An Open Letter to George Tenet
The attached letter, written by a group of former CIA intelligence officers, was sent today to George Tenet to protest his upcoming book tour. We specifically call on him to return the Medal of Freedom he received from George Bush and to donate part of the royalties from his book proceeds to the soldiers (and their families) who have been killed and wounded in Iraq.
29 April 2007
Mr. George Tenet
c/o Harper Collins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
8th Floor
New York City, New York 10022
ATTN: Ms. Tina Andredis
Dear Mr. Tenet:
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. We believe you have a moral obligation to return the Medal of Freedom you received from President George Bush. We also call for you to dedicate a significant percentage of the royalties from your book to the U.S. soldiers and their families who have been killed and wounded in Iraq.
We agree with you that Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials took the United States to war for flimsy reasons. We agree that the war of choice in Iraq was ill-advised and wrong headed. But your lament that you are a victim in a process you helped direct is self-serving, misleading and, as head of the intelligence community, an admission of failed leadership. You were not a victim. You were a willing participant in a poorly considered policy to start an unnecessary war and you share culpability with Dick Cheney and George Bush for the debacle in Iraq.
You are not alone in failing to speak up and protest the twisting and shading of intelligence. Those who remained silent when they could have made a difference also share the blame for not protesting the abuse and misuse of intelligence that occurred under your watch. But ultimately you were in charge and you signed off on the CIA products and you briefed the President.
This is not a case of Monday morning quarterbacking. You helped send very mixed signals to the American people and their legislators in the fall of 2002. CIA field operatives produced solid intelligence in September 2002 that stated clearly there was no stockpile of any kind of WMD in Iraq. This intelligence was ignored and later misused. On October 1 you signed and gave to President Bush and senior policy makers a fraudulent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)–which dovetailed with unsupported threats presented by Vice President Dick Cheney in an alarmist speech on August 26, 2002.
You were well aware that the White House tried to present as fact intelligence you knew was unreliable. And yet you tried to have it both ways. On October 7, just hours before the president gave a major speech in Cincinnati, you were successful in preventing him from using the fable about Iraq purchasing uranium in Africa, although that same claim appeared in the NIE you signed only six days before.
Although CIA officers learned in late September 2002 from a high-level member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle that Iraq had no past or present contact with Osama bin Laden and that the Iraqi leader considered bin Laden an enemy of the Baghdad regime, you still went before Congress in February 2003 and testified that Iraq did indeed have links to Al Qaeda.
You showed a lack of leadership and courage in January of 2003 as the Bush Administration pushed and cajoled analysts and managers to let them make the bogus claim that Iraq was on the verge of getting its hands on uranium. You signed off on Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations. And, at his insistence, you sat behind him and visibly squandered CIA’s most precious asset–credibility.”
You may now feel you were bullied and victimized but you were also one of the bullies. In the end you allowed suspect sources, like Curveball, to be used based on very limited reporting and evidence. Yet you were informed in no uncertain terms that Curveball was not reliable. You broke with CIA standard practice and insisted on voluminous evidence to refute this reporting rather than treat the information as suspect. You helped set the bar very low for reporting that supported favored White House positions, while raising the bar astronomically high when it came to raw intelligence that did not support the case for war being hawked by the president and vice president.
It now turns out that you were the Alberto Gonzales of the intelligence community–a grotesque mixture of incompetence and sycophancy shielded by a genial personality. Decisions were made, you were in charge, but you have no idea how decisions were made even though you were in charge. Curiously, you focus your anger on the likes of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice, but you decline to criticize the President.
Mr. Tenet, as head of the intelligence community, you failed to use your position of power and influence to protect the intelligence process and, more importantly, the country. What should you have done? What could you have done?
For starters, during the critical summer and fall of 2002, you could have gone to key Republicans and Democrats in the Congress and warned them of the pressure. But you remained silent. Your candor during your one-on-one with Sir Richard Dearlove, then-head of British Intelligence, of July 20, 2002″ provides documentary evidence that you knew exactly what you were doing; namely, “fixing” the intelligence to the policy.
By your silence you helped build the case for war. You betrayed the CIA officers who collected the intelligence that made it clear that Saddam did not pose an imminent threat. You betrayed the analysts who tried to withstand the pressure applied by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Most importantly and tragically, you failed to meet your obligations to the people of the United States. Instead of resigning in protest, when it could have made a difference in the public debate, you remained silent and allowed the Bush Administration to cite your participation in these deliberations to justify their decision to go to war. Your silence contributed to the willingness of the public to support the disastrous war in Iraq, which has killed more than 3300 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
If you are committed to correcting the record about your past failings then you should start by returning the Medal of Freedom you willingly received from President Bush in December 2004. You claim it was given only because of the war on terror, but you were standing next to General Tommy Franks and L. Paul Bremer, who also contributed to the disaster in Iraq. President Bush said that you:
played pivotal roles in great events, and [your] efforts have made our country more secure and advanced the cause of human liberty.
The reality of Iraq, however, has not made our nation more secure nor has the cause of human liberty been advanced. In fact, your tenure as head of the CIA has helped create a world that is more dangerous. The damage to the credibility of the CIA is serious but can eventually be repaired. Many of the U.S. soldiers maimed in the streets of Fallujah and Baghdad cannot be fixed. Many will live the rest of their lives missing limbs, blinded, mentally disabled, or physically disfigured. And the dead have passed into history.
Mr. Tenet, you cannot undo what has been done. It is doubly sad that you seem still to lack an adequate appreciation of the enormous amount of death and carnage you have facilitated. If reflection on these matters serves to prick your conscience we encourage you to donate at least half of the royalties from your book sales to the veterans and their families, who have paid and are paying the price for your failure to speak up when you could have made a difference. That would be the decent and honorable thing to do.
Sincerely yours,
Phil Giraldi
Ray McGovern
Larry Johnson
Jim Marcinkowski
Vince Cannistraro
David MacMichael
What an awesome letter. It just breaks my heart that Tenet, and many others, were unable to do the right thing. The lure of money and power certainly seems to trump conscience. Is there no one who really cares about the American people?
When is TREASON going to be called what it is?
These are hanging offenses!
And it will, in the end, be the only way to get rid of these scum. Otherwise, they’ll all just ‘pardon’ each other, like the gods they think they are.
We have Caligula as pResident, Machiavelli as his advisor, and Goebbels for Vice-pResident. And a thousand wannabe Napoleans waiting in the Republithug wings.
Good going, voters and vote stealers.
Where’s Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and Adams when you need them?
“Where’s Jefferson, Franklin, Washington and Adams when you need them?”
I think they’re dead.:)
“These are hanging offenses!”
Can I have a seat in front row?
Another rat running from the sinking (and stinking) ship. My apologies to rats.
This coward, Tenet now wants to pretty his image but his legacy will be death and lies to go along with his gutless lack of conviction. Return the damn Medal of Freedom and go to hell.
Mr. Giraldi, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Marcinkowski, Mr. Cannistaro, and Mr. MacMichael, Thank you for stepping up.
The Founding Fathers are puking in their graves.
Mr. Tenet thinks he can go the way of Rbt. McNamara (another shameless one).
Hawk a book get on TV and make money.
What a culture of vultures we have today.
No pride, no shame, no conscience !!!
The Medal of Freedom being given to this trio of Tenet,Bremmer and Franks must give previous Medal recipients an empty feeling.Maybe it should be called the Walmart medal,made of tin,with deputy sherrif and a profile of Bush engraved.Perhaps a group of previous recipients could sign a letter similar to the above.
Tenet is on every network. The damn press doesn’t care that he is a traitor so long as suckers keep watching their non news.Everyone should boycott the network’s that are showing this piece of garbage.
As for where are today’s luminous leaders? They can’t always raise the huge sums that BUY elections; or the media marginalizes them for NOT marching to the corporations’ drumbeat. Just as Neil Young asked where the protest music was, and a young musician countered that just starting out, he hardly had Neil’s clout; and look what hapepned (initially) when the Dixie chicks made their musical statement? It’s a tough nut to crack when the “powers that be” intend to control the status quo, so long as they worship short term profit, they’ll let our new Rome burn. There are great thinkers out there, potential visionary political minds, but they are marginalized. Noam Chomsky spoke about that… the now-corporate owned media is all about manufacturing consent. If human courts of law do not hold Tenet accountable, can you imagine when he crosses over from this plane and his soul meets its maker… how he will answer for the lives he let fall to ruin and unthinkably violent deaths so he could maintain his home and pension? Talk about selfish. It’s spell binding disregard for others.
I hope you realize the open letter was sent c/o Rupert Murdoch (owner of Harper Collins). You couldn’t find another address?
“That would be the decent and honorable thing to do.”
That assumes that Tenet is at least to some degree decent and honorable. But haven’t the letter of our former CIA men, and, more importantly, Tenet’s very behavior in the months leading to the war demonstrated that there is precisely nothing decent and honorable about this lad?
Worrying about the “reputation” of George Tenet makes about as much sense as feeling sorry for Laura because she married Shrub (or for Hillary because she has stayed with Bill). They knew what they were doing and chose their partners let them suffer if that’s what they choose.
Georgie boy had you really been concerned about the country instead of your nice fat retirement package, you would have publically called the bluff of these idiots as you announced your resignation. You could have even refused to accept the medal of freedom award from such a dubious grantor. Same for all the retired “disgruntled generals” that bitched about Rumsfeld.
“Is there no one who really cares about the American people?” JaneM. The answer is no.
The American people, as a whole, care for no one but themselves as long as they are caucasians, so why should any other peoples care for you? Your country subverts democracy every where it goes, creates illegal wars and kills masses of innocents. Do we care about Americans? No.
Swell letter, but where were those guys back when it would have mattered? I think the letter is too little, too late.
Donate proceeds from his book?…..This shouldn’t be about $ and a way of buying his way out of criminal acts. There’s no dollar price that can be attached to the suffering of the victims of this war. The collapse of trust in U.S. government officials to tell the truth is not easily rebuilt. He is an enemy of democracy and all the high-minded goals we have set out to establish throughout the world. Such hypocricy and cowardice trying to cash-in. What exactly are his tenets???
Why keep feeding the shark? Ban the book and media who will strut his ass on the air. Gezze, only in America land of trash. Just a week ago or so, Imus gets canned over his remarks. Now, homage to a war criminal. Go figure.
Mr. Tenet’s admission of guilt for his role in providing the knowingly false basis for the atrocity being perpetrated against Iraq is a crime of “lese majeste” to be dealt accordingly by a court of justice of the kind resident in Guantanamo. Let us not forget the CIA has also provided, for over 48 years, the utterly false basis for U.S.’s absurd policy and aggression towards Cuba.
Hey, we get the leaders we deserve. Let’s not absolve of blame the fat, reality -show- watching, video playing, internet porn viewing, prozac taking, SUV driving, self-centered ignorant pigs that let these evil bastards get a foothold in the first place.
Yes, I am distributing free mirrors.
By the way, saphne, you forgot to mention … what else
… the barbaric behavior in the workplace.
I can assure you that your list is nothing in comparison with
mobbing and kissing up, kicking down.
Excellent letter! Tenet is a coward. He should be on the next plane to Iraq to fight on the streets. As a scout. Out alone in a non-armoured tank like the ones our soldiers have been forced to use because “you go to war with the army you have not the army you want” (loose quote from the other coward Rumsfield). Maybe Rumsfield should be there with Tenet. Without the proper protective gear…no planes overhead to provide security…(like McCain had)…and a camera connected to their favorite tv station Fox Newsless can capture all their glory…live from the battlefield. Or maybe one of their newsless readers can be imbedded with the pair!
Do I sound angry!? Absolutely! It is outrageous what this administration has done to our country and the world!!!
Tenet because he is caught in the middle will become the fall-guy here. Bush&co will gladly use the we got false intelligence ploy to escape responsibility.
What grabs me is that these so-called intelligence people don’t seem to be very intelligent. I have no pateince with anyone that couldn’t see through the scam bush&co put forth.
Excellent letter. I think Mr. Tenet should give ALL his profit from the book to wounded soldiers and to families of those who died. He should not make one single penny of profit from this horrible debacle he helped create.
Now can someone please write a similar letter to Colin Powell? Too many people have excused what he did by saying he was a “good soldier, carrying out the orders of his commander-in-chief.” Baloney! When he went to the United Nations he was Secretary of State, not a soldier. Prior to that he had been a 4-star general, then chairman of the joint chiefs. He was used to giving orders, not taking them. But most important, as Secretary of State his duty above all was to the Constitution and to the country. He owed the United States of America his best judgment, and he failed us.