Beating around the Bush

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999258,00.html

Under pressure over the CIA's handling of intelligence on Iraq, the agency chief's response passes the buck back to the White House, writes Julian Borger

Wednesday July 16, 2003

Pity poor George Tenet. The director of the central intelligence agency, source of much of the scepticism about the administration's overblown case against Saddam Hussein, is the designated fall guy for the whole fiasco.

He must feel like he has been gang-mugged. After weeks of speculation and finger-pointing, the rest of the administration finally agreed a damage-limitation strategy - and the strategy was "blame Tenet".

It was President Bush, that paragon of accountability, who first pointed the finger at the director of central intelligence (DCI) and complained, in effect: "He made me say it."

It was left to the national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, to put in the stiletto and twist it.

more

[leftchick]

1. Love that headline! Also love the end paragraph....

<snip>Two names come up again and again in conversations with intelligence sources in Washington: Newt Gingrich, the former Republican congressional leader, who seems to be have repeatedly visited as an informal ambassador for the Pentagon hardliners; and Dick Cheney, who seems to have spent more time down at Langley, egging on the analysts, than any other senior official. The trail leads back to the Pentagon and the White House itself.


look out dickey! :bounce: