After Being Inserted Into Office Of Presidency •• And Before
911 •• GWB Spent 40% Of His Time On VACATION • At The
Sound Stage Called A Ranch •• A Total Of 96 Days BEFORE
911
GWB Was Being Repeatedly And Forcefully WARNED • About
Possible Terrorist Attacks • Repubs Insist Bush Was Taking All
Warnings VERY Seriously •• Huh?
COMMISSIONER TIMOTHY J. ROEMER: In the Woodward
book ["Bush at War"], you say, immediately upon learning of
the 9/11 attacks, that it's al-Qaida and you mention somebody
in a flight school. I assume that's Moussaoui. Is that correct?
TENET: These are words attributed to me. I don't recall that
piece of it, but I know I got up immediately and said, "It's got to
be al-Qaida."
ROEMER: And do you have the information at that point on
Moussaoui?
TENET: Yes, I was briefed on Moussaoui in late August. ... I
believe it's the 23rd or the 24th ...
ROEMER: Is [CIA Deputy Director of Operations James] Pavitt
or Mr. McLaughlin briefed on that as well?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF CIA JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, sir. I
was briefed, I think, several days before. The director was out
of town. I heard it first in a very abbreviated manner ...
ROEMER: Do you all share this information, then, with other
people at [the CIA counterterrorism center] and FBI and other
places? What do you do with this information?
TENET: I believe that ... the context of this information is, is it
came to us from one of our domestic field stations, who was
asked to provide some assistance in dealing with this [Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act] request. That's the context it came
to us ... .
ROEMER: With this interesting, curious, fascinating piece of
data, do you share this data at the September 4th principals'
meeting with other people in the room at that point when you're
discussing this policy that has taken seven months to make its
way through the process on al-Qaida?
TENET: It wasn't discussed at the principals' meeting since we
were having a separate agenda ...
ROEMER: Why not bring it up to the principals? This is the first
principals' meeting in seven months on terrorism. Why wouldn't
that be something that you would think would be interesting to
this discussion?
TENET: The nature of the discussion we had that morning was
on the Predator, how we would fly it ...
ROEMER: But it's an overall policy discussion about al-Qaida
and how we fight al-Qaida.
TENET: Well, it just wasn't -- for whatever reason, all I can tell
you is just it wasn't the appropriate place. I just can't take you
any farther than that.
ROEMER: Would it have made any difference if you had
mentioned -- did you ever mention it, for instance, to the
president -- your briefing the president from August 6th on?
TENET: I didn't see the president. I was not in briefings with
him during this time. He was on vacation. I was here.
ROEMER: You didn't see the president between August 6, 2001
and September 10th?
TENET: Well, no. Before -- saw him after Labor Day, to be sure.
ROEMER: So you saw him September 4th -- at the principals'
meeting?
TENET: It was not at principals' meeting.
ROEMER: Well, you don't see him ...
TENET: Condoleezza Rice -- Condoleezza -- I saw him in this
time frame, to be sure.
ROEMER: OK. I'm just confused. You see him on August 6th
with the PDB.
TENET: No, I do not, sir. I'm not there.
ROEMER: OK. You're not -- when do you see him in August?
TENET: I don't believe I do.
ROEMER: You don't see the president of the United States once
in the month of August?
TENET: He's in Texas and I'm either here or on leave for some
of that time, so I'm not here.
ROEMER: So who's briefing him on the PDBs?
TENET: The briefer, himself. We have a presidential briefer.
ROEMER: But you never get on the phone or in any kind of
conference with him to talk at this level of high chatter and huge
warnings during the spring and summer to talk to him through
the whole month of August?
TENET: We talked to him directly throughout the spring and
early summer almost every day.
ROEMER: But not in August?
TENET: In this time period, I'm not talking to him, no.
ROEMER: Does he ever say to Dr. Rice or somebody else: "I
want to talk to Tenet. Tenet is a guy that knows this situation,
has been briefing me all through the spring and the summer.
Tenet understands this stuff. His hair's been on fire. He's been
worried about this stuff." Is that ever asked? Or are you ever
called on to ...
TENET: I don't have a recollection of being called, Mr. Roemer.
But I'm sure that if I wanted to make a phone call because I had
my hair on fire, I would have picked up the phone and talked to
the president.
ROEMER: It was just never made.
TENET: No.
After Testimony • CIA Officials Called Media • To Say That
Tenet Had "Forgotten" Meeting With GWB • Once During This
Period • At Crawford Texas • And Once Back In Washington
DC
Tenet Emphasizes:
"Warning was well understood, even if the timing and method
of attacks was not"
3:11:09 AM
