Hear! Hear!

George, time to make amends by joining the anti-war and impeachment movements after you return your medal.

Tom

"We write to you on the occasion of the release of your book, At the Center of the Storm. You are on the record complaining about the “damage to your reputation”. In our view the damage to your reputation is inconsequential compared to the harm your actions have caused for the U.S. soldiers engaged in combat in Iraq and the national security of the United States."

Excellent comment.

Let's not pick on Georgie-Porgie. He's just one careerist among thousands sucking at the teat of the military and intelligence industries loved and admired in our soon-to-be-forgotten republic.

J. McCutchen

Give the royalties to the wounded and the survivors of the dead.

The more I read of what's in this book, the more disgusted I become.

From the Washington Post

A perennial problem, he writes, was a tendency by intelligence analysts to assume other people thought like they did.(!!!!) When judging whether Hussein was lying when he said Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, "we did not account for . . . the mind set never to show weakness in a very dangerous neighborhood." One of the "lowest moments of my seven-year tenure," Tenet recalls, was when a congressman told him in a public hearing in the spring of 2004 that "we depended on you, and you let us down."

Crying all the way to the bank

David Corn

........Tenet may feel--as he claims--damn lousy about the screwed-up National Intelligence Estimate that helped pave the way to war in Iraq. But he did not feel bad enough to resign--or to disclose earlier what had gone wrong. He sat on the story and now is peddling it for personal profit.....if Tenet indeed believed before the invasion of Iraq that Bush and Cheney were pushing the nation to war without adequately assessing the threat or assessing options other than full-scale war, he had an obligation at the time to make that known--at least to members of Congress, if not the public at large. He did not do so. Consequently, he owes the public a full accounting and an apology--not a sales campaign.

Yes Ellen. But this is the careerist who deserves to have his body dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge - not in Fallujah, but in Louisville. Along with Generals Abizaid & Franks.

Oh, please, please.

Can't I have Myers and Sanchez, too. Oh, and Michael "Constitution? Never heard of it" Hayden, and Miller of Guantanamo and Abu Graib fame, and William "My God is bigger than his" Boykin. I'd add the Joint "Come out, come out, wherever you are" Chiefs, but no one's seen them since the war began.

Isn’t there a law that someone who commits murder cannot then profit from it by writing a book about it? Seems the intent of this law if not the letter of this law applies to Tenet.

What I suggest is that disabled veterans and families of those soldiers who have died in Iraq bring a civil "wrongful death" suit against Tenet and others who participated in bringing on this fiasco. While immunity may protect such people in the end, the publicity of such a suit and the legal costs thereof might reduce the profit Tenet, Bremer, Franks, etc have made because of their parts in this war.

The thought of Tenet and others getting rich off the blood of our soldiers is an insult to America and frankly, evil.

It's too bad the analysts, if LJ and his friends are any measure, don't run the Directorate of Operations. If so we could be rid of Bush/Cheney and cohorts. It has never bothered the right wing to to use black ops to achieve their domestic political ends. I'd also like to hear the mockingbirds sing a message more consistent with the above letter.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

William James

George Tenet and Colin Powell will go down in infamy.

The blowback on Tenet's book has already begun. After '60 Minutes' he may get run out of town.

Does Tenet reveal, in his "tell" all book, whether he sent Wilson's report on Niger to Dick Cheney? Chris Matthews asked Tenet about that, and he answered "Ask Cheney".

If Cheney ignored that report - that's the smoking gun for impeachment, imho!

Keep your eye out for a guy named Michael Scheuer, ex CIA and head of the Bin Ladin Desk for a number of years during the 90s.
he left the CIA in 2005. This guy already wrote an op ed condemning Tenet, BUT.....

I first saw this guy Scheuer on C-SPAN's Washington Journal about 18 months ago and I was very impressed. He seemd quite knowledgeable on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and al Qaeda. He gave what I saw as objective analysis on terrorism, 9/11, Iraq etc. It was a good informative C-SPAN session.

By the way, he wasn't real happy with the Bush White House and IRAQ. Then...

I didn't see him for a bit, but then he recently turned up at a Senate hearing on Terrorism and Iraq and lo and behold, he was now a right winger, condemning Clinton, Democrats, etc.

He turned up again on Washington Journal about 8/10 days ago and again he spewed the right wing mantra; Clinton, Democrats, blah blah blah.

He's now with The Jamestown Foundation, a conservative think tank. He may have saw the light; there's money to be made if you join the right wing noise machine.

CNN just reported Scheuer said to Tenet; (paraphrase) 'Go back where you belong, to the Democrats.

I'm posting this to alert people to this guy because he's getting some air time in this Tenet story.

J. McCutchen

George Tenet, Drama Queen

Reminds me of that other CIA 007 blowhard, Cofer Black

All the better though, for now we know that Richard Clarke told the truth and CRice fiddled, blundered us into 9/11; that George Bush is a liar, and Cheney an indictable war criminal

Gee I never knew this

Sorry Larry, I had to watch. I like to watch

Tenet was interviewed on 60 Minutes, and it was not pretty.

About missing clues on 9/11: somehow, he did not mention Richard Clarke. But here Tenet was most plausible.

After 9/11, "we did not torture": he could try to make the case that CIA tortured in very exceptional cases, and took measures to minimize the inherent cruelty of the process. Probably, there is no such case to make.

Planning war with Iraq: here Tenet was at his most convoluted. He knew that Iraq had zero connection with al-Qaeda, did he ever stress that point to Bush and Cheney? He said that at the numerous "principals' meetings" no one ever questioned if this war should be waged, the only discussions were when and how. Now, Tenet was one of the very few principals (one of six?). So he is very much responsible for this sad fact.

The case of Saddam's WMD: Tenet honestly believed in the entire bunk that Powell, in fron of him, told UN. Mind you, after months of futile inspections, inspections that took input from CIA. And this bunk included quite bogus analysis of satelite photos, bogus interpretations of intercepted telephone calls, (were the debunked aluminum pipes spinned once more), plus conclusions from the testimony of Iraqi defectors for which CIA had testimony of other defectors claiming totally different things.

Interviewer asked some "difficult questions", even repeated them, but he did not deign to make a meaningful follow up. Why inspections did not alter the intelligence assesment? Why CIA condoned a massacre of thousands of prisoners in northern Afghanistan? Whose idea was it to have a "ligh footprint" in Afghanistan (reason given by Tenet for the failure at Bora-Bora). Why was he silent before elections of 2004 and 2006?

Tenet believed it, yet my 9th and 10th grade students in World Affairs Club in 2002-03 could see right through Powell's BS by reading the European press online. Sorry, George, I don't buy it no matter how much you whined on Sixty Minutes.

Tom

What I'm still waiting for more clarity on is the supposed meeting between intelligence chief from Italy, Gen. Nicolo Pollari and Stephen Hadley, which supposedly presented the debunked Niger claims directly to the VP even though the CIA had debumked them.

Larry, do you know much about the Niger embassy breakin? Anything that has been officialy announced? I know that there was a breakin and papers suddenly appeared around this time.

LJ,

There is something missing on your letter, although I must say it is an excellent letter. Your letter did not include all the damages that Tenet had caused to the people around the world. Many countries are terrified by threats from America to join in the fights against terrorism and Innocent civilians are injected with imaginary fears of the Muslims around the world.

Reportedly, innocent civilians were kidnapped and tortured in Germany, Spain and Italy and God knows how many innocent civilians that were kidnapped, tortured and not reported. America also intimidates countries to keep their own citizens (Muslim sympathizers) on the watch list. Just because civilians simply did not agree with America’s imperialist attitude towards other nations, they were being labeled as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers and were closely watched by the secret services of their own countries.

Christian missionaries from America were making headway in Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s regime, all of a sudden, all Christians become a target the Muslim. Now, Christians around the world are blamed for something that Tenet had created. God has given America wealth and power and yet America has turned around to commit atrocities in other countries under the pretext of fighting terrorism. May God have mercy on the soul of Tenet and ask him to stop spreading irreversible fear around the world. God did not create this world so that America has an upper hand over the rest of the world. God creates the world so that everyone can live in harmony with diversities in culture and language and life style. God has not asked America to impose American values on other countries.

Katrina is God’s way of expressing his anger over the merciless killing in Iraq by the American soldiers. The late Pope John Paul II had asked America not to attack Iraq. Despite repeated pleads from the late Pope John Paul II and foreign leaders, America proceeded with atrocities and showed no mercy. Tenet’s actions and inactions have caused much grief to many families both within America and around the world. It is about time that Tenet confesses to the world and seeks repentance from God. Only God can save him. Only God can teach him the real meaning of forgiveness and only God can forgive his sin. Money, status and power can only give Tenet that much, once his power is gone, Tenet is nothing but a fool. The same also applies to GW Bush and D Cheney and C Rice and those who hold power in high office.

I understand the CIA getting the story about WMD wrong. It was not until December, 2002, according to Cobra II, that Saddem informed his generals that they did not have the biological and chemical weapons they thought. However, given the nature of the NIEs, estimates not certainties, why didn't Tenet urge Bush continue letting the U.N. inspectors continue their worker rather than an invaion before either Afghanistan was more secure, Bin Laden captured or killed and the armor and other equip necessary for Iraq was ready?

Another question raised by Cobra II is why didn't the CIA get virtually anything about Iraq correct? The military went in and found most conditions other than they expected.

Daniel A. Greenbaum

From what I understand, the UN weapons inspectors were given information on the locations of WMD by the Bush gang a number of times and every time the inspectors went to the location they found nothing.

John,

My understanding is the same as yours -- that when the UN INSCOM inspectors were readmitted into Iraq 2002 they were:

1. Allowed access to previously "off-limits" areas.
2. They were, indeed, inspecting the sites proferred by the administration and found nothing there.

I also remember Rummy's comment at the time: "We know where the WMD are -- they are north, south, east and west of ..." Sure, they knew "exactly" where they were.

For whatever reason/s I have yet to comprehend, this administration did not WANT to inspections a chance to determine the truth.

That is criminal, irresponsible, and an abomination to all citizens and taxpayers of the USA.

One thing that tends to be forgotten is what INSCOM did find, and how those findings tie into a possible scenario of what Saddam and his inner circle was doing. Remember that they found missiles, nothing that could threaten the US, but with improved range and accuracy compared to the SCUD and kludged derivatives like the al-Abbas.

The scenario I like is that Saddam realized that without effective delivery systems, he could have all the WMD warheads in the world and they would do him little strategic good. As a result, he may have mothballed the active warhead programs, and planned to reactivate them once he had a reasonable delivery system able to get through air and antimissile defenses.

He did, however, want to give the impression that he had battlefield chemical weapons and possibly biological agents. The debriefings I've seen of Iraqi generals at the divisional level seemed to give a consistent impression that "I didn't have any, but I'm sure my brother over in the 52nd Division did." By giving this impression, he made invading forces cautious and have the inconvenience of CB protection. The brinksmanship may have gained some regional status.

Without getting too deeply into the engineering of CB warheads, the Congressional and other reports that raised much concern pointed to things that are not the toughest part of weaponization, but played well in the media.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

"groupthink = MSM reportage.

~

Katrina is God’s way of expressing his anger over the merciless killing in Iraq by the American soldiers.

9. Develop ‘Discrepancy Detectors,’ alerting mental and intuition systems that stem from vague feelings of something wrong, something in the situation or the story you are being handed that does not fit to analysis to counteraction -> dissent -> disobedience.

I agree that the al-Samoud itself was not a major advance. What is significant, however, is that Saddam clearly had authorized an R&D program on delivery systems, which was ongoing at the time he disclosed the work to the UN. The Iraqi missile engineers were getting additional experience at a time when the warhead engineers, at best, were doing paper studies.

The concern was more with what they could build one or two generations after the al-Samoud.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

Frankly, the variations in test-range distances -- especially given the state of Iraq's technological sophistication -- don't seem to be major violations of UN restrictions. But I know almost nothing about this issue, so my question:

Did the UN ban Iraq's missile R & D program? Did the inspectors discover that Iraq had violated that ban? What was Iraq doing wrong, and did it have the right (in law or equity) to cure its breech?

As an aside, who's the idiot who gave Kuwait to the al-Sabahs in the first place? Was it Gertrude? Working to keep its oil for the British Navy?

Exactly, he's cheapened so much is so little time.

Yes, sounds like the typical bush, "thanks buddy, but you're on your own" line. Bush Sr. tells this to Saddam, now Bush Jr. says it to Musharraf? Funny how quickly people forget his military overthrow of Pakistan's government.

Rob,
I agree with your overall commentary, but for the most part...Christians as a whole are to blame for how Christians are viewed, not Tenet.

In optimistic view, many more Christian churches have stepped up and spoken out against Bush's aggression and other actions around the world.

I wonder what you mean, "Christian missionaries from America were making headway" with, "what is headway to you?"

