Publishers hover to snap up book that insiders think Tenet will write

[Cocoa]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001948477_tenetbook05.html

<snip>
WASHINGTON — Peter Osnos, founder and CEO of Public Affairs Press, was about to board his flight for BookExpo America in Chicago when he called his office and learned that CIA Director George Tenet had resigned.

"One month," he told a staffer. "It'll be less than a month before there's a book proposal."

People who know Tenet, the tenacious, politically savvy operative, say he is unlikely to write a "kiss-and-tell" memoir of his seven years as CIA director. But in a year when former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and former National Security Council aide Richard Clarke scored huge best sellers with their behind-the-scenes accounts of life in the Bush administration, the publishing world is salivating.

"This will be huge," said Phillipa Brophy, president of Sterling Lord, which represents authors. "He has to say something, but people will pay a lot of money for it, no matter what he says."

more...

[Bozita]

1. Good find, Cocoa!

Huge is right.

from the article:

"How much could a tell-all book bring? "A buck and a half," said another agent in New York, meaning $1.5 million."

[Justice]

2. Very Good find

can't wait. If the deal happens within the month, publishers will be dying to get it out before the election.

[stellanoir]

3. not to be a wet blanket on the anticipated firestorm. . .

I had the same hope initially when I heard of his resignation ,but I heard a former CIA operative on the radio yesterday, saying that members of the CIA have to pledge to maintain lifelong secrecy regarding internal affairs and that anything he might write would be subject to copious editting and delay by the administration. She furthered that anything that was controversial would be censored so as to not pose a threat to "national security."

We need another "Deep Throat" to really crack this cabal open.

[Cocoa]

4. Richard Clarke said he expected Tenet to spill some beans

during an interview promoting Clarke's own book, he was asked why Tenet is not saying some of the same things Clarke is, and Clarke answered, I'm confident when he's out of government, Tenet will confirm what I'm saying now.

[Nlighten1]

5. Tenet isn't out of the government though is he?

[Cocoa]

6. I don't follow you

when he resigns as DCI, won't he be out of the govt?

[Nlighten1]

7. Not necessarily

My understanding is he is leaving that job but he will still be involved with the CIA. Am I wrong?

[Ripley]

8. Where did you hear that?

Resign means resign, especially since he said it was for "family reasons." Why would he continued to be involved if it was affecting his family's well-being?

I know that's really not the reason he left.

He may not be able to divulge all the goods on the thugs in office, but he sure as hell can make it plain as day that the OSP is responsible for Chalabi and WMD and all the other lies that the CIA told the White House to ignore. Not that I don't think they had some failings, but he needs to set the record straight on Iraq.

[Nlighten1]

9. Resign doesn't mean leaving the government though...

It means he is leaving that position. There could be other positions waiting.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. He probably has a rough draft ready blaming Clinton to be released

a week before the election, written by Karl Rove and David Frum and the whole thing was a set-up so that it could be published :tinfoilhat: (just making shit up here :D )

[Sticky]

10. I doubt he will betray the master

He's a family friend from waaayy back. What I would like to know is if Bob Woodward's account of "Slam Dunk" is true....and I bet we'll never know.

[SquireJons]

11. Given what this admin has done to the intelligence community..

I think it's a good bet that he will stick up for his guys (and gals) when they get tied to the whipping post. According to a post here on DU the other day, shrub demanded his immediate resignation because he wouldn't goose step and salute. It seems pretty clear that cheney and rummy didn't like what the CIA was saying, so they created their own intel agencies and pressured the established ones to conform to neo-con preconceptions.

Payback can be a bitch.

[gulliver]

13. He better get it out before the election.

No one will care about it afterward.

[LiviaOlivia]

14. TNR-Weighing the odds of a Tenet memoir

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=wirzbicki060404
subscription req'd
DAILY EXPRESS
Book Case
by Alan Wirzbicki

Only at TNR Online
Post date: 06.04.04
It has almost become de rigueur for departed Bush officials to turn on their former bosses by writing or collaborating on a tell-all account of their stints in the administration. First there was Paul O'Neill. Then Richard Clarke. Then Anthony Zinni. According to The New York Times, Christie Whitman, the former head of the EPA, "is writing a book about the place of moderates in the Republican Party." One of the many questions being asked in Washington is whether George Tenet is now going to join that list. A CIA spokesman said that Tenet, who will leave his post as CIA chief in mid-July, plans to spend time with his family and then to "pursue a variety of interests," including "speaking, teaching, writing, and working in the private sector." What sort of writing? Will Tenet share his grievances with the world in the form of a book? And if he is inclined to do such a thing, what kinds of hurdles might be involved?

<snip>

The events that are likely to take place this summer would provide Tenet with another, less commercial, incentive to write a book. The CIA is likely to receive a drubbing from both the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and the 9/11 Commission in the weeks and months ahead. Writing a book would give Tenet a forum to respond to those reports and defend his leadership of the Agency.

But even if Tenet were inclined to write a book, timing would be an enormous obstacle. Any such book published after the election would attract fewer readers; publishers might therefore only be interested in working with Tenet if he could turn around the book by November. And that would be a tight schedule. When Tenet leaves the CIA, there will be less than four months until the election. Writing, editing, and publishing a book in that time would be difficult--though not impossible, according to Shandler: "Would it be an insane schedule? Yes. But I'm sure there's someone out there who could make it happen."

On top of the logistical difficulties, as a former CIA employee, anything Tenet writes would have to be vetted by the Agency. This process takes time--and might eliminate some of the most interesting parts of a prospective Tenet book. In the case of Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies, the National Security Council's review took months; according to Clarke, it delayed the publication from December until March. Unless the CIA is a lot quicker, it would be virtually impossible for Tenet to produce the "October surprise" that half of Washington is hoping for.

[robbedvoter]

15. Too delicious to let go