Tenet Talks

Wow. Go read CIA Director George Tenet's speech.

Then come back and discuss. I'll get to it later in the day.

A couple of quick quotes:

"As we meet here today, the Iraq Survey Group is continuing its important search for people and data. And despite some public statements, we are nowhere near 85 percent finished. The men and women who work in that dangerous environment are adamant about that fact.

Any call that I make today is necessarily provisional. Why? Because we need more time and we need more data."

Go read the whole thing, it's going to be the Topic Of The Day...

UPDATE: For deeper background about some of the things Tenet discussed, try our posts on:

• The Kay Report
• Intelligence, Analysis, Planning & Hindsight
• A CIA Veteran Discusses Foreign Analysis, and our post on
• Intelligence Flaws & the Containment Myth
• What keeps Rumsfeld awake at night? Intelligence, he said - and here's what he means when he says that. Rumsfeld's poetry also alludes to this - but for a more in-depth look at Intelligence & uncertainty , go to this outstanding New Yorker article.

UPDATE 2: Here's a post from a blogger who was there, on location. Interesting comment re: Tenet's tone, and this is a great and critical point:

"In his view, the point of collecting intelligence about Iraq was not to prove an imminent threat, for in intelligence one is "never completely right or completely wrong." The point of collecting intelligence on Iraq was to eliminate the risk of surprise."

That was the point of the subsequent decisions, as well.

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