This isn’t so much a debate as a list of questions, but I imagine it might descend to debate… (or just descend to the bottom of the page )
Condy Rice has now made it official: The CIA is responsible for the Iraq-Nigeria Uranium claim. Both sides have been putting out their own versions of what happened (CYA), but this seems to be the first direct hit that I have seen. We’ll see how the CIA and Tenet respond.
Outside of the ‘accuracy’ of Rice’s statement (which is clearly the administration’s CYA statement), the biggest question I have is…
Is it wise to take on the CIA?
Not that the CIA will put out a hit on Bush or Rice, nor that they won’t be professionals about their duties, but the CIA has its own way of digging up dirt on people. If I’m not mistaken…Bush does have an election coming up. Could we see certain “unnamed sources deep within the CIA” give information about a cabinet member or Bush or something that is very damaging (assuming such exists)?
Also, will Tenet take this lying down? He is clearly (as has been mentioned before on these boards) being made the fall-guy.
Tenet will take the ‘blame’ for signing off on the Uranium claim (never mind that everyone involved surely know that the CIA thought it was bogus). This will take some of the heat off of Bush.
Bush will then ‘forgive’ Tenet for doing him such a huge favor. And, since Bush desires loyalty rather than competence in his subordinates, will decline to fire him for his ‘mistake’.
Of course, it’s the fact that Bush rewards loyalty over competence that allowed him to bully Tenet into sighing off on deliberate deception in the SOTU in the first place.
I doubt it. I just wonder who got the job of calling him and telling him he was going to walk the plank. Condi Rice? Did he get a kiss, or just a shove?
As he points out there are several reports which indicate that the CIA did make an effort to stop the Niger uranium statement but ultimately they were bullied into accepting the version that sourced the British report. So basically the CIA is now being forced to take the blame for not being firm enough in stopping the White House BS.
Just today, he figured it out. When Condi Rice reminded him that he had signed off on the speech, he looked up his meeting notes and said “Gosh! That’s right! The whole things my fault! I screwed the pooch, I walk the plank…”
Not last week. Not yesterday. Today, he remembered.
Damn those scalliwags! Those CIA miscreants! Misleading those bright-eyed, innocent and stirling souls on Pennsylvania Avenue! For Shame!
I can only shed a tear of rage and clench my fists as I watch, my patriotism and prideful rage gathered to my bosum in humble supplication, as GW stands, his dignity wounded, his honor besmirched, as he quiveringly points an accusitory pinkie at that most rotten of souls, the CIA.
“George (no, the other George) did it!! Not me! neeneer!”
I suppose it makes sense this way. The Bush Administration so values the lives of our servicemen and women that it sent them off on a needless fools’ errand in Iraq. Now it has to demonstrate its respect for our nation’s civilian soldiers. To be vindictive, I hope some embarrassing leaks start cropping up in the Administration’s backyard exactly as rexnervous describes. Unfortunately, I think most people working for the CIA are more professional than that - certainly more professional than executives who can’t accept responsibility for mistakes made on their watch.
Interestingly, I think the Administration’s apparent rift with the State Department and this spat with the CIA leaves the Defense Department as the only major foreign policy-making body on good terms with the White House.
“leaves the Defense Department as the only major foreign policy-making body on good terms with the White House”
Not really. Of course the civilian appointees like Rumsfeld and Wolftowitz are the big backers of the war but the relationship between the administration and the professional soldiers has been quite bad. For instance the pooh-poohing of Eric Shinseki when he said that hundreds of thousands of soldiers would be needed after the war in Iraq.
Basically the administration has had a problem with pretty much the entire professional foreign-policy establishment : the soldiers, the spies and the diplomats. Unfortunately after 9-11 the White House and the civilian ideologues have been able to run over the professionals for the most part.
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