Now he starts talking

My view of the Administration and its myriad henchmen is pretty clear: these are bad people executing worse policy. The failure of these policies can be expressed in but a few words; Iraq, Katrina, 9/11. At the center of much of this calamity was George Tenet, former Director of the CIA. He ran the Agency when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. He helped craft the “intelligence” for Iraq as well as the campaign to sell the war. He stood by the President while Bush deceived this nation over and over again. And now, at long last, he is crying foul and coming clean about his role in all of this mess, years after it would have done any good. What a wanker…

The Post is reporting that Tenet’s new book tells the story of how the Administration intentionally misconstrued his “slam dunk” comment. Tenet claims he meant that selling the case against Saddam would be a “slam dunk”, not that Iraq had WMD.

In the interview, Tenet acknowledged that he used the phrase "slam dunk" during a conversation with Bush and other key advisers in December 2002. But Tenet said the phrase was an offhand remark used to describe the ease with which a public case for war could be made. "We can put a better case together for a public case," Tenet told "60 Minutes." "That's what I meant."

[Snip]

In the television interview, Tenet takes special exception with Bush's comments, telling "60 Minutes" that he will "never believe that what happened that day informed the president's view or belief of the legitimacy or the timing of this war. Never!" White House planning for the invasion had been far along by then, Tenet said, with military and logistical plans near completion.
Tenet said that the description offered first to Woodward and then repeated by senior administration officials, including Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was "the most despicable thing that ever happened to me."

"You don't do this," Tenet said. "You don't throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me."

Tenet said "the hardest part of all this has been just listening to this for almost three years. You listen to that and they never let it go. I mean, I became campaign talk. I was a talking point." He accused his former colleagues of being disingenuous and called on them to "just get up and tell the truth. Tell the American people what really happened."

OMG – where to start…

First of all, he can spare us the righteous indignation act. If this really bothered him so much, he should have said something when it might have prevented the war. At the very least, Tenet could have refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom in protest. Four years hence, however, his newfound candor is simply Monday morning quarterbacking at its worst.

Moving on, this blather about honor, he should just shut the fuck up on that topic. Please, this clown has publicly denied actually using the “slam dunk” phrase. If honor were water, he, and most of the rest of this appalling Administration, really, could hardly muster a thimbleful. An honorable person (see Powell, Colin) would have resigned on the spot, rather than linger in furious irrelevance for another two years.

Again, these are terrible people doing terrible things. Serenity now…