I have not yet been afforded the opportunity to read
Ron Suskind’s latest literary effort. Judging by the
two snippets that have been described to me,
however, the book is seriously flawed.

One supposed “news” item from the book apparently
asserts that British intelligence had a high-placed
Iraqi source who convincingly told them before the
start of the war that Iraq had no WMD and that the
British relayed this to the United States. As Mr.
Suskind tells it, the White House directed (and CIA
allegedly went along with) burying that information
so that the war could go ahead as planned. This is a
complete fabrication. In fact, the source in question
failed to persuade his British interlocutors that he
had anything new to offer by way of intelligence,
concessions, or negotiations with regard to the Iraq
crisis and the British — on their own — elected to
break off contact with him.

There were many Iraqi officials who said both
publicly and privately that Iraq had no WMD — but
our foreign intelligence colleagues and we assessed
that these individuals were parroting the Ba’ath
party line and trying to delay any coalition attack.
The particular source that Suskind cites offered no
evidence to back up his assertion and acted in an
evasive and unconvincing manner.

The second nugget involves a supposed order from
the White House to me at the CIA to have my staff
fabricate a letter connecting Iraq with Al Qa’ida and
the attacks of 9/11. Suskind says that CIA was
directed to get an Iraqi official to copy the bogus
information in his own hand — and then cause it to
be leaked to the media.

There was no such order from the White House to me
nor, to the best of my knowledge, was anyone from
CIA ever involved in any such effort.

It is well established that, at my direction, CIA
resisted efforts on the part of some in the
Administration to paint a picture of Iraqi-Al Qa’ida
connections that went beyond the evidence. The
notion that I would suddenly reverse our stance and
have created and planted false evidence that was
contrary to our own beliefs is ridiculous.

There are undoubtedly many other errors in the book
— but these are the first ones of which I’ve been
made aware. One would think a serious journalist
would have, at a minimum, asked the supposed
participants if what he was prepared to write was
consistent with the facts. Mr. Suskind never
contacted me on anything regarding this book.
I suppose he had a story that fell into the category
of: “too good to check.”
GEORGE J. TENET
Facts From and About the Former
Director of Central Intelligence
Statement by George J. Tenet - August 4, 2008