Tenet Takes Blame for Erroneous Powell Speech

Former CIA Director George Tenet took responsibility yesterday for the incorrect information about Iraqi WMD capabilities that former Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered to the U.N. Security Council prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 (see GSN, April 27).

Tenet backed Powell’s Feb 5, 2003, presentation by reviewing it carefully beforehand and sitting behind Powell during the speech, Bloomberg News reported (see GSN, Feb. 5, 2003).

Tenet believed the information, wrongly accusing Iraq of possessing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, was “good and solid,” he said yesterday.

“We let the secretary down and we undermined the credibility” of the United States, Tenet said yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”  “Nobody regrets this more than I do.”

Tenet denied any “notion that we would walk the secretary of state out on the world stage and knowingly let him” misstate the facts (Bloomberg News/Los Angeles Times, May 7).

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