Saturday, June 05, 2004

Tenet's "resignation"

See? What'd I tell you about enjoying the fluff while it lasted?

Information Clearinghouse is carrying an interview with Ray McGovern, the retired CIA official by Amy Goodman at Democracy Now!, discussing the fact that Tenet is the first fall guy to bet dumped overboard.

Read it for that analysis, and for why McGovern is fearful that the administration must do anything and everything to ensure they stay in office another four years, but here's an interesting excerpt that speaks to the issue of Cheney pressuring the CIA for the information the administration wanted...

AMY GOODMAN: We, of course can’t forget how many times Dick Cheney went to the Central Intelligence Agency. Very unusual situation. Can you talk about that in relation to George Tenet?

RAY MCGOVERN: Yes Amy, that’s a very good question. People have asked me, is that unusual? Well, it’s not unusual for the vice president to go to CIA headquarters. It’s unprecedented. I worked there for twenty seven years, and never once did a serving vice president come on a working visit to CIA headquarters. That’s not the way you do things in Washington. We went down to see him. I saw the first George Bush every other morning over a period of more than two years. If they have questions, you bring down the experts. You get the answers. But you don’t need key policy makers looking over your shoulder to make sure you haven’t missed something, to make sure in effect that you get the answers right. And right, the description of right is what the policy makers want. You not only had Dick Cheney, you had people like Newt Gingrich for Pete’s sake. You had Colin Powell bragging about the fact that he spent four days and nights at CIA headquarters before his key speech on 5 February 2003. This is bizarre.