Tenet's Confession And The Coming Change

Salameh Nematt     Al-Hayat     2003/07/14

The confession of George Tenet, CIA director, about being the only one responsible for the misleading information mentioned in the American President's speech regarding the weapons of mass destruction didn't come as a surprise. Indeed, it was necessary in order to contain the mounting tension, which started to threaten the president's image and that of his Republican administration in the eyes of the American public.

Although other high White House officials knew that the information about the Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger was inaccurate, the choice fell on Tenet to take full responsibility in what could be considered a "fedayee" act that could turn into a suicide mission if the Congress and the Senate ask for his resignation. Tenet didn't submit his resignation, and the White House didn't ask for it, in the hope that the administration's enemies would be satisfied with the confession-apology presented.    

Bush, along with his advisors in the White House, know all too well that Tenet is not the only one responsible for the scandal. They also know that the man, appointed to this position by former President Clinton, offered a huge favor to President Bush and his administration, and could be proving to be extremely loyal, for he being ready to sacrifice himself to contain a crisis that could harm Bush's presidential elections next year. 

It is no secret that the neo-conservatives in the administration, especially in the Pentagon, have been trying hard to weaken the role of the CIA ever since the September 11 attacks, which the agency failed to prevent. Some conservatives accuse the agency of having failed on more than one level in doing their job during the Iraqi war; claiming that it used invalid intelligence information provided by a nation "friend," including the information that led to bombing sites where Saddam Hussein was supposed to be during the first hours of the war, and then on April 7, two days before the fall of the regime. The contacts the agency had with Iraqi officials just before the war, aiming to push them to rebel against the regime, also failed. So did it fail to mobilize the tribes in the south against the regime in the beginning of the war. It also misjudged the situation after the regime fell, and didn't have a realistic plan to deal with the coming stage. 

The truth is that the conservatives succeeded in besieging Secretary of State Colin Powell and weakening him, and accomplished many breaches in his ministry to the benefit of their groups. Eliminating Tenet, despite Bush's trust in him, is part of a plan aimed to reorganize the agency, its methods and its political aspirations. Recently, we started hearing in Washington that the conservatives are exerting pressures to have Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, replace tenet as CIA Director, which would guarantee more harmony in the relations with the Pentagon and the administration's hawks.     

In case the conservatives succeed in bringing about a real change inside the CIA, the relations between the agency and several security systems of "friend" nations in the Middle East would definitely be altered, especially with rumors spreading that these nations have been giving Washington false information. This change of relations could mean moving closer to a new approach in U.S. relations with the region, from a whole new perspective that cancels the current competition between the State Department and the CIA on one hand, and the Defense Ministry and the American hawks on the other, towards what the conservatives are calling for, namely a harsher way of dealing with Middle Eastern countries.