I disagree with a personalized direct avenger God who strikes cities of poor people to answer for attacking poor people, by rich people using poor people. Now, if a mega tornado whipped out River Oaks here in Houston, but only River Oaks, and not the cheap apartments near here...now that would be a wise and amazing God who sought revenge.

Or maybe, that God could just suck up the Halliburton sign, building, responsible CEO, officers, staffers, and related folks,...now that's a wise and amazing God.

Perhaps you'd think that God works thru my children to teach me forgiveness. Because I credit my son as being my heroic teacher, my daughter as being my grace teacher, and both of them as my forgiveness teachers.

God did not give America its wealth, very crafty people with a combination of ideals, greed, genocide, ignorance, good natured immigrants, time, conscripted workers, gunpowder, small pox, chattle slavery, jim crow laws, potato famine, sufferage, Willie Nelson, unions, and more and more, made America what it is, especially Willie Nelson

I write to ask you to reevaluate your view of Christianity to add something that might lead to greater peace between Christians and others, including but not exclusive to Muslisms. What have Christians done, and continue to do that create confusion and conflict?

It would seem to me that the criticism lodged against various Imam's would apply to pastors and preachers too. If you don't get up and state the division between yourself and those who call for violence or show religious arrogance, then others might be mistaken about which side you are on.

I can forgive Tenet when he comes clean...after overdosing on 60 Minutes and Larry King, he isn't even close to owning up enough for this forgiveness. So far I've only dismissed him as a fool.

God, may you forgive these people with blasphemy. These people are full hatred and fear and they would intimidate anyone standing in their way. God, forgive these people who know nothing about your love, compassion, kindness, mercy and forgiveness. They only believe in money, power and nuclear weapons and they would use it against the weak and the poor for they are the easy targets. They would not take on the strongest like the Russians. God, please protect the world from these people. Amen.

Precisely whom are you addressing as "these people"? Is that something like "the element", or perhaps some of the comments of the assorted bigots in that masterpiece, Blazing Saddles?

Yes, you are correct that I know nothing of a personal $DEITY who offers love, compassion, kindness, mercy and forgiveness, but apparently, in spite of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, is unwilling to appear to the Unenlightened until they first agree to have faith in all those things being given. Charitably, I could quote what is an acceptable response of even many Muslims, "Allah has not yet chosen to reveal himself to me."

Your description is essentially that of some Christian denominations, and is far from universal even among believers of many religions -- which certainly are not limited to the Abrahamic.

Does not your $DEITY counsel humility, which seems lost by you and Mr. Bush, his apparent intermediaries?

I've had the pleasure of knowing assorted Catholic priests of assorted monastic orders. The Paulists pride themselves on their ability to communicate clearly. Might I, at the very least, suggest a stop at your nearest Paulist bookstore?

Artists trying to portray Judaeo-Christian deities tend to go with the long white beard, which apparently has never met Occam's Razor.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

$DEITY belongs to the UAW, and perhaps would be more receptive to a plea for a Cadillac? After all, there seems a widespread belief that God is American, and probably Republican.

Mind you, I have a seminarian friend (well, she's probably ordained now), who sings wonderfully. I just wish I could get the lyrics of "God is an Episcopalian."

She tells me of three souls waiting for St. Peter. The first, a Catholic, was agonizing about the response when the Gatekeeper found out he had used artificial birth control. St. Peter, however, waved him in.

About as stressed was the Southern Baptist, who admitted to takin' a bit of corn squeezins' for his stomach's sake. St. Peter smiled at him, but he stopped, looking at one soul also waiting, and in a level of spiritual crisis that the Baptist and Catholic hadn't approached.

St. Peter gave them permission to try to calm him down, and they asked why he was so upset.

"I was an Episcopalian. I used the wrong fork."

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

Without judging whether it would be warranted or not, under what legal authority would this take place? The US, for example, is not a member of the International Criminal Court, and I doubt that it will be, even under a Democratic administration.

What do you see as the factors that would make a majority of the electorate support war crimes prosecution?

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

Howard,

On a slightly different topic. I feel the US should be a member of the ICC. Do you agree?

Tom

Tom & Howard,

To paraphrase William Gibson, the era of supranationalism is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet. Based on the few articles I've read, supranationalism's momentum has begun, even if it's moment is not quite here.

