Heckuva Job Georgie

I read this article tonight and once again was furious at how much President Bush still manages to get a free ride on 9/11. The new CIA report places the ultimate blame on George Tenet. That would be the same George Tenet that gave us slam dunk evidence of WMD. While I do not dispute Tenet's failures in preventing 9/11, it amazes me that the ultimate responsibility is rarely placed at the feet of his former boss.

9/11 happened 8 months into Bush's term. 10% of his time in office elapsed. Failure to keep Richard Clarke on the case, failure to show urgency after the August 6th PDB (Bush immediately went to Crawford after this briefing for the next 30 days), failure to assemble all of the Intelligence Agencies to coordinate efforts, and failure to show leadership after the first strike so he could continue along with his photo op. There were tons of mistakes, these are tip of the iceberg.

We can now add to this by saying failure to capture (dead or alive) those responsible for this attack. Ultimately this is my biggest beef with this administration (and I have many), the thought that 6 years later the leaders of the organization that killed 3000 Americans still have not been caught or killed pains me.

There were mistakes all along the way with plenty of blame for all, but for a report to place ultimate blame on anyone other than the head of all the agencies misses the mark in a big way.



CIA Report Blames Tenet for 9/ll Failure

Brian Ross Reports:

Former CIA director George Tenet "bears ultimate responsibility" for failing to create a strategic plan to stop al Qaeda prior to 9/ll, according to a review by the CIA's inspector general that was made public today, more than two years after it was written.

The report says that while Tenet wrote he wanted "no resources or people spared" in going after al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, neither he, nor his deputy, "followed up these warnings and admonitions by creating a documented, comprehensive plan to guide the counterterrorism effort."

"I know now why Tenet worked so hard to kill this report," said former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant.

In a written statement, Tenet, who received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush, said the report was "flat wrong." Tenet said the inspector general failed to interview him. "He fails to understand how intensely I pushed the counterterrorism issue," Tenet said.

The current CIA director, Gen. Mike Hayden, said the report was being made public "against his wishes" but as required by law. Hayden said he, like his predecessor Porter Goss, had no plans to punish CIA officials cited in the report