At the Center of the Storm by George TenetMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I acquired this during a period of time I was interested in Bush-era foreign policy. Disgust enabled disinterest, then I decided to read this anyway from that place. I find Tenet forthcoming, reflective, humble, and circumspect in describing a tenure over an area of foreign policy that has public failures and necessarily private successes. I am surprised he expresses such continued admiration of both "dubya" and Cheney even when he has to admit the possibility he was offered up as a scapegoat by Bush.
Among the public failures, there is an analysis of the 1999 Bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and how the explicit unwillingness of the Dept. of Defense to should any of the blame caused it all to fall onto the CIA. This foreshadows the "Sixteen Words" controversy in 2003 State of the Union where similarly the CIA was out on a limb due to a lack of admission from inside the White House.
Tenet disparages Israel for single-issue negotiating while he himself refused to budge on releasing Jonathan Pollard who spied for and providing top-secret classified information to Israel. The issue of his imprisonment has sometimes arisen with Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu has been particularly vocal in lobbying for Pollard's release, visiting Pollard in prison in 2002. He raised the issue with President Clinton during the Wye River peace talks in October 1998. In My Life, Clinton wrote that he was inclined to release Pollard, but the objections of U.S. intelligence officials were too strong:
For all the sympathy Pollard generated in Israel, he was a hard case to push in America; he had sold our country's secrets for money, not conviction, and for years had not shown any remorse. When I talked to Sandy Berger and George Tenet, they were adamantly opposed to letting Pollard go, as was Madeleine Albright.
Seems to me if it could really have materially advanced the cause of peace in the Middle East, it would be worth it.
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