Crooks and Liars » Tenet Blasts Bush Administration: “Men of honor don’t do this”.

From the 60 Minutes transcript of an interview with Scott Pelley…

TENET: I remember picking up the phone and calling Andy Card, who is a terrific human being and somebody I've always trusted […] Hi, Andy. I said, you know, we believe — I believed that he had weapons of mass destruction and now what's happened here is, is you've gone out and made me look stupid. It's the most despicable thing I've ever heard in my life. Men of honor don't do this.”

PELLEY: Men of honor don't do this.

TENET: You don't do this. You don't throw people overboard. You don't call do this — you don't call somebody in. You work your heart out. You show up every day. You're going to throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honorable?

It's not honorable to me. OK and that's how I feel. Now had it happened and who orchestrated it and what happened, you know, at the end of the day the only thing that you have is trust and honor in this world. It's all you have. All you have is your reputation built on trust and your personal honor. When you don't have that anymore, well you know there you go. Trust was broken.

Men of honor who have sworn an oath to serve and protect their country do not write a book and go on national television knowing that their actions may hurt the country they swore to serve.

How can this man talk of honor when he has injected himself back into the national debate in a disruptive manner? Especially at a time when our troops remain in harm’s way, the Iraqi situation, as well as our world position, is less than stable, and the current Administration is besieged by rabid members of the opposing political party seeking to regain political power in an upcoming election. How much damage will his book and the subsequent publicity tour do America’s interests? Will it provide aid and comfort to our enemies...as well as politicians opposing current administration policy?

This type of book adds fuel to an already overheated fiery situation. If Tenet felt that such a book was necessary, I would have had much more respect for the man if he had waited a suitable period of time and the published a book which could be analyzed by scholars and historians as they seek to analyze and explain the history of the United States during this turbulent period.

Perhaps this current public relations problem is one of the President’s own making. Not appointing the right person for the right job and allowing a bureaucratic hack from the previous administration to remain in a position of authority.

Compared with the legendary Allen Dulles (Princeton, George Washington University) who brought hard-won knowledge and expertise to the agency  (US Diplomatic Service, Department of State, 1916-26; Practiced law in New York, 1926-42 and 1946-50; Head of Office of Strategic Services post in Bern, Switzerland, 1942-45; Deputy Director for Plans, CIA, 4 January–23 August 1951; Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, 23 August 1951–26 February 1953), Tenet seems to be a creation of the bureaucracy.

Tenet had the right education (Georgetown University, Columbia University), but seemed to lack any worldly experience to qualify him for the position he held. (Legislative Assistant; Legislative Director for Senator John Heinz, 1982-85; Staff Member, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), 1985-88; Staff Director, SSCI, 1988-93; Member of President-elect Clinton’s national security transition team, 1992-93; Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, National Security Council, 1993-95; Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, 3 July 1995–11 July 1997).

My conclusion: Tenet is smart, well-educated, well-spoken and extremely adept in the ins-and-outs of bureaucratic wrangling. But his seeming disregard for the welfare of his country, as opposed to burnishing his reputation, leads me to believe that his book is simply an application for a position with the new administration should the tide turn. Or, in the very finest art of the bureaucrat, seeks to distance himself from a controversial and messy situation.

It should be remembered that I am not so much sticking up for the current Administration, but pointing out how Tenet’s current actions may hurt America. While I can understand his sense of hurt and outrage over allegedly having been treated poorly by members of the Administration, to my way of thinking, he remains a bureaucratic weasel.

This does not apply to the thousands of dedicated, hard-working patriots at the CIA, NSA, NRO and many other agencies trying to preserve the American way.

What can YOU do?

View the book and his author in a historic light… and consider for yourself whether or not the timing of this book was either political and/or detrimental to the interests of our country.

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…