Basically, the world used to consider power in the military sense of the word, and the nation with the most weapons used by the best soldiers won. Since then, the US, ironically, has proved that the Davids of the world can dilute a Goliath's military power with a slingshot, and the nature and context of power has shifted.

Joesph Nye recommends looking at the world as a 3 dimensional system, military, economic and transnational issues that no one state can control and where the power is "chaotically distributed". Examples are pandemics, global warming, hunger, immigration and stateless international terrorism.

In Nye's opinion, military relations are already decided and not a big focus of power anymore and economic issues are already supranational, international and mulitpolar. So it is the 3rd dimension that will occupy and provide the world with it's greatest challenges and problems, similar to the reconstruction and security coordination problems experienced by Europe after WWII.

Joyce Appleby, historian, points to the 1999 arrest warrant issued for Augusto Pinochet by a Spanish judge, as a defining moment in the arrival of supranationalism, which had started to appear with the Helsinki accords in 1975.

Yesterday, I was struck by an AFP article on the global warming conference that started with, President Bush and European leaders claimed progress Monday in the effort to reduce global warming, largely by agreeing that climate change requires global action without infringing on the rights of nations to choose their own strategies.

Nothing supranational about that particular path. However, today's article reflected a new, perhaps broader, outlook from the White House:

In a joint statement on energy security and climate change, the three leaders in Washington meanwhile called for "urgent, sustained, global action" to battle global warming.

"Tackling the challenge of energy security will also require unprecedented international cooperation" on energy, it said.

The emphases, needless to say, were not in the White House press releases.

Mr. President, you can veto a bill. But you can't veto the truth. Americans United for Change TV ad, 1st aired 5-1-07.

Yes, I'm for it, but I think that sooner than later, it's not going to be a question of should we, but more of it just becoming a part of the international norm.

I also think that just the thought of such an international norm is enough to send Republicans into deep nightmares. Kind of a pleasant morning thought.

Mr. President, you can veto a bill. But you can't veto the truth. Americans United for Change TV ad, 1st aired 5-1-07.

Formally, the present ICC was created by the Rome Statute of the ICC, in July 1998. That required 60 countries to ratify it, which happened in 2002. 120 countries signed the Rome Statute, but did not necessarily endorse it.

Seven countries opposed the signing of the Rome Statute: Iraq, Israel, Libya, PRC, Qatar, USA, and Yemen. Slightly over 100 countries have ratified it and approximately 40 have signed but not ratified. The US and Israel have explicitly rejected the Statute, to avoid certain technical questions of obligations under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) [adopted 1969, in force 1980].

Whether or not the rest of the world considers it isolationist, IMHO it would be foolish to come under it especially when there is so much dissatisfaction internationally with the US. Consider, for example, the reaction of the US electorate if the ICC attempted to arrest Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for war crimes. I am reasonably certain that would trigger a backlash in the US about meddling in internal affairs, and might well strengthen the Republicans.

I simply do not regard the world as having a sufficient consensus on anything significant, especially with when "have-nots" can outvote the "haves", for any international government of this type to work at the present time. I don't expect to see such a consensus in my lifetime, although I have seen and will continue to see consensus on specific treaties and other agreements.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

You may see it that way, but I would fear a major backlash not just from the Republican base, but from a large part of the electorate. Think about Iraq, and how much of the resistance is based on the idea that an external force is imposing itself on them.

Why should there be a radically different reaction in the United States? If you haven't noticed, the UN is not exceptionally popular, and it hasn't especially tried to intervene in what would likely be perceived as domestic matters.

There has been no popular protest at the US explicitly not consenting to the ICC statute. While you, as an activist, might like to see people you consider war criminals punished, the reality is that there is no widespread popular consensus about that. If there were, don't you think that the Congress would have been able to override the veto?

What undefined organization would arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW and the Secret Service would step aside? Much as I despise Bush and Cheney, I would think long and hard before surrendering them to ICC representatives, representatives of a body for which there has been no popular rush to join. Impeachment is another matter, and is part of the US Constitutional process.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]

You said it better than I....Skydaddy....I love that one.

Rob, the personification of God in such Human emotions, Like God Proving His Power, is insulting to the essential representations from the major religions. What God is just an overblown CEOtype?

Why would God destroy New Orleans to prove something?

I appreciate the other comments about Christians being run out of Iraq and that, even though I too think "conversion" isn't "respect" I don't want people to run for their lives because Stormtrooper military from US is coming to destroy.