Tenet: 'It is not possible to protect everything'

What moved the president?  Why did President George W. Bush—who said when he came into office, I want humility in foreign policy, what led him to take the American Army into Arabia and place it there where it is right now?

TENET:  The president has—you know, you will have to ultimately talk to...

MATTHEWS:  But you are close to the president.

TENET:  Well, I think he was moved about what we said about WMD.  I think he—now, whether he went farther on these other issues, he didn’t want to be surprised again...

MATTHEWS:  Did he take—was he getting surprised—was he getting channels of intel from people at the Defense Department like Feith. 

Were they feeding him stuff behind your back that led him more into this war than you would have done then?

TENET: Chris, the only...

MATTHEWS:  Were they...

TENET:  Chris, the instant...

MATTHEWS:  ... stove-piping?

TENET: Chris, I was the Director of Central Intelligence.  I saw the President of the United States every day.  I believed that what I was telling him represented the view of the American intelligence...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS:  Was it all that he was getting?

TENET: Well, I can’t say that.  I don’t know.  You know, people say to me, well, didn’t you know people were running around you?  Well, I didn’t see it.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS:  They had that special unit at the Defense Department, I mean, which was working against you.

TENET:  Well, Chris, I know that the president understood what we were saying.  I know that he understood where we were exactly on these issues.  I can’t speak for him.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS:  Do you know when he decided to go to war?  I don’t know. 

I can never—I read every book, I can’t find it.

TENET:  My personal view, Chris, is after the military mobilization was ordered in December of ‘03, my personal view was...

MATTHEWS:  ‘02.

TENET:  ‘02.  My personal view was is that we were going to war. 

Now did the president tell me that?  No.  But my instinct was...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS:  Why did everybody—why did—I’m sitting on the outside looking at this administration.  I thought we were headed towards war starting in December of 2001 when I would hear from people about meetings at Camp David where Wolfowitz was yelling at the president, we have got to go to Iraq right off the bat.  And you know about that.  Right off the bat they were pushing for war.

TENET:  Well, that made no sense to anybody at the time.  I can only...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS:  Well, he ended up winning the argument, though.  You—the others lost.

TENET:  I can’t tell you that...

MATTHEWS:  OK.  Did Colin Powell have any influence in this administration?

TENET:  Well, of course, he did.

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