O'Reilly's Tenet Interview

[PhilDernerJr]

It won't let me link to it, but go to http://www.foxnews.com/ and click onthe video onthe side about Bill O'Reilly's interview with For CIA Director Tenet.

It gets to bickering kinda fast, disappointing me inO'Reilly a little bit. However, the most interesting part is inthe last 40 seconds of the interview when discussing Osama BinLaden and Afghanistan.

O'Reilly says "...and you were successful....except for tora Bora," and Tenet makes a strantge face. I hate being suspicious of people like that, but his face creeped me out as though there was much more to theTora Bora story than we are being told.

For the most part, I have no problem with the job that Tenet did. I feel that for the most part, he's become a victim of the Left's need to blame the government instead of people that are directly involved with terror, with the exception of the debate remaining over the War in Iraq.

There's a 2nd clip too with more interview which is entertianing.

[NcSchu]

I don't know if you saw the 60 minutes interview last Sunday, but I have to say it was interesting. After he spoke I got to understand his side of the story on the so-called "secret torture prisons". Tenet's argument that if the CIA didn't press suspected terrorists as hard and a bad thing happened as a result, the CIA and Tenet would be portrayed as unpatriotic. It seemed like Tenet was yet another scapegoat who was forced to resign because of other peoples' mistakes.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Interesting you started this topic just a few days ago...

We just got back from a mandatory briefing with Gen. Michael Hayden, the current Director of the CIA.

He basically talked about intelligence with the current war on Terror, how we have developed and how things have changed dramatically since the Blue/Red days and what we have to do in the future to stay ahead of the enemy.

It was a pretty dry briefing, which is to be expected from a 4-star and especially from the Director of the CIA (we had Alberto Gonzales come talk to us a few months ago, and it was similar), but it was still a pretty informative talk. He didn't really go into anything "earth-shattering" and most of his points were stuff that we've all talked about and know about, but he did seem to have a level head on his shoulders and he seemed to really care about the job and his responsibilities. He pretty much left us with what's most important is having integrity and being honest, reverting to those internal morals and values when things get tough, and to do what you feel is best for the country, while abiding by established laws and rules. Again, nothing too surprising.

Someone asked him of what he thought about Tenet's book and how he viewed Tenet. Hayden said him and George (kept referring to him as George) are good friends, and that when Hayden was the Director of the NSA Tenet had a direct line to his office and was constantly in communication with him. He said he had to make some tough decisions, and he wouldn't comment on them, but he did say the book offers a great view of how the CIA works and operates, and recommended we pick it up.

Looking through his bio, this guy has a laundry list of achievements and awards, and has held some pretty important and sweet jobs. He was a DG outta ROTC and has attended 8 "schools", mainly the typical military "promotion" career path schools like ASCS, Air War College etc...

[Matt Molnar]

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Tenet's book. I'm not up to the Iraq part yet, but as far as 9/11 goes, I would say from reading this and other books on the subject, Tenet did as much as he possibly could have done. The only thing we could have done that might have had some effect on Al-Qaida before 9/11 was putting real troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Tenet laid out a detailed plan for doing exactly this, while constantly ringing alarm bells in the White House that a major attack was coming. Neither Clinton nor Bush listened. The plan was finally executed (quite brilliantly) AFTER 9/11.

A couple of other interesting things I've learned so far:

- He explains how we accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict. It wasn't a stray bomb...the bomb hit exactly where it was supposed to. The problem was bad data which slipped through several layers of checks without being caught.
- Clinton nearly pardoned convicted spy Jonathan Pollard at the request of the Israelis during peace negotiations. Pollard is a former U.S. naval intelligence officer serving a life sentence for sharing classified info with Israel. Tenet promised Clinton he would quit if Pollard were released.
- Saudi Arabia broke up a plot to assassinate Al Gore during a visit to the country while he was VP.

[PhilDernerJr]

I'll have to grab up that book.

[NcSchu]

Neither Clinton nor Bush listened. The plan was finally executed (quite brilliantly) AFTER 9/11.

From what I've read Clinton was ready to put troops down in December 2000 but hesitated because it is considered slightly rude to launch a war a month before a new president takes office.

Also, although the plan was launched brilliantly at first, once troops were transferred to Iraq the situation went downhill. Al Qaeda is already making a come back due to a lack of troops numbers.