Where Tenet really was derelict in his duty was not taking into account the fact that the UN inspectors had been given Tenet's best evidence of WMD sites AFTER the "slam dunk" assurance, and had found nothing at all. Still, Tenet stood aside, saying nothing, when President Bush sent a formal assurance to Congress that diplomacy had failed and war was necessary. Of course, members of Congress could read the papers, and it was reported back then that the inspectors had checked the 100 top sites provided by Tenet's agents and found nothing.

But, the critical thing is not what Congress knew when it voted for the resolution. It's what Congress knew – or ought to have known – when it was called upon to accept or reject Bush's Determination of March 18, 2003, that Saddam Hussien posed an immediate threat to our national security and had to be eliminated that very day.

By mid-1998, the U.N. Special Commission had verified that the "intelligence" provided UNSCOM, IAEA, CIA and MI6 in 1995 by Iraqi defector Gen. Hussein Kamel was correct. Kamel had been in charge of all Iraqi WMD programs, and his orders – in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War – that all WMD programs be discontinued and all WMD and associated materials be destroyed, had been obeyed.

Of course, you soccer moms knew nothing of Kamel's "intelligence" until the eve of Gulf War II. But Tenet had known all along and it was his duty to have kept the president and the select committee fully informed.

As the select committee notes, Blix and ElBaradei continued to make report after report, right up to the eve of Gulf War II, casting doubt on – or outright refuting – virtually every assessment in the October NIE.

http://wanniski.com/showarticle.asp?articleid=3702