, the VP's office and CIA - exposed the document to be a forgery.

So he is in essence apologizing that something bad happened, NOT that he is responsible. Nice dance.

He is essentially saying: ' I am sorry. Those words should not have ever been in there...but, I didn't know that the document was a forgery yet...even though we were simultaneously trying to convince the British it was bad information, we did not know ourselves it was bad information. For that, I am sorry.'

Kind of like a teen who is forced to apologize for something he did not do.

[MidwestTransplant]

13. Here's what happened as I understand it...

The CIA said the info was bad. The admin. said we are attributing it to the Brits (who last we heard said it was ok) so what we are saying is technically correct. They knew it was false and yet put it in..plain and simple. This takes "depends on what the definition of is is" to a whole new level.

[shanti]

32. consider the source (newsmax)

n/t

[Birthmark]

2. That's all well and good...

...but the question remains, who thought that that line *had* to be in the SOTU? Tenet's coerced confession does nothing to exonerate Bush* in any meaningful way.

[koopie57]

5. I was thinking the same thing ....

Tenet didn't gain anything from having that line in the speech. I don't know what difference it made to him to leave it in, but Bush, on the other hand, had everything to gain by leaving it in. If they are going to lie to us, I wish they would make it so it is a least interesting and we have to think a little bit to see through the lies. This just pisses me off that they think we are so stupid.

[htuttle]

7. Tenet's statement says who wanted the line in there

He states it was the White House and National Security staff.

[Birthmark]

14. Excellent

When we get the specific name, this thing will fall apart faster than a Yugo going uphill.

[htuttle]

3. This is pretty obvious after reading his statement

He really doesn't take any blame in it, other than for his staff not preventing Condi's staff from forcing the inclusion of the known lie, and for his staff giving in to the cute 'factually correct' statement about the British report.

In his statement, he clearly fingers the National Security staff as the source of the pressure to include the lie.

I don't think this is over by a long shot.

[ChompySnack]

4. Let's see

Condi Rice allows a reporter to overhear her phone conversation with Tenet for an issue this big. She also explicitly/intentionaly mentions the apology thing that Powell brought up earlier.

Pretty obvious what their end strategy is now. They are pushing to make it seem like the greatest concession ever for Bush to issue an "apology" for what he said.

You heard it here first: Bush will apologize for his SOTU mis-statement.

They really hope it will end there. It won't.

[Star]

9. This is incorrect

Tenet had remained mum on the controversy since it exploded on Tuesday, when an unnamed White House official told the Washington Post, "Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech."

This didn't break on Tuesday, it broke on Monday, and it was not an unnamed White House official, it was Ari Fleischer.

The president's statement in the State of the Union was incorrect because it was based on forged documents from the African nation of Niger, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday.

"The president's statement was based on the predicate of the yellow cake" uranium "from Niger," Fleischer told reporters. "So given the fact that the report on the yellow cake did not turn out to be accurate, that is reflective of the president's broader statement."

Didn't this story break because a reporter (can't remember who) kept pushing Ari about this until he finally made the above statement? I can't find the original transcript of that press briefing (its not on the official WH website), but if my memory is correct, the WH didn't suddenly come out with an official statment about this. It was Ari finally getting some pressure that did it. Can anyone find that original transcript?

On edit:
It was Joshua Micah Marshall who reported this exchange. BTW, why do you suppose this transcript is not on the WH website?

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/july0301.html#0707031206pm

[WhataBildeberger]

18. that is incorrect

Ari's exchange with the reporter on Monday may have led to the White House's disclosure, but it was not the disclosure itself. There was a statement released by an unnamed White House official on Tuesday which is what you've seen quoted, word for word, "Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech." These are not Ari the Liar's words.

[Star]

20. Ah, thanks for the correction of my correction

I thought all of this came only from Ari. My bad.

[gristy]

22. looking for transcript of Ari's Monday 7/9 briefing...

As Star says, at the white house web site

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/briefings/

there is nothing for the 7/9 briefing. The ones listed for July are

July 11, 2003 Press Gaggle with Ari Fleischer and Dr. Condoleeza Rice
July 4, 2003 Press Gaggle with Ari Fleischer
July 3, 2003 Press Briefing by Dr. Condoleeza Rice
July 2, 2003 Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer
July 1, 2003 Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer

I too am curious to know if Ari's statement was indeed unplanned, and a transcript would reveal that, I think. Fleischer may be wishin' he gave just a 2-week notice back in May.

Are tape recorders allowed in these Press Briefings? Maybe a news outlet will post it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. the noose is tightening

I mean even newsmax, also ABC is not pulling punches, Condy is next to fall on a sword....

Betting pool anybody?

[Elidor]

12. Josh Marshall has an interesting take on all this

<snip>
Here, frankly, is what I think happened. The White House wanted to include this charge in the State of the Union address. The CIA, as Pollack makes clear, had been getting beaten over the head for more than a year for intelligence assessments that, in Pollack's words, "weren't sufficiently alarmist." But including an allegation in the State of the Union which they more or less knew to be false was just further than they could go. They balked.

The White House and folks from the Agency then started a negotiation over what was okay to put in the speech. At this point, someone suggested hanging the charge on the Brits. Again, I think it's very hard to believe that this suggestion came from the CIA folks. And in fact we have both NPR's and CBS's reporting saying that the suggestion came from the White House side. Saying that the British said this was technically true. Thus the speech was technically true.

The problem was that it was willfully misleading since the CIA believed the Brits were wrong. The people on the Agency side seem to have decided that the White House had made their objections to such unhelpful information very clear. They felt they'd acquitted themselves of their minimum responsibility but getting the statement into the technically true category. And they relented.
<snip>
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

[MaineDem]

25. Right, * didn't lie

When he said that the Brit reports says... he wasn't lying. But it sure as hell was misleading especially since they (all of them) seemed to know it was based on bogus information. Condi has been making it worse.

This stinks...every inch of it.

[RobinA]

16. I Don't Know Why,

but this episode really bugs me. It's not even the worst these people have done, and I thought I was done feeling anything about what they do, as nothing surprises me, but this is soooo blatant it just gets me. The outright blame towards the CIA is bad enough. Then I keep reading about this language that "found its way" into the SOTU. Found its way? Those words just jumped into the speech without human intervention? Where did they come from in the first place?

Then there's the whole "Bush didn't know" thing. Isn't the president supposed to know who's trying to build nukes? Are we to believe that the President finds out about who has/doesn't have nukes only when the CIA director vetts his speeches? So, because Tenet didn't do his job, Bush thought that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Nigeria up until this week when the story broke. You have to wonder what else this man believes that never made it to a speech so it could be quashed by some department head.

[Nlighten1]

17. It ain't gonna work folks..

this Bush can't say he was "out of the loop". The CIA told the White House that the report was bogus but ultimately the White House chose to STILL INCLUDE IT IN THE SPEECH. The CIA didn't choose to keep it in the speech, the White House did so both sides screwed up but the blame squarely falls on the Bush Administration for leaving it in the speech.

[study_war_no_more]

23. one word LIHOP

This is interesting but most Americans knew he lied about Iraq. LIHOP has the potential for jail time for the entire group. I can see it coming over the hill like a big black bear looking for the bull.

[leesa]

19. Of course he did because it's Bush's responsibility

I hope Rice is found guilty of treason and pays the highest penalty for it.

[janx]

21. Can somebody help me? What is the official role of the

National Security Advisor to the president? What is Condi supposed to do in her job? I confess ignorance about this but am very curious.

[Sideways]

24. Lap Dancing

I jest of course. Her fucking job is to keep the idiot in charge apprised of all national and international security threats.

She is supposed to keep the "BIG GUY" safe and the rest of us peons oh well sort of ....who the fuck knows.

Best guess is she is there for pole dancing.

[janx]

26. But so what then is the Dept. of "Homeland Security"?

Do you see where I'm going with this? What the heck does Condi actually do? Every time she appears, she comes off as a kind of PR representative for Chimpy.

Furthermore, she of all people must have had to deal with the uranium claim, if her job is supposed to be anything like you described, no?

[skip fox]

27. Tenet's future testimony:

See the future, click here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=17409&mesg_id=17409&page=

[jamesinca]

28. This is what I like about the whole situation

Rove has said that the strong suit of this administration is its war on terrorism and that in Iraq. With out this, they have nothing and they will fight like a scared cornered animal to save themselves. This is what I hope for 1) Bush looses his butt in the next election. 2)10-12 of his strongest supporters in congress loose their butts in the next election 3) The people keep up the pressure and finally get an investigation that carries over to the next administration, so he can not give himself and his cronies a presidential pardon like his daddy did. 4) every lock step idiot, dem or repug, gets made to look like the ass they are for not having the morals, for not upholding and defending the constitution to the best of thier ability, for not representing their people just representing an idiology. Maby somethinglike that will bring some sense backt o the government.

[PurityOfEssence]

30. Don't forget "preserving"

The oath is also to "preserve" the Constitution, something that nobody with a straight face can claim is being done these days...

Good post; I'm with ya.

The fascists think it somehow shows them as being decisive and powerful to bring George Jetsam kicking and screaming to take the blame that isn't his; the rest of the world sees it for what it is: putting a gun to the head of the torpedo to save the Don. This is something about which they should be embarrassed.

Maybe what I like about all this is the repeated and broad spectrum of ways that these guys just "don't get it". To cowering children, strongarming might seem cool, sort of like watching a gangster movie (hmmm...make that EXACTLY like watching a gangster movie) but to decent people, these tactics are utterly repulsive.

Good. Let 'em strut and bluster and puff and threaten as they deliver their pronouncements of what is truth. Nothing they say can be trusted, and this is dawning on people other than us. That's the key.

[Cocoa]

29. I'd rather hear this from ABC

I can't see a reason that Rice would be so obvious with Ann Compton standing there. Or maybe Compton was in an adjacent bathroom stall, Rice talking on a cellphone?

[dfong63]

31. why stop there?

it wasn't Tenet's fault, it was George Sr's fault, for not teaching Junior to always tell the truth.