actually, I know and like Tenet. When I was a peon on the NSC staff back in the mid-90s, he was a senior staffer a couple of levels up (on a par with my boss), and I dealt with him in that capacity. Smart and professional, and also a good guy, down to earth, no pretensions. Somebody you liked working with and hanging out with, both. So I've always been gratified to watch him do well over the years. I don't doubt there were, and are, CIA failures in this struggle, but personally I think they have been less disastrous than the failures of other bureaucracies, and are made to look worse than they should by people who are coming at the subject with 20/20 hindsight. Thus I have never been one to think Tenet should be sacrificed on the altar of 9/11, and see him as one of the sane people around Bush, part of the solution to things, not part of the problem.
tb@fwiw.com |
