• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The willow is too close to the house.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Everybody saw this coming.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The revolution will be supervised.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Tenet

Tenet

by John Cole|  July 16, 20058:57 am| 11 Comments

This post is in: Politics

FacebookTweetEmail

Tom Maguire builds the case for George Tenet as the source. I stick to my crackpot Colin Powell case.

This, however, is very intriguing:

After his conversation with Mr. Cooper, The Associated Press reported Friday, Mr. Rove sent an e-mail message to Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, saying he “didn’t take the bait” when Mr. Cooper suggested that Mr. Wilson’s criticisms had been damaging to the administration.

Was he speaking colloquially, and just meant that he “didn’t take the bait” in the sense that Cooper was fishing for information and he wouldn’t provide any? Or did he mean specfially that “he didn’t take the bait” in that he felt he was being set up?

And for those with a ‘dark heart,’ I offer you this post.

*** Update ***

Via Billmon, the full message in the ‘intriguing’ email:

“Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he’s got a welfare reform story coming,” Rove wrote in the e-mail to Hadley.
“When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn’t this damaging? Hasn’t the president been hurt? I didn’t take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn’t get Time far out in front on this.”

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Oh, Just Go @#$! Yourselves Already
Next Post: Enron and the California Blackouts »

Reader Interactions

11Comments

  1. 1.

    Geek, Esq.

    July 16, 2005 at 9:26 am

    I’m still waiting for John Bolton’s name to pop up.

  2. 2.

    scs

    July 16, 2005 at 9:41 am

    Wait- maybe my Richard Clarke theory is not dead yet.

    Here’s are the points:

    1. Had knowledge of CIA info – only CIA, State Department, Nastional Security Council- so Powell, Tenet, Clarke

    2. SENIOR official – Powell, Tenet, Clarke

    3. Non-partisan administration gunslinger – Only Powell and Richard Clarke are non partisan ADMINISTRATION people, Tenet was not part of the administration

    4. Becomes FORMER official maybe between 10/12/03 and 11/26/04 – Tenet on 7/04 and Clarke on 02/03, (but maybe second article played catch up with that), and Powell after 11/04, so not Powell in this case

    And according to the linked article on here:

    5. Someone who called Wapo reporter Pincus on Saturday morning and in effect told him to go easy on the CIA and pound the White House a bit. – Not Powell, maybe Clarke, or Tenet

    6. Someone whom the WaPo reporter didn’t believe. Not Tenet – Clarke

    7. Someone with close ties to Judith Miller – Clarke because he was the terrorism guy and she was the terroorism reporter

    I think the weight of the evidence still may point to my first guess Clarke, but I’m not going to Vegas yet.

  3. 3.

    Geek, Esq.

    July 16, 2005 at 2:09 pm

    I do think it’s worth noting that all of these leaks and counter-leaks coming from Wilson and the defense lawyers serve two common purposes: they keep this story in the news (not good for the administration) and they confuse the issue so it’s very difficult to objectively sort out. Non-wonks will almost certainly not have a solid clue what the implications of each is. That may be good for the administration.

    However, having Fitzgerald sniffing around Air Force One is something that regular folk understand. And a general sense of something fishy going on attributed to the whole administration may be more harmful than a finding that one or two advisers broke the law.

  4. 4.

    CaseyL

    July 16, 2005 at 5:56 pm

    scs – When was Clarke on Air Force One?

  5. 5.

    Jon H

    July 16, 2005 at 6:28 pm

    Odd, isn’t it, that he’d email *Hadley* immediately?

    Hadley certainly wouldn’t be interested in who’s going to be writing about welfare reform.

    And I’m not sure why Hadley, Condi’s deputy in NSC, would be interested in a call about the political damage of Niger. Andy Card, maybe, or Karen Hughes, or someone in Cheney’s office, but Hadley?

    It’s kinda weird.

  6. 6.

    scs

    July 16, 2005 at 8:17 pm

    No, Clarke wasn’t on the plane. Novak spoke to his first source before he spoke to Rove on July 8, so it could have been someone on the plane leaving on July 7. And the WaPo reporter, Pincus, spoke to his source on July 12, the day the plane came back. So maybe it was Powell both times.
    (Was Judith Miller on that plane by the way?)

    Hard to believe it was Powell though, because I read the source for Pincus tried to blame the including of the Niger story on the National Security Council. Why would Powell do that? He was friends with Condi wasn’t he? Or maybe he was trying to get Stephen Hadley.

  7. 7.

    p.lukasiak

    July 16, 2005 at 8:35 pm

    Powell doesn’t make sense for one simple reason — two weeks after Bush used the “yellowcake” reference in the SOTU, Powell did not mention it in his presentation to the United Nations.

    (counter-argument — Wilson made specific reference to a State Department document issued in Dec. 2002 that did mention the (non-existent) effort by Iraq to by yellowcake from Niger.)

  8. 8.

    Jon H

    July 16, 2005 at 10:59 pm

    Clarke wouldn’t have been on the plane. It was a meet-n-greet trip, purely photo-ops. His job was to sit at the White House and work on defense issues (or internet terrorism, or whatever he was doing).

  9. 9.

    scs

    July 17, 2005 at 1:03 am

    By the way, I have not seen any proof that Iraq DIDN’T try to buy the uranium, other than Joe Wilson said so. Where is the proof? Haven’t seen any articles on it. If anybody knows of one, please tell me.

  10. 10.

    sniggles

    July 17, 2005 at 3:32 pm

    By the way, I have not seen any proof that Iraq DIDN’T try to buy the uranium

    I’ve seen no proof that SCS didn’t try to buy Uranium. Where’s the proof?

  11. 11.

    scs

    July 17, 2005 at 3:46 pm

    Damn, I’m busted. Anyway, I heard the Brits say they did try to buy the uranium and they still stand by it. I would just like to know what the evidence is pro or con. I suppose we’ll never know as that is all classified. But before we condemn the Brits, why not have some real proof?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - PaulB - Olympic Peninsula: Lake Quinault Loop Drive 5
Image by PaulB (5/19/25)

Recent Comments

  • Baud on Monday Night Open Thread (May 20, 2025 @ 6:10am)
  • MagdaInBlack on Monday Night Open Thread (May 20, 2025 @ 6:08am)
  • AnonPhenom on Monday Night Open Thread (May 20, 2025 @ 6:08am)
  • Baud on On The Road – robtrim – A terrace in France (May 20, 2025 @ 6:07am)
  • Scuffletuffle on On The Road – robtrim – A terrace in France (May 20, 2025 @ 6:06am)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!