Like Vice President Dick Cheney last July, Tenet set out to defend the indefensible—the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that got it so wrong about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq. I remember thinking last summer, Why would Cheney choose to cite conclusions that had already been thrown into great doubt? Listening to Tenet do the same thing six months later—and after Kay’s findings—added to my puzzlement.

Still he obstructs the full and fair accounting that the people are due. This must be counted as another failure of 9/11. It is an indignity to history that is, somehow, imposed without shame.