George Tenet

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Report: Detailed Warnings About 9/11 Were Ignored

'I think they were mentally stuck'

(Newser) - “It was very evident that we were going to be struck, we were gonna be struck hard, and lots of Americans were going to die,” former CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black recalls about the months before 9/11. Politico has an exclusive look from Chris Whipple into how the...

NYT: Obama Must Prosecute CIA Torture

'Looking forward' no excuse for lack of accountability: editorial

(Newser) - The Senate report on CIA torture has revealed both despicable acts and a "fabricat(ed) legal foundation" for them, and it's time for those responsible to be held accountable, the New York Times editorial board writes. "No amount of legal pretzel logic can justify the behavior detailed in...

Rep: CIA Torture Report Will Cause 'Violence, Deaths'

Mike Rogers says release of report is 'terrible idea,' will wreak havoc overseas

(Newser) - It's not a total surprise that the CIA used torture to question al-Qaeda detainees in the years following 9/11—Obama himself acknowledged over the summer that "we tortured some folks," CBS News notes. But the details of a Senate Intelligence Committee report that may be released as...

Dick Cheney Reveals He Wanted to Bomb Syria in New Memoir, 'In My Time'


 Cheney: I 
 Wanted to 
 Bomb Syria 
More Memoir
Aug 25, 2011 11:52 AM CDT

Cheney: I Wanted to Bomb Syria

Former VP discusses his conflicts with Condoleezza, Powell, Tenet

(Newser) - And the revelations from Dick Cheney's new memoir just keep coming: yesterday, news of a secret resignation letter. Today, the New York Times , which obtained a copy of In My Time , reports that Cheney pushed Bush to bomb what the US believed to be a nuclear reactor site in...

Prosecute Bush, Cronies: Human Rights Watch

Group wants torture allegations investigated

(Newser) - Human Rights Watch wants George W. Bush and his top officials prosecuted for war crimes and criminal conspiracy, the Guardian reports. In a new report, the US group calls for foreign governments to move forward with the prosecution if the Obama administration does not investigate. In addition to allegations of...

CIA Chiefs Ask Obama to Scrap Interrogation Probe

Disclosure of CIA methods will help the enemy, decrease national security, former directors warn

(Newser) - Seven former CIA directors—appointees of both political parties—are calling on the Obama administration to call off the Justice Department’s investigation of Bush-era interrogation practices, the Hill reports. The probe, ordered by AG Eric Holder, will reveal too much about the CIA’s methods in an environment where...

Judge: CIA Used Fraud to Get Wiretap Case Dismissed

Orders Tenet to explain misleading actions on wiretap suit

(Newser) - US District Judge Royce Lamberth released hundreds of secret filings yesterday, saying the CIA falsely claimed that state secrets were involved in a 15-year-old wiretapping lawsuit, McClatchy reports. The agency allowed the judge to continue believing that an agent involved in the case was undercover, when in reality that cover...

CIA Assassination Scheme No Big Deal In-House

(Newser) - Not only was the CIA's “targeted killing” program an “open secret,” but there's also “less to it than meets the eye,” Robert Baer writes for Time. The former intelligence officer notes that the Washington Post broke the story in 2001, and a New York Times...

Tenet Denies Drunken Rant About 'the Jews'

Pressured CIA chief spilled fears to Saudi prince

(Newser) - George Tenet is vehemently denying a report in a new book that the then-CIA director railed against Bush administration neocons, "referring to them with exaxperation [sic] as, 'the Jews,'" the Atlantic reports. The incident took place in Saudi Prince Bandar's pool after Tenet downed half a bottle of...

Obama's In for an Awkward CIA Transition
Obama's In for an Awkward
CIA Transition
ANALYSIS
Dec 3, 2008 12:08 PM CST

Obama's In for an Awkward CIA Transition

His tough campaign rhetoric sets tone as left looks for change

(Newser) - On the campaign trail, Barack Obama frequently railed against the CIA’s secret jails and harsh interrogation techniques. Now, he must lead the agency, and the transition’s already proving rocky, the New York Times reports. Liberal outcry derailed his rumored pick for director, John Brennan. Brennan was chief of...

CIA Obstructed 9/11 Inquiry, Commission Heads Charge

Destroying tapes at odds with probe

(Newser) - By withholding and ultimately destroying videotapes of the interrogation of al-Qaeda detainees, the CIA willfully obstructed the 9/11 commission, its top two members charge in today’s New York Times. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton say the CIA repeatedly stonewalled their investigation in 2003-04, answering questions vaguely, denying access to...

Curveball's True Identity Comes to Light

Iraqi informant lied about WMDs for green card, 60 Minutes says

(Newser) - Curveball, the Iraqi informant whose tall tales of mass weaponry helped push the US to war, has been identified by 60 Minutes as a lousy student—not the brilliant chemical engineer he claimed to be—who lied through his teeth to get his green card. This week's show names him...

Tenet Just Didn't Get It
Tenet Just Didn't Get It
Aug 21, 2007 2:18 PM CDT

Tenet Just Didn't Get It

IG report says ex-director knew about Qaeda threat but didn't respond

(Newser) - George Tenet’s CIA failed to stifle the al-Qaeda threat in the months leading up to 9/11, an internal report found by the agency's Inspector General found. A summary released today found the former director’s attention to methodology eclipsed his focus on strategy, the Times reports, in a rebuke...

Woodward, Tenet Form Perfect Storm of Ego

Whine over who wronged whom

(Newser) - Once upon a time, former CIA director George Tenet and superstar political reporter Bob Woodward were friendly, but now they're locked in an ego battle too degrading to produce any winners. The New Yorker this month gives each space to snipe at the other and explores what the whinefest means...

Tenet Earns Big Bucks off War Profiteers

Former CIA chief finds a pot of gold in the center of the storm

(Newser) - Former CIA boss George Tenet has made a killing off companies profiting in Iraq, Salon reports—one fact undisclosed in his recent tell-all screed. Besides a reported $4 mil advance for the book, Tenet used his spook cred to win spots on corporate boards in a national security industry he...

Ex-CIA Chief Blasts Cheney
Ex-CIA Chief Blasts Cheney
Apr 27, 2007 8:03 AM CDT

Ex-CIA Chief Blasts Cheney

Tenet's new book says "there was never serious debate" about going to war in Iraq

(Newser) - George Tenet offers a scathing attack on Dick Cheney and other architects of the war in Iraq in a new book to be released Monday, the New York Times reports.  The former CIA director alleges that "there was never serious debate" about whether Iraq was an imminent threat...

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