Tenet's book Reviewed
 

A Loser's History: George Tenet's sniveling, self-justifying new book is a disgrace.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, April 30, 2007, at 11:37 AM ET

It's difficult to see why George Tenet would be so incautious as to write his own self-justifying apologia, let alone give it the portentous title At the Center of the Storm. There is already a perfectly good pro-Tenet book written by a man who knows how to employ the overworked term storm. Bob Woodward's 2002 effort, Bush at War, was, in many of its aspects, almost dictated by George Tenet. How do we know this? Well, Tenet is described on the opening page as "a hefty, outgoing son of Greek immigrants," which means that he talked to Woodward on background. Further compliments are showered upon him. We discover that his main protector on Capitol Hill, Sen. David Boren, who represented Oklahoma until 1994, had implored President-elect Bush to retain this Clinton-era head of the CIA and if he had any doubts, to "ask your father":

When the younger Bush did, the former President George H.W. Bush said: "From what I hear, he's a good fellow," one of the highest accolades in the Bush family lexicon. Tenet … later led the effort to rename CIA headquarters for Bush, himself a former DCI.

No need to draw a very complex picture here: Tenet knows how the kiss-up and kiss-down game is played. And, for a rather mediocre man, he did well enough out of the arrangement while it lasted. Woodward was even willing to describe him as one who "had developed an understanding of the importance of human intelligence, HUMINT in spycraft." But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I only mean to say that it was a very favorably disposed chronicler who wrote this, in describing Tenet's reaction on the terrible morning of Sept. 11, 2001:

"This has bin Laden all over it," Tenet told Boren. "I've got to go." He also had another reaction, one that raised the real possibility that the CIA and the FBI had not done all that could have been done to prevent the terrorist attack. "I wonder," Tenet said, "if it has anything to do with this guy taking pilot training."

Notice the direct quotes that make it clear who is the author of this brilliant insight. And then pause for a second. The author is almost the only man who could have known of Zacarias Moussaoui and his co-conspirators—the very man who positively knew they were among us, in flight schools, and then decided to leave them alone. In his latest effusion, he writes: "I do know one thing in my gut. Al-Qaeda is here and waiting." Well, we all know that much by now. But Tenet is one of the few who knew it then, and not just in his "gut" but in his small brain, and who left us all under open skies. His ridiculous agency, supposedly committed to "HUMINT" under his leadership, could not even do what John Walker Lindh had done—namely, infiltrate the Taliban and the Bin Laden circle. It's for this reason that the CIA now has to rely on torturing the few suspects it can catch, a policy, incidentally, that Tenet's book warmly defends.

So, the only really interesting question is why the president did not fire this vain and useless person on the very first day of the war. Instead, he awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom! Tenet is now so self-pitying that he expects us to believe that he was "not at all sure that [he] really wanted to accept" this honor. But it seems that he allowed or persuaded himself to do so, given that the citation didn't mention Iraq. You could imagine that Tenet had never sat directly behind Colin Powell at the United Nations, beaming like an overfed cat, as the secretary of state went through his rather ill-starred presentation. And who cares whether his "slam dunk" vulgarity was misquoted or not? We have better evidence than that. Here is what Tenet told the relevant Senate committee in February 2002:

Iraq … has also had contacts with al-Qaida. Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies, but the two sides' mutual antipathy toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggests that tactical cooperation between them is possible, even though Saddam is well aware that such activity would carry serious consequences.

As even the notion of it certainly should have done. At around the same time, on another nontrivial matter, Tenet informed the Senate armed services committee that: "We believe that Saddam never abandoned his nuclear weapons program." It is a little bit late for him to pose as if Iraq was a threat concocted in some crepuscular corner of the vice president's office. And it's pathetic for him to say, even in the feeble way that he chooses to phrase it, that "there was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat." (Emphasis added.) There had been a very serious debate over the course of at least three preceding administrations, whether Tenet "knew" of it or not. (He was only an intelligence specialist, after all.) As for his bawling and sobbing claim that faced with crisis in Iraq, "the administration's message was: Don't blame us. George Tenet and the CIA got us into this mess," I can say, as one who has attended about a thousand postmortems on Iraq in Washington, that I have never, ever, not once heard a single partisan of the administration say anything of the kind. The White House may have thought that it could count on the CIA to present some sort of solidity in a crisis but, as Sept. 11 had already proved, more fool the White House.

In the post-Kuwait-war period, there was little political risk in doing what Tenet had always done and making the worst assumption about anything that Saddam Hussein might even be thinking about. (Who but an abject idiot would ever make a different assumption or grant the Baathists the smallest benefit of the least doubt?) But we forget so soon and so easily. The problem used to be the diametrically opposite one. The whole of our vaunted "intelligence" system completely refused to believe any of the warnings that Saddam Hussein was about to invade and occupy Kuwait in 1990. By the time the menace was taken seriously, the invasion itself was under way. This is why the work of Kenneth Pollack (this time titled The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq) was received with such gravity when it was published in 2002. Pollack had interpreted the signals correctly in 1990—and been ignored—and was arguing that another final round with Saddam was inevitable. His book did more to persuade policy-makers in Washington than anything ever said by Ahmad Chalabi. To revisit these arguments is to be reminded that no thinking person ever felt that the danger posed by a totalitarian and aggressive Iraq was a negligible one. And now comes Tenet, the man who got everything wrong and who ran the agency that couldn't think straight, to ask us to sympathize with his moanings about "Iraq—who, me?"

A highly irritating expression in Washington has it that "hindsight is always 20-20." Would that it were so. History is not a matter of hindsight and is not, in fact, always written by the victors. In this case, a bogus history is being offered by a real loser whose hindsight is cockeyed and who had no foresight at all.

Couldn't find an American to review it?

Never took you to be a xenophobe.

B

He is a citizen. A legal one.

Is he really? It never dawned on me that he even lived here. I just figured Ann came out to visit in the UK.

Now what? Is there a direct criticism you'd care to make?

I have no intention of enriching this man by purchasing his silly book, but I have seen him interviewed recently. He basically paints himself as an incompetent boob in a sea of incompetent boobs. Seemed completely credible to me...

So you haven't read his book and having seen him interviewed, dismiss anything he has ever written out of hand. Okay. That's sure your right.

If somebody who had never heard of him read the review above, would you say that he shouldn't take Hitchen's critique of the book seriously because Hitchen's TV persona was obnoxious?

B

PS GS, Hitchens is not promoting his book. Hitchens is reviewing it. Might try reading the posted article.

I have dismissed nothing. I have indicated a lack of interest, much as you did on another forum.

You are paying too much attention to your interpretation of the words than the words themselves. I have not criticized Mr. Hitchens or his review. I have suggested that it's a curiosity that a foreigner would show such interest in American politics. Another poster corrected me by pointing out that Mr. Hitchens is an American citizen.

Never said he was promoting the book -- read the words -- carefully.

"I have no intention of enriching this man by purchasing his silly book, ...".

B

Do I have to buy his book? Are you gonna make me? Did you buy it?

Man if you ifnd that curious, google Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright--that will blow your mind:)

And Mother Teresa and Leon Trotsky.

A 2004 thread about Micheal Moore's F911 comes to mind, I recall being ridiculed because I refused to pay to see F911 but I did promise to watch it when it was free. I did watch it and my opinion was unchanged, except I did have a few more laughs than I anticipated.

*** Honor among theives... ***
 

I'm sorry. I was taught to understand that IF you have a job in a highly classified area of government (CIA-FBI-NSI) you didn't let anyone know you had a hightly classified job in the government, AND YOU DON'T LET EVERY TOM, DICK AND HARRY KNOW ABOUT IT... :mad:

And if you happen to be the face of the organization (Bush41, Tenet, Hoover), then you don't go writing books about your organization. :mad:

So, with that in mind...

Why hasn't this pin-head been arrested for treason? At least, publicly pounded into pulp? :headshot:

How many others in the CIA-FBI-NSI need cash? Write a book - then get Mike Wallace/CNN/MSNBC, on a slow-news-day, to "grill" ya' for the juicy details...

Does Tenet think he's getting special protection by saying "I should have thought better about..." :bigcry:

What a wimp.

He'll prove that he was nothing more than a kiss-up political pencil-pusher that needed both his shoes off and his pants around his ankles to be able to count to 21.

Maybe in his case, he could only get as high as 20...too much of a pu55y to tough it out over the long-haul.

BTW, if his book manages to make it to my hands, I'd just 5hit-can it. If it's as much a whinefest as it's beginning to sound like it is, it's probably not worth the effort to carrry over to the garbage can.

But then, there may be some Libby-Dem that would just drool all over it...maybe I'll hand it to them and wait and watch to see how long to takes for them to get "damp."

That would be more entertaining, now that I think of it! :rolleyes:

My $0.02 worth...and I want the change back too!

yip, I wonder why they get away with it.

because they are breaking no law?

tom w

What is happening to Scooter Libby?

Your basic response is noted and expected, if you had knowledge about how the classification system worked you would have had a sharper reply.

I don't know...maybe because I was expecting some ETHICS in the intel business...NO WAIT! We're talking government here!

Sorry. I forgot. That's a subject for Business & Law-Schools and their graduates...to ignore.

My bad.

Anyone ever see the movie Hopscotch? :D

It all starts at the top, doesn't it? I'm not defending Tenet, but it wasn't Tenet who sold out one of his agents, now was it? Tenet just strikes me as one of the crowd, no better or worse than the rest of the current administration.

Libby is being given a good long time to think about selling out his boss, which of course he won't do, as he anticipates his presidential pardon. I believe he'll be sentenced next month, if memory serves...

Hey watch that!

I am a "government lawyer." I am willing to put my ethical standards against ANYONE's ethical standards.

You need to distinguish between the career people like me who do all the hard work and the pols who are just what the word implies...political animals.

Otherwise, I agree with your comments in post #15.

I think there is a difference between sell out and fall guy.

Most people in gov do not have standards or ethics; thats how they roll.

i have no specific knowledge of the laws concerning these folks and their jobs, but do you seriously believe that a man of this level would release a book without having a lawyer vet it first to eleminate anything he might be prosecuted for? let alone lose retirement bennies.

perhaps if scooter had written a book instead of what he did he would not be in the position he is in.

i think it is naive to believe that this man is getting away with something simply because he is in disagreement with the current administration and has written a book telling his viewpoint of it and has not as yet been prosecuted.

tom w

The same as for any disclosure of people who are sworn in: They are prohibited from revealing personnel, means, and methods. Any speaking engagement or publication must be approved by the responsible agency. That most definitely includes book manuscripts, which is what got Tenet's predecessor, Duetsch, in trouble when he brought classified material home on his hard drive to write his memoirs, IIRC. Duetsch was an even more embarrassing doofus but fortunately, unable to impact anything. I cannot image the damage he'd have done had he been in charge on 9/11.

The process for approval is in the public domain.

B

*** Mea culpa! ***
 

Sorry 'bout that Benz-LGB! ;) I was thinking of you as I typed it up...that's the problem when you go after a "certain" group of bad apples...the good ones always get mixed in the same barrel. :shame:

I'll offer the apology when I see the damage is about to over-flow onto the innocent!

I think it's great to have a book like this published. Good for us.

Nevermind the messenger.

Never mind the messenger ... of an autobiography? :dizzy2:

Excellent point...:pleased:

It is OK my friend. Not the first time I've been hit by friendly fire.

But it is true, in government service there is always a line drawn between the drones, like me, who work for the public's benefit and take our obligations seriously.

Then there are the pols and the appointees. They always have an eye open for the next gig. Public service for them is a sinecure. Another stepping stone on the way to their next plum--or their next book! :mad:

They tarnish what the rest of us try to accomplish.

No need for mea culpas. :)

What's the difference? Self-exposure can't be considered a message?

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Is that Reinecke Fuchs during Tollwut season?

George Tenet cashes in on Iraq

The former CIA chief is earning big money from corporations profiting off the war -- a fact not mentioned in his combative new book or heard on his publicity blitz.
By Tim Shorrock

May 7, 2007 | If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004. The former CIA director played up the academic image when he kicked off the recent media blitz for his new book by doing an interview for CBS's "60 Minutes" from his spacious, book-lined office at the university. His academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.
But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income. While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.
When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.

Tenet sits on the board of directors of L-1 Identity Solutions, a major supplier of biometric identification software used by the U.S. to monitor terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company recently acquired two of the CIA's hottest contractors for its growing intelligence outsourcing business. At the Analysis Corp. (TAC), a government contractor run by one of Tenet's closest former advisors at the CIA, Tenet is a member of an advisory board that is helping TAC expand its thriving business designing the problematic terrorist watch lists used by the National Counterterrorism Center and the State Department.
Tenet is also a director of Guidance Software, which makes forensic software used by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence to search computer hard drives and laptops for evidence used in the prosecution and tracking of suspected terrorists. And Tenet is the only American director on the board of QinetiQ, the British defense research firm that was privatized in 2003 and was, until recently, controlled by the Carlyle Group, the powerful Washington-based private equity fund. Fueled with Carlyle money, QinetiQ acquired four U.S. companies in recent years, including an intelligence contractor, Analex Inc.
By joining these companies, Tenet is following in the footsteps of thousands of other former intelligence officers who have left the CIA and other agencies and returned as contractors, often making two or three times what they made in their former jobs. Based on reporting I've done for an upcoming book, contractors are responsible for at least half of the estimated $48 billion a year the government now spends on intelligence. But exactly how much money will remain unknown: Four days before Tenet's book was published, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence decided not to release the results of a yearlong study of intelligence contracting, because disclosure of the figure, a DNI official told the New York Times, could damage national security.
That may be a real break for Tenet. Under his watch, according to former CIA officials and contractors I've interviewed, up to 60 percent of the CIA workforce has been outsourced. A spokesman for the CIA told me last week that that figure "is way off the mark," but wouldn't provide the actual figure, which he said is classified. But publication of that number could prove embarrassing to Tenet, particularly in light of his own deep involvement in the privatization of U.S. intelligence.
Despite making himself available for plenty of airtime of late, Tenet was not available for an interview with Salon, said Tina Andreadis, his publicist at HarperCollins. She referred me to Bill Harlow, Tenet's co-author and his former director of public affairs at the CIA, who said Tenet's work on corporate boards "is all a matter of public record."
Tenet's ties with contractors were underscored last week in a dispute between two groups of former CIA officials over Tenet's legacy. On April 28, six former intelligence officers wrote to Tenet, saying he shared culpability with President Bush and Vice President Cheney for "the debacle in Iraq," and suggesting he donate half the royalties from his book to Iraq war veterans and their families. All of the signatories had severed their ties to U.S. intelligence, although three of them, Phil Giraldi, Larry Johnson and Vince Cannistraro, work as consultants for news organizations, corporations and government agencies outside of intelligence.
A few days later, six recently retired officers responded. They called the first letter a "bitter, inaccurate and misleading attack" on Tenet and pointed out that it was drafted by officers who "had not served in the Agency for years." Tenet, his supporters said, "literally led the nation's counterterrorism fight." And three of its six signatories were directly involved in that fight -- as contractors. They included John Brennan of the Analysis Corp.; Cofer Black, Tenet's former counterterrorism director and vice chairman of Blackwater, the private military contractor; and Robert Richer, the former deputy director of the CIA's clandestine services. Richer recently left Blackwater to become the CEO of Total Intelligence, a new company formed with Black and other ex-CIA officials to provide intelligence services to corporations and government agencies.

the love of money is a powerful negative influence on many people.

i would respect mr tenent a lot more if he did donate the royalties as suggested.

truman had no pension when he retired from the presidency in 52 and had to write his memoirs to have money to live on. he was pristine in his financial matters and refused many offers to sit on boards and be paid just for being the ex president. he was an old fashoned moral man.

Ike warned of the power of the military industrial complex. his warnings have come to pass.

the military industry is now the tail that is wagging the dog of the us.

tom w

There ought to be a limit on what sort of work former, high-level employees may engage in.

If not a complete ban, then a cooling off period, say 36 months, when they cannot work for employers directly involved, in any manner whatsoever, in the kind of work the former government official engaged in. This cooling off period would prevent, to some degree, profiting from their government connections. It would also prevent the forme government official from taking last minute action (just before retiring) on items that could potentially benefit his or her new employers.

Finally, there should be an offset against government retirement and government pension payments from the wages earned from new employers. I am not talkin gabou tthe little clerks and other "grunts" whose salaries are minimal and whose retirement funds are meager.

I am talking about from the President down the line to Cabinet memebers and others in similar high position. There is no reason why Bush Sr., Clinton and soon Bush Jr. should be getting a pension, and all other kinds of retirement benefits (secret service protection being the exception) not generally available to the rest of us taxpayers when these men and women alreeady have tons of money.

The offset monies should go back to the general fund to cover other goverment expenses.

Just my modest proposal. :singer:

What we get to hear of are only the 'peanuts' in the 'world of money', the 'spill-over' so to speak.

As for the 'Real Bucks', we don't get to see the numbers, which actually doesn't even matter because none of us could even think there anyways.

But for the sake of this 'psychological warfare', they better keep those big numbers of the billboards and create, in their own best interest, a few scapegoats to take the heat.