Previously I’d posted on former CIA Director (now apparently a CYA director) George Tenet’s book claiming that the Bush administration ignored intelligence/rushed to war in Iraq, etc. etc.  At the time I pointed out that Tenet was revising history a bit (he expects us to believe that his “slam dunk” comment to the President about WMD’s in Iraq didn’t have much of an impact on Bush’s decision to invade), but now it comes to light that Tenet outright lies in his book.

An example:

According to Michiko Kakutani’s review in Saturday’s Times,

On the day after 9/11, he [Tenet] adds, he ran into Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative and the head of the Defense Policy Board, coming out of the White House. He says Mr. Perle turned to him and said: “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility.”

Here’s the problem: Richard Perle was in France on that day, unable to fly back after September 11. In fact Perle did not return to the United State until September 15. Did Tenet perhaps merely get the date of this encounter wrong? Well, the quote Tenet ascribes to Perle hinges on the encounter taking place September 12: “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday.”

I’d like to see Tenet try to wiggle out of that one.