August 22, 2008 Washington, DC -- The statement released by the CIA today should put to rest the baseless allegations contained in Ron Suskind’s book “The Way of the World.” The two main nuggets of news alleged in Suskind’s 400+ page book: – that the United States went to war knowing that Iraq had no WMD, – and that the Administration ordered CIA to falsify information after the war showing an Iraqi-al Qa’ida connection – are demonstrably false in every regard. To tick off just a few of the errors in this one section of his book: Suskind said the U.S. and the U. K. arranged a meeting with Habbush prior to the war - We did not. He said that the head of MI-6 flew to the US to brief me on these meetings - He did not He said that Habbush convinced us that Iraq had no WMD - He did not He said that the White House ignored this conclusion - There was no such conclusion for them to ignore He said CIA resettled Habbush in Jordan - We did not settle him there or anywhere else He said CIA paid Habbush $5 million in “hush money” - We paid him not a cent He said the White House ordered me to fabricate a letter tying Iraq to al Qa’ida. - There was no such order He said I passed the direction to senior members of my staff - Again, there was no such order to pass. Beyond me, virtually every individual that Suskind cites in his book to establish his claims has publicly disputed his account. This includes: Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI-6, Nigel Inkster, Dearlove’s former Deputy, Rob Richer, the then-head of Near East Operations for CIA and John Maguire, the then-Acting head of CIA’s Iraq Operations Group Mr. Suskind has admitted that he failed to ask me about the crimes of which he alleges I was involved. Mr. Suskind failed in his duty as a journalist. He is not required to believe me – but journalistic ethics should have required him at least to ask. He claims that CIA followed White House orders and participated in an illegal act justifying the war and that this illegal order might be sufficient to justify the impeachment of the President of the United States. It is ridiculous to think that the White House would give me such an order and even more ridiculous to think that I would carry it out. As I said in my earlier statement, it is well known that I consistently fought with some Administration officials to prevent them from overstating the case for Iraqi involvement in international terrorism. You don’t have to read my book to know that. There was another book, published in 2006 that, while it had many flaws, accurately described my making very heated calls to the White House on this subject. According to that book: “And that’s why, three weeks later, in making the case for war in his state of the Union address, George W. Bush was not able to say what he’d long hoped to say at such a moment, that there was a pre: 9/11 connection between al Qaeda and Saddam.” That is a quote from “The One Percent Doctrine” by Ron Suskind. ### |
GEORGE J. TENET
| Statement on Ron Suskind Book |
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