Tenet is speaking between the lines

As most of us have now caught on, the Tenet thing is a non-mea-culpa mea culpa. In fact, reading between the lines, it is in fact more a confirmation of Kristof and Gjelton's reports than an exculpation of anyone. Like many of us are saying now, the real question is not Why didn't the CIA force the admin to keep the niger thing OUT, it's Who was pushing to keep it IN, even after--as Tenet indicates--the CIA had told 'em it was bogus. As exculpations go, this is a pretty good indictment.

So does Tenet not know that? Does he not know what he is doing when he writes something like this? Especially since, as we now know, Condi got on the horn and made him do it? ("Tenet Had to be Pushed to Take Responsibility" http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/7/12/115644 ) Does he really not know what kind of two-faced, stilleto in the back compliance he has offered up in response to Condi's ultimatum?

Oh, I'm quite sure he does. As I posted in another thread, I think it's a wide-open invitation to Carl Levin and the journalists and pundits who are pursuing this. "Are you smart enough to get the message? Cause go ahead and ask me," he's saying. "Or else forget it. It's in your court. But it's still an open game, if you aren't wimps or idiots."

The *admin is going with it according to the plan; they have no choice. But do THEY not know what a two-faced mea culpa Tenet has given them here? I bet Karl knows. I bet Rummy knows. I bet Dick and Colon know. Condi--I'm not so sure. She was the one who went out on the limb that put Tenet's back to the wall in the first place. I bet there was a little talk with Karl on AFOne, in which Karl told Condi, "Well, darlin', you better just get on the horn and make George Tenet back your play on this because elsewise you just dumped us all in the shitter." And Tenet "backed" it all, right, but in a statement that has a few too many backs to it.

I think Tenet is throwing down the gantlet. He's set it up so the investigators still have their questions; they even have MORE evidence to back them up than they did before--essentially, all he has done is CONFIRM the Kristof/Gjelten version of this. And his skirts are nice and clean. "See?" he can tell his masters with a perfectly straight face, "I did what you told me."

The only question now is whether the actual journalists out there (there are a couple, believe it or not) and Carl Levin and the other smart, honest Dems (there are a couple, believe it or not) and their staffers are smart and bloodthirsty enough to pick that gantlet up. It's there for the taking.