Tenet Warns of Al Qaeda Threat
"I would have characterized it as something that was grave and gathering, something that we were quite worried about, quite worried about the nature of surprise," Tenet answered.
". . . And so you would agree with the characterizations that were made by the president, the vice president, Secretary Powell, in that respect," Snowe asked.
"I just characterized what I think, how I was thinking about this at the time. . . . I haven't parsed everybody's words, and I don't want to do that."
". . . But, I'm just wondering then, do you think that we made a -- we then took this action in Iraq on a lesser standard than 'imminent'?" Snowe asked.
"Well, I don't want to go back," Tenet said. " . . . See, now we're -- we're now into a realm of what all the policymakers were thinking about this, and I don't want to go back and parse their words."
Jacoby, Tenet and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III all answered "yes" when asked if the United States is safer now than right after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But they each went on to describe an interlocking web of terrorist organizations that have found common cause against the United States since then.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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CIA Director George J. Tenet, center, confers with the CIA's John Moseman, left, and Scott Hopkins. At a hearing, senators questioned Tenet about the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq.
(Robert A. Reeder -- The Washington Post)
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