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TechnoratiThe three short sentences at the beginning of Chapter 17 of former CIA Director George Tenet's memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," tell it all: "The United States did not go to war in Iraq solely because of WMD. I doubt it was even the principal cause. Yet it was the public face that was put on it."
Consider the deep cynicism of that statement, playing as it does on the gravest threat to humanity's survival—an apocalyptic nuclear conflagration—to exploit the fears of a nation raw from the 9/11 attacks. The "mushroom cloud" over Manhattan that now-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney warned against was nothing more than a cheap rhetorical trick to justify an agenda of imperial intervention in the Middle East that long preceded the 9/11 attacks. The goal was to bamboozle Americans into supporting the restructuring of the politics of the Mideast to accord with the fantasies of a small band of neoconservative rogues who had insinuated themselves into the highest levels of the U.S. government.
That they were rogues was known to the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, a man rewarded by President Bush with the Medal of Freedom precisely because he provided respectable cover for the chicanery that drove the Iraq debacle. Pity that it took a $4-million book contract for Tenet to come clean.
While Tenet remained silent, he observed the neocon coup d'état up close. His most devastating revelations center on the antics of that neocon cabal in the Pentagon and its hit squad, dubbed "Team Feith" for Douglas Feith, a protégé of former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and, through him, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Cheney.
Team Feith's main task was to create and maintain the fiction of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden when no solid evidence supported that assertion. The intelligence unit Feith headed set about discrediting the conclusions of every other intelligence operation while cherry-picking evidence to support the invasion of Iraq as a logical response to 9/11. Tenet's high crime—and it is just that—was that he knew of this treachery from the start, yet never exposed it to Congress or the public.
Take Tenet's description of the briefing, provided by Feith's office throughout the higher reaches of government, entitled "Iraq and al-Qaa'ida—Making the Case." As Tenet notes, Feith's briefer, Tina Shelton, "started out by saying that there should be 'no more debate' on the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship. 'It is an open-and-shut case,' she said. 'No further analysis is required.' This statement instantly got my attention. I knew we had trouble on our hands."
Shelton ran through a series of fraudulent claims, including one that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, which the CIA had previously investigated but found to be fraudulent. Tenet then adds: "I listened for a few more minutes trying to be polite, before saying, 'that's very interesting.' This was one of my rare moments of trying to be subtle. What I was really thinking was, this is complete crap, and I want this to end right now."
But he didn't say it. And the "complete crap" of Team Feith carried the day with the Bush administration, from Bush on down, not because they had facts or logic on their side, but because their intellectual bullying served the political agenda of the Karl Rove juggernaut. The bullying was effective only because Congress and the media were traumatized by 9/11 and because those who knew better, most prominently Tenet, failed to speak out. In the end, Tenet betrayed the bedrock freedom of representative democracy—the right of the people to be informed—and failed, when it mattered most, his sworn duty to honestly inform the government about issues of vital importance to its security.
Tenet, knowing the administration was willfully leading our nation into a horrific war in Iraq that would detract from the real fight against terrorism, had an obligation to resign and go public with his knowledge when the war could have been prevented. Tenet knew that the Bush administration had sold the public a package of lies, but he waited to reveal that truth until he could turn a hefty book profit.
Will Tenet share the book's royalties with the grieving families of the dead and wounded from this war that he concedes he could never honestly justify? Or with the U.S. taxpayers, who are stuck with the trillion-dollar bill for the never-ending occupation and reconstruction of Iraq? After one of his talk show appearances, will he be arrested for complicity in war crimes?
Robert Scheer is editor of TruthDig.com and a regular columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle.
© 2007 TruthDig.com
14 Comments so far
Show AllLet Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Tenet- Ham-Powell, and others, decide amongst themselves who will be first among cowards. Then let all of them be hung with the same rope they used on Hussein, one at a time. This will not bring our children back. It will serve as a warning to other petty tyrants.
I organized and managed a prison ministry for Native American traditionalists in several state systems, as well as the federal system.
Over the years I became familiar with many of the inmates, and the one overwhelming truth came to light. With few exceptions the convicts each believed that they were 1) T above the law or 2) that they would not get 'caught'.
In regards to the Bush administration.
I am of the opinion that similar things have happened in the past with little or no consequences for the criminals who commit the offense(s). The world already agrees that wars of aggression are illegal, immoral, and an extreme danger for the entire planet.
The evidence continues to accumulate that this administration has conducted an illegal, immoral, and unjustified war. That they (all of them) lied, and mislead, and forged credentials for their argument.
To prevent these same things from taking place in the future---perhaps it would be wise to hand Pres. Bush, VP Cheney, Colin Powel, and anyone else involved over to the world court for trial for war crimes. Even Mr. Tenet, who "knew that the robbers were going to rob the bakery, and didn't warn the baker" this is considered complicity, and carries as much criminal liability as the perpetrators.
If by chance another fool like Mr. Bush should find a way to "crawl into the back window of the white house" he may give consideration against committing international crimes, and just keep his crimes "local".
The rest of the world is watching. If the American people harbor international criminals, they will most likely never regain any credibility again.
But perhaps they deserve that fate.
Tenet's book should have been entitled "CONFESSIONS OF A SYCOPHANT, a story of complicity in war crimes."
TENET'S book could be used in a FEDERAL COURT.....
As evidence by his own admission to prove GUILT beyond reasonable doubt of his complicity in WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY and TREASON....
Isn't that 20years to life or a bloody long time....
I am a public servant, a special ed teacher, and I stand up for people, children and families, every day. My expertise is valued and trusted. My judgment is relied upon by those above and below me. I spend my time outside of teaching learning better ways of teaching children.
If Tenet had fulfilled his post--if it were even expected that he would fill his post, this would be a very different problem indeed. I could never get away with such shoddy work.
Ah yes, America, land of the enslaved, home of the fearful. Terrorize the world with your big guns and big lies. Who amongst you would have lied like Tenet to keep your jobs? Who would have taken the road "less trodden" and spoken out before the state terrorism commenced? The rest of the world needs to know that all these war criminals will be punished for advancing violence as foreign policy yet, no one in your houses will impeach those who advocated it. If your country should further encroach on others' sovereignty through weapons of mass destruction, we will know that no American who is knowledgeable of the insider dealings is brave enough to stand up to an abusive administration.
We stand with you Americans who see and wish to end the madness of "King George's" court.
Tenent should be tried for war crimes and hung with the rest of these war criminal's.The media is sucking up to Tenent like they do to this most corrupt administration. We should boycott the so called main stream media all we hear are lies.
Deja vous. I remember how long it took McNamara to state his reservations. Before his gig as defense secretary, he was at Ford. The Edsel was his baby. Wonder what Tenet's was.
Tenet will never be clean.
This is beyond cynicism. This coup d'état of the American government by a small band of people is a threat to the world.
Lying to congress, to the American people from the President's pedestal should be made a high crime and misdemeanor.
Shane,
"Waterboard him with extreme prejudice and give him a paupers funeral."
Nice! But for me that fantasy is not complete without adding "with Cheney watching, knowing he will be next."
"The United States did not go to war in Iraq solely because of WMD. I doubt it was even the principal cause. Yet it was the public face that was put on it." G. Tenet.
"Slam Dunk" Tenet is the lowest self-serving POS imaginable. After incompetently running the CIA and failing to honorably serve his country by standing up to the warmongering White House Administration and publicly stating that the CIA had no evidence to support Iraqi WMDs or relationship between Hussein and a-Q, after receiving the Medal of Honor, he has the nerve to whine how he was a scapegoat.
"Slam Dunk" Tenet is a bottom-feeder. Waterboard him with extreme prejudice and give him a paupers funeral.
Tenet, like the rest of this administraton along with the corporate embedded media are responsible for crimes against humanity. They all need to be held responsible and their own admissions used against them.
Michael Reagan, AM jock, (every caller comments how great he's dad was) want's his listeners to believe it was all George's fault for bad "intelligence". Bad intelligence describes anyone beliefing this!