Rice Dismisses Tenet's Accusations

Secretary Of State Doubts Former CIA Director's Memories On Iraq, Afghanistan

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Face The Nation dismissed accusations made by former CIA Director George Tenet about the Bush administration's early decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan.

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."

---

Read: George Tenet on 60 Minutes

---

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.

"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."

[smabo]

In this interview Scott Pelley asked George Tenet about the no fly list on Sept.11. Some interesting follow up info on this comes from Wikipedia: "It is known that the size of the FBI/FAA list on September 11, 2001 was 16 names. By December 2001, the list had grown to 594 names, and a year later (December 2002), there were over 1,000 names. CBS reported on the 8 October 2006 edition of 60 Minutes that they had obtained a copy of the list dated March 2006 that contains 44,000 names.[2] According to the TSA, as of November 2005, 30,000 people in 2005 alone had complained their names were matched to a name on the list via the name matching software used by airlines.[3] Less commonly known is that the list, while very long, also includes many duplicates. Some are common misspellings and some are different dates of birth"

[gfedcba7]

Fact: No WMD.
Fact: 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?

[booyaw_77]

"This doesn't matter anyway. We had plenty of reason to go into Iraq. Saddam violated the peace agreement that he signed. Fourteen months later, we went in because he continued to defy the US and the agreement. NUFF SAID................Quit yer whinin'"

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?

[leftisright2]

Got to love a guy that posts the same thing 3 times calling someone an idiot! Way to go processor2. Doing something stupid always lends credibility to your argument. Kind of like pro-lifer's that are also pro-death penalty. Jesus must just shake his head in embarrassment at those pharasee's.

[beanerman4]

mkimowz speaks the truth, and PBS is putting out some great stuff as well on the too numerous to mention lies and scandals of the Reign.

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.

[mkimowz]

All of you people would do well to listen to another news media to get your information. There was a lot taken out of context in the Tenet interview, and a lot of things left out.
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.

[mkimowz]

This doesn't matter anyway. We had plenty of reason to go into Iraq. Saddam violated the peace agreement that he signed. Fourteen months later, we went in because he continued to defy the US and the agreement.
NUFF SAID................Quit yer whinin'

[ixoye_02]

It's really sad when people like Rice, who has impressive educational credentials, cannot discern truth even it it hit her in the face. Loyalty to Bush is her achilles heel and she won't raise the stature for other women who might be compared to her. The American people will be scrutinizing so-called "smart" people from now on. Because we have already seen where lies and deceit have taken our country. We have the republican leadership to thanks at all levels of congress. I am so glad that they are out of power now. And I will never trust another republican politiciian for a long time despite my prior affiliation in a past life. It's so sad to see wasted talent, even if she is a Stanfurd (Go Bears!) grad.

[processor2]

George Tenet was a Clinton appointee and was kept by Bush.

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.

...

[processor2]

George Tenet was a Clinton appointee and was kept by Bush.

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.

...

[processor2]

George Tenet was a Clinton appointee and was kept by Bush.

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.

...

[nyckate]

fredgrad2000 - the end result of all the reports concludes that the Bush Admin 'fixed' the intel to gain the end result they wanted - and Bush adn Cheney in April 2001 through Cheney Energy Commission had already decided on regime change in Iraq as a necessity.

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.

[acctriangle]

Somebody is lying. And Congress should get to the bottom of it all because there are a lot people dead as a result, including our U.S. Soldiers!

[realpatriot1]

fredgrad2000,

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.

[dodaz-2009]

When it come to life AND death... expect the same response... " I DON'T RECALL"... good lordy... these people sound like Mafioso...LOL

[nyckate]

Smart sanctions?? From the Bush Administration?? What a load of BS.. you'd think by now they'd be exhausted trying to keep all their lies and deceptions going - I mean come on - not a one of them ever did an honest day's work in their life - but boy oh boy they sure can keep slinging the BS.

[processor2]

George Tenet was a Clinton appointee and was kept by Bush.

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.

...

[clemenhagen1]

"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."

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.

[fredgrad2000]

ainttaken - I agree Iraq invasion was a bad idea, that his administration BUNGLED the task of managing Iraq after the initial victory, has left us with a potentially worse scenario in the region (i.e., a Hezbollah-style Iraq "owned" by Iran, with Al Qaeda being heavily invested where it was not before) that cannot be cured by reversing the initial mistake of invading. What I have trouble with all the time is namecalling (i.e. "chimp" - what does that accomplish? Namecalling is for 5 year olds!!) and the continual MoveOn rhetoric of Bush lied, etc...blah blah blah...questions of whether it was a good idea to invade or over MIS-management of the war are valid and like I said, I agree...but everyone in the world, including Bush's predecessor, his Democratic opponents, strong, foreign intelligence services like the British, French, Chinese, etc...all believed Saddam had WMD and we all know he used it. The differences were based on USE of that intel. Bush chose to get rid of Saddam based on that intel in a post-9/11 world, the British agreed, the French did not (even though we know French and Russians were bought off, it wasn't a "moral" choice on their part). That decision has made things worse by leaving us in a stalemate where the parties who gain from our loss are bigger enemies than Saddam was...but it was a wrong decision based on intel everyone believed to be valid.

[wdrussell1]

We all knew that George had his eyes on Iraq as soon as he took office. Some people just refuse to admit it.