Transcript: CIA Director Defends Iraq Intelligence
QUESTION: I think you've done a good job outlining why the issues today do not constitute an intelligence failure. However, how do you think realistically this issue will be perceived in the future by the international community?
TENET: Well, I think that the interesting piece, of course, is the international community itself, through the United Nations and its inspection process over the years, clearly understood the nature of this regime.
They clearly understood the deception and the denial that this regime had engaged in. And they clearly were frustrated by what Saddam Hussein would not comply with. They clearly recognized that even the data declaration he provided us in 2002 was phony. And at the end of the day, they have now learned from the Iraqi Survey Group that Saddam Hussein was in material breach of Resolution 1441.
Now, here's the problem we have when we talk about issues as difficult as this. How long do you let -- and this is a policy decision; our policy-makers made a different choice -- how long do you let material breach, deception and denial go on before you risk with the kind of surprise that I could never fully and 100 percent predict? This is the question we were faced with.
The international community may have different views, but they can't walk away from the record the international community developed about Saddam Hussein himself.
QUESTION: Given the kind of vigorous defense you've just made of the American intelligence community, how can you argue that if the American intelligence community was so -- had to make such a judgment call that other allies of the United States were not able to reflect the same judgment call and make similar decisions?
TENET: Well, actually, I would say you're incorrect about that, because none of the countries and allied services that we were working with in the time saw this any differently.
We were all working together. We all believed he had chemical and biological weapons, so the notion that we -- you know, what people don't understand is, just as we build military coalitions and diplomatic coalitions, there is a coalition of intelligence services with like-minded interest around the world who are trying to get to the truth.
TENET: And I would say that, if I went to my principal foreign partners -- and not just the British; Middle Eastern services, other European services -- none of us called us any differently.
I would also say the front part is, what I was trying to do today is defend our community to the American people, but be absolutely honest in telling you what we said and didn't say in this estimate.
QUESTION: You've presented a very sobering view of the intelligence community today. My question involves elements that are technically outside of the intelligence community.
Recent investigative reports, including a long piece in the journal Mother Jones, which came out this past January, detailed the creation of a Pentagon group a few weeks after September 11th which, as of January of 2002, became known as the Office of Special Programs. And it contained prominent neoconservatives with direct ties to Dick Cheney and members of the administration.
This group was shown to have a clear political agenda, to have influenced people in the intelligence community, and definitely used gross intelligence to promote their case.
So my question is, can you confirm or deny the existence of such a Pentagon group? And if so, how can we prevent small ideological groups from influencing intelligence estimates?
TENET: Well, I haven't read Mother Jones in a while, but let me say this.
(LAUGHTER)
Let me say this. I'm the director of central intelligence. The president of the United States sees me six days a week, every day. I tell him what the American intelligence community believes.
There are always people all around town -- you know, "There's gambling in this casino." Everybody has different views of what the intelligence means or doesn't mean.
I can tell you with certainty that the president of the United States gets his intelligence from one person and one community: me. And he has told me firmly and directly that he's wanted it straight and he's wanted it honest and he's never wanted the facts shaded. And that's what we do every day.
The rest of it, I don't know.
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Good morning, Director Tenet. Let me first say thank you for your last seven years of service.
Nowadays the knee-jerk reaction is to say, "We need more human intelligence," as you referred to. What that reaction seems to overlook is that regimes like Iraq are designed specifically not only to deceive external -- us, our allies -- but internally as well -- the Kurds, the Shiites, whatnot.
QUESTION: So how do you solve that problem? How do you figure out exactly what the regime is trying to do, when they're, in fact, deceiving themselves?
TENET: Well, you settled on one of the greatest problems that we face as intelligence professionals working against a problem of deception and denial, while you're working against a target, whether it's Iraq or any other country.
I can only tell you there's no perfection in this business that we engage in. I can only tell you that our eyes are wide open when we deal with these kinds of regimes, and we recognize that the data that comes to us has to be viewed through a different prism.
Now let me say something about the theory that somehow people were deceiving each other in the regime and lying to each other. I don't know whether it's true or not. And the only way we're going to be able to figure that out is through debriefing of individuals, data that we collect, documents that we believe in and evidence.
QUESTION: To the best of the agency's knowledge, to what extent is the Malaysian government, the SCONI group and Gulf Technical Industries implicated in the nuclear trade network connected to Dr. Khan?
TENET: Well, I believe I said in my statement that the Malaysian government has closed the facility. That's as far as I can go here today in open.
QUESTION: Thank you.
TENET: You want to take another question? You might get a better answer? Go ahead.
(LAUGHTER)
I don't want you to go away disappointed, son.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Well, perhaps, you could tell me to what extent Mr. Todd here is connected?
TENET: See, you're 0 for 2 and a walk. Let's go.
(LAUGHTER)
How about baseball? Let's go there.
(LAUGHTER)
MODERATOR: George, thank you very much.
TENET: Thank you very, very much.
(APPLAUSE)
© 2004 FDCH E-Media
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