Records Show Tenet Briefed Rice on Al Qaeda Threat - New York Times
October 2, 2006 Records Show Tenet Briefed Rice on Al Qaeda Threat By PHILIP
SHENON and MARK MAZZETTI JIDDA, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 2 � A review of White House
records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central
intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10,
2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said
Monday. The account by Sean McCormack came hours after Ms. Rice, the secretary
of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the
specific meeting on July 10, 2001, noting that she had met repeatedly with Mr.
Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Ms. Rice, the national security
adviser at the time, said it was �incomprehensible� she ignored dire terrorist
threats two months before the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. McCormack also said records
show that the Sept. 11 commission was informed about the meeting, a fact that
former intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed on Monday.
When details of the meeting emerged last week in a new book by Bob Woodward of
The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Mr. Woodward�s
reporting. Now, after several days, both current and former Bush administration
officials have confirmed parts of Mr. Woodward�s account. Officials now agree
that on July 10, 2001, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism deputy, J. Cofer
Black, were so alarmed about an impending Al Qaeda attack that they demanded an
emergency meeting at the White House with Ms. Rice and her National Security
Council staff. According to two former intelligence officials, Mr. Tenet told
those assembled at the White House about the growing body of intelligence the
Central Intelligence Agency had collected pointing to an impending Al Qaeda
attack. But both current and former officials took issue with Mr. Woodward�s
account that Mr. Tenet and his aides left the meeting in frustration, feeling as
if Ms. Rice had ignored them. Mr. Tenet told members of the Sept. 11 commission
about the July 10 meeting when they interviewed him in early 2004, but committee
members said the former C.I.A. director never indicated he had left the White
House with the impression that he had been ignored. �Tenet never told us that he
was brushed off,� said Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democratic member of the
commission. �We certainly would have followed that up.� Mr. McCormack said the
records showed that, far from ignoring Mr. Tenet�s warnings, Ms. Rice acted on
the intelligence and requested that Mr. Tenet make the same presentation to
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Atttorney General John Ashcroft. But
Mr. Ashcroft said by telephone on Monday evening that he never received a
briefing that summer from Mr. Tenet. �Frankly, I�m disappointed that I didn�t
get that kind of briefing,� he said. �I�m surprised he didn�t think it was
important enough to come by and tell me.� The dispute that has played out in
recent days gives further evidence of an escalating battle between the White
House and Mr. Tenet over who should take the blame for such mistakes as the
failure to stop the Sept. 11 attacks and assertions by Bush administration
officials that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons
and cultivating ties to Al Qaeda. Mr. Tenet resigned as director of central
intelligence in the summer of 2004 and was honored that December with a
Presidential Medal of Freedom during a White House ceremony. Since leaving the
C.I.A., Mr. Tenet has stayed out of the public eye, largely declining to defend
his record at the C.I.A. even after several government investigations have
assailed the faulty intelligence that helped build the case for the Iraq war.
Mr. Tenet is now completing work on a memoir that is scheduled to be published
early next year. It is unclear how muchMr. Tenet will use the book to settle old
scores, although recent books have portrayed Mr. Tenet both as dubious about the
need for the Iraq war and angry that the White House has made the C.I.A. the
primary scapegoat for the war. In his book �The One Percent Doctrine,� the
journalist and author Ron Suskind quotes Mr. Tenet�s former deputy at the
C.I.A., John McLaughlin, saying that Mr. Tenet �wishes he could give that damn
medal back.� In his own book, Mr. Woodward wrote that over time Mr. Tenet
developed a particular dislike for Ms. Rice, and that the former C.I.A. director
was furious when she publicly blamed the agency for allowing President Bush to
make the false claim in the 2003 State of the Union Address that Saddam Hussein
was pursuing nuclear materials in Niger. �If the C.I.A., the Director of
National Intelligence, had said �take this out of the speech,� it would have
been gone, without question,� Ms. Rice told reporters in July 2003. In fact, the
C.I.A. had told the White House months before that the Niger intelligence was
bogus and had managed to keep the claim out of an October 2002 speech that
President Bush gave in Cincinnati. More recently, Mr. Tenet has told friends
that he was particularly angry when, appearing recently on Sunday talk shows,
both Ms. Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney cited Mr. Tenet by name as the
reason that Bush administration officials asserted that Mr. Hussein had
stockpiles of banned weapons in Iraq and ties to Al Qaeda. Mr. Cheney recalled
during an appearance on �Meet the Press� on Sept. 10 of this year: �George Tenet
sat in the Oval Office and the president of the United States asked him
directly, he said, �George, how good is the case against Saddam on weapons of
mass destruction?� the director of the C.I.A. said, �It�s a slam dunk, Mr.
President, it�s a slam dunk.� � Philip Shenon reported from Jidda, Saudi Arabia,
and Mark Mazzetti from Washington. Home World U.S. N.Y. / Region Business
Technology Science Health Sports Opinion Arts Style Travel Jobs Real Estate
Automobiles Back to Top Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy
Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map