April 30, 2007, - 2:23 pm
On George Tenet
By
Like many of you, I watched the George Tenet interview, last night, on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
I’ve never been a fan of Tenet. He was way too friendly with Yasser Arafat. His agents gave American-funded weapons to the Palestinians and trained them in how to use them. This was ostensibly to provide Arafat’s Palestinian Authority with a police force. But if you are the head of America’s premier intelligence agency, and you cannot predict the obvious–that those guns will be used to commit terrorism en masse (and that is exactly what happened with both the police and the “Tanzim,” of which many PA police were members)–then you have no biz being in the intelligence biz.
But not only was he in that biz, he headed it. And he was the architect of that policy. He has the blood on his hands of all of the victims of those Palestinian terrorist murderers he armed and trained, courtesy of our tax dollars.
Tenet’s arming of the Palestinians and helping them perpetrate their terror is key to the predicament in which Israel is right now–the withdrawal from Gaza, the demoralization of its people, etc., etc., etc. His “intelligence” was a big part of assurances for and follow up from the failed Oslo Accords.
Tenet’s “leadership” in the “intelligence” community went downhill from there. So that’s the jaundiced eye through which I see all that is Tenet.
Now, there is the Tenet book, his last attempt at respect and riches and the reclamation of a positive reputation he rightfully lost long ago. President Bush is to blame for a lot of that which is Tenet. He kept Tenet on, despite Tenet’s policy of arming and training Palestinian terrorists and despite many other failures. And he kept giving Tenet the kosher seal of job approval. We’ve heard that before and since: “Tenet, er . . . Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”
In his book, though not mentioned last night on “60 Minutes,” Tenet blames the Iraq War on–who else?–the JOOOOOOOOS. Yup, that’s right–the tenets of Tenet (and all others so establishmently inclined): If at first you don’t succeed, try blaming the Jews. And . . . When in doubt, blame Israel. Tenet maintains that the reason we went into Iraq was to protect Israel.
HUH?
It’s the same myth that far-left anti-war activists and protesters love to spread: blame Israel for the war in Iraq. But the fact remains: Israel did not want the U.S. to go to war with Iraq. Israel always maintained, at the time, that it’s greatest security threat was not Saddam (who barely hit the country with SCUDS and killed almost no-one there during the Gulf War), but Palestinian terrorists from within its borders and in the Palestinian Authority.
In addition, Israel knew all along that the War in Iraq would only be a losing situation for the nation. In order to get limp, ineffective support from our “ally” Arab buds throughout the Mid-East, the U.S./President Bush promised that if they supported our effort in Iraq, he would force Israel to give up more to the Palestinian terrorists, which it did. Ergo, the Gaza withdrawal and likely more to come (in exchange for nothing but more terrorism against Israel).
Third, Israel has known for the last couple of years that its newest biggest threats are now Iran with its nuclear weapons and Hezbollah on its borders. A Saddamless Iraq run by Shi’ites can only serve to strengthen both of those and Syria. Israel has no interest in a Shi’ite revival, a Shi’ite crescent spanning above it from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Lebanon. Yet, that is what our war in Iraq enabled.
And finally, there is that Islamofascist “democracy” drive that our entry into Iraq and establishment of “democratic” elections of extremists inspired throughout the Islamofascist world. It served only to embolden Israel’s enemies. It gained Hezbollah electoral power in Lebanon to the north. It gave the same to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the West. And, worst of all, it put HAMAS in power within and around.
So, please, Mr. “Intelligence”–Mr. Tenet–how could our entry into Iraq possibly be to “protect” Israel? Tenet doesn’t say. Because he can’t.
Then, there is the Tenet/Scott Pelley interview, last night. It’s hard to watch an interview with any objectivity when you detest the interviewer far more than any of his subjects. And that’s the case with the generally detestable Pelley, who hates America with the best of ’em at the Eye Network.
So it was with that in mind that I watched Tenet. The first half of Tenet’s interview was actually good.
The best quote was his comment about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the 9/11 mastermind and chief of Bin Laden’s operational planning. Pelley asked Tenet, what did KSM say when you captured him? Would he talk?
Tenet: “He said, ‘I’ll talk to you after I go to New York and get my lawyer.'”
When Pelley pressured Tenet on whether torture was used on KSM and other Islamic terrorists, Tenet responded: “This is not a clinical experiment. It might be to you guys [in the media]. But 3,000 Americans were murdered. . . . They had all kinds of terrorist attacks planned. . . . They would kill you and me 30 times over before they would talk.”
Well, I agree with Tenet 100% on that. But his dumping on Richard Perle, on Bush, and on Israel and on everyone other than himself–despite his own large failures–just to sell a book is simply absurd. And who can forget his own history of enabling terrorists a la Arafat.
It makes his own professed concern about KSM now seem phony. And it is. You can’t arm and train (and enable) Islamic terrorists (ie., Arafat et al) over there, while you recognize and try to prevent the mass murder they want commit over here.
Tags: 60 Minutes, America, Arafat's Palestinian Authority, architect, architect of that policy, Bush, CBS, chief, David Lunde, Detroit Free Press, Egypt, Gaza, George Tenet, George Tenet-afat Says, Hamas, head, Hizballah, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, lawyer, Lebanon, Mike Thompson, Muslim Brotherhood, New York, Palestinian Authority, President, Syria, Tanzim, United States, USA Today, Yasser Arafat
Dear Debbie;
While reading the first three articles on your Blog today I couldn’t help screaming multiple obscenities at my computer screen. That’s when I wasn’t loudly soliloquizing.
I’m not going to go into any detail on my thoughts because it would take to long. But I do want to say thank you for the education. I wish Mr. Bush, and Condi Rice would read your Blog. I’d love to see you on your own TV show to.
Sincerely;
EJO
EJO on April 30, 2007 at 3:57 pm