Bonus/ Intro:

An open letter to George Tenet, written by group of former CIA and other intelligence officials, urges the former CIA Director “to dedicate a significant portion of his royalties to soldiers and families of those killed or wounded in Iraq.”

They write: Mr. Tenet, you cannot undo what has been done. It is doubly sad that you seem still to lack an adequate appreciation of the enormous amount of death and carnage you have facilitated. If reflection on these matters serves to prick your conscience we encourage you to