WASHINGTON, April 29, 2007
Rice Dismisses Tenet's Accusations
Secretary Of State Doubts Former CIA Director's Memories On Iraq, Afghanistan
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Play CBS Video Video Rice On Iraq, Tenet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tells Bob Schieffer the President will not compromise on the Iraq funding bill and that she doesn't recall George Tenet pitching a preemptive strike on Afghanistan.
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Video Murtha: Start Withdrawal Now Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., tells Bob Schieffer that he wants the U.S. military to start planning a withdrawal from Iraq now, even after the President vetoes the war funding bill.
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Video Simon On The Iraq Showdown The Politico's Roger Simon joins Bob Schieffer to discuss Iraq, Congress, and Tenet's new book.
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Condoleezza Rice on Face The Nation, April 29, 2007 (CBS)
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Former CIA Director George Tenet talks to Scott Pelley in a 60 Minutes interview. (CBS)
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Timeline Tenet At The CIA George Tenet's reign as the director of America's premier spy agency.
Tenet tells Scott Pelley in a 60 Minutes interview that, before the September 11 attacks, he told Rice in a White House meeting the U.S. should take preemptive action inside Afghanistan.
"We need – we need to – we need to consider immediate action inside Afghanistan now," Tenet remembers telling Rice, who was then National Security Advisor. "We need to – we need to move to the offensive."
Rice, however, said Tenet's claim was a "new fact" and she would "have to look."
She told Bob Schieffer, "It's very interesting because that's not what George told the 9/11 Commission at the time. He said that he felt that we had gotten it."
Asked why Tenet would make the claim if it wasn't true, Rice said she didn't know. "I don't know what we were supposed to preemptively strike in Afghanistan," she said. "Perhaps somebody can ask that."
Tenet also claims that the administration never had a serious debate about whether Iraq posed an imminent threat or whether to tighten existing sanctions before its 2003 invasion.Read: George Tenet on 60 Minutes
"The president came in, in 2001, determined to try to deal with the Iraqi situation perhaps even by sanctions, by smart sanctions," Rice said on Face The Nation. "There was an extended period of time of trying other efforts, including the president's September address to the U.N. in 2002."
Tenet also tells 60 Minutes the way the Bush administration has used his now famous "slam dunk" comment — which he admits saying in reference to making the public case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — is both disingenuous and dishonorable.
"It's the most despicable thing that ever happened to me," Tenet says. "You don't do this. You don't throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me."
Tenet says to have the president base his entire decision to go to war on such a remark is unbelievable.
Rice said she remembers Tenet using the "slam dunk" line once but said the intelligence failures leading up to the invasion of Iraq were a worldwide problem.
"We all believed the intelligence was strong," she said. "It wasn't just a problem with intelligence in the United States, it was an intelligence problem worldwide. Services across the world thought that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Read: George Tenet on 60 Minutes
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 169 CommentsFact: No relationship between Sadam (and Bathists) and al Queda to 911.
Fact: Intelligence was wrong.
Fact: Over 3000 American dead.
Fact: One hell of a mess in Iraq.
You have to ask yourself, who is to blame?
But here's the real reason I think we went into Iraq. This was during Bill O'Reilly's hayday, and his accusing the UN left and right of every which thing but media hype. And it turns out the UN inspectors were right? There were no WMDs?
I am no national or worldwide intelligence expert, however, FROM THE BEGINNING, I (not to mention you and everyone else) had very serious doubts about the WMD's, and using that as a reason to attack Iraq without provocation. Many democrats had serious doubts as well but went along with the war vote like puppets on a string. Shame on you all as well, you know who you are.
In the meantime, mark your calendars 1-20-09.
Liberal news media only survives because is't main obligation is to the democratic party. Listen to some real news and you'll see what I mean. Remember Dan Rather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was only a cog in a big wheel.
NUFF SAID................Quit yer whinin'
That would explain why BOTH PRESIDENTS Clinton & Bush went on TV explaining Hussein was "developing Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Maybe neither Clinton nor Bush lied about WMD, maybe they were both misled by this idiot.
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That would explain why BOTH PRESIDENTS Clinton & Bush went on TV explaining Hussein was "developing Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Maybe neither Clinton nor Bush lied about WMD, maybe they were both misled by this idiot.
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That would explain why BOTH PRESIDENTS Clinton & Bush went on TV explaining Hussein was "developing Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Maybe neither Clinton nor Bush lied about WMD, maybe they were both misled by this idiot.
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9-11 was a godsend to them - because it allowed them to falsely lead the nation to invade a nation that had nothing to do with 9-11 and no AQ connection whatsoever - in fact - they were barely surviving and had no means of defending themselves as any invasion whether it was US or Iran.
The reason it is absolutely necessary to accept that the Bush Administration screwed up totally from beginning to now is that we cannot allow them to act alone in making decisions, action plans or diplomatic decisions regarding Iraq or Middle East or Iceland - they are simply not capable of acting in the best interests of US - whether its lack of competency or lack of reality not a one of them is up for the job.
For the most part I agree with what you've said. One further point though.
Almost all the people who thought Sadaam had WMD and didn't want him to go unchecked(including all the Democrats that you've quoted) favored allowing the U.N. inspection process to be completed. It would have been much better to use that inspection as a springboard to build a broader coalition and greater concensus for going to war.
We now know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the decision had already been made to go to war and Bush wasn't going to wait and allow the U.N. inspectors to show the world that the weapons weren't there.
We also know from Tenent that Pearle was trying to sell an Iraq-911 link the day after with no evidence and that the intelligence community thought this was crazy.
You're right that name-calling and moveon silly chants aren't productive. There's just a lot of legitimate anger that people need to find a non-violent way to release. In most of the world people kill for far less.
That would explain why BOTH presidents Clinton & Bush went on TV explaining Hussein was "developing Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Maybe neither Clinton nor Bush lied about WMD, maybe they were both misled by this idiot.
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Nice convenient excuse. You believed what you wanted to believe! You only accepted "intelligence" that supported your pre-conceived ideas and notions; you ignored or dismissed anything that didn't support your plan for war. That's what the Downing Street Memo proved. That's why people claim you lied us into this war. You, Ms. Rice, brought a "cold war" expertise and mentality to the office...you were overmatched when it came to this region and these issues. When Richard Clarke and others tried to get you up to speed you blew them off. You and your buddy, George, allowed the Pearle's, Cheney's, and other Project for a New American Century wackos to stampede us into this God-forsaken war. We will all be paying for your incompetence for decades to come.
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