Originally posted by Max Habibi:
President Bush has every confidence in Tenet, and, presumably, tenet's choices. To be honest, I'm sure they're both better @ their jobs them we would be.
M
Of course they had the presiden't confidence. After all, the president cannot run the country on his own and has to rely on professionals to present him with the best possible data and advise.
I'm also sure the same thing applied to Tenet and his team on a smaller scale. They have to rely on their department heads who in term rely on analysts who rely on various data sources (human and mechanical/electronic).
If the analysts get data that is incomplete or inconclusive they have to make educated guesses based on what is known of prior intentions and events in the area (which included the large scale and rapid deployment of chemical weapons against both combat troops and civilian populations by the Iraqi armed forces).
Department heads will present this to their superiors until in the end it arrives at the desk of the chairman who will brief (or have someone else brief) it to the president and/or cabinet.
If any one of the multitude of people in the chain makes a mistake the analysis can become seriously flawed.
Tenet was good to take responsibility for that and resign rather than try to assign blame to some anonymous analyst who would make a convenient scapegoat.
