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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2007-08 > 1187792548


From: Doug McDonald <>
Subject: Re: The Long Knives Are Out For George Tenet
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:22:28 -0500
References: <6nNyi.108$Jp2.1116@eagle.america.net><DWTyi.24697$Db6.16033@newsfe3-win.ntli.net>
In-Reply-To: <DWTyi.24697$Db6.16033@newsfe3-win.ntli.net>


a.spencer3 wrote:

>>
>> It concluded that Tenet "did not use all of his authorities" in leading a
>> strategic effort against Osama bin Laden, and that "the management
> approach"
>> within the CIA's counterterrorism center "had the effect of actively
>> reinforcing the separation of responsibilities" among the agency's
>> divisions.
>>
>>
> Typical retrospective scapegoating.
>
> The enture protection of the USA rested in one man?
>
> Or were all those other suddenly-now-knowledgable people too scared to
> mention possibilities to him?
>
> What disgusting rubbish.
>

Its not rubbish. The various people and groups who might have
been able to prevent 9/11, as later attacks have been prevented, were
PREVENTED from doing so because of regulations prohibiting
data sharing, put in place during the Clinton administration. Tenet
was a holdover, of course. Bush had had neither the time nor
inclination to remedy this, indeed, while it was obviously
a serious mistake to not have agencies share information,
the immediate danger was not obvious because of the lack
on information sharing, thus leading to no urgency in
correcting the problem. Its thus a circular chain
of blundering stupidities which ultimately issued
from Bush's predecessors. Today at least we are not
acting like the proverbial ostrich. We can't be perfect, but
at least we do worry about being imperfect, as Clinton
most emphatically and disastrously for 3000 people did not.

Doug McDonald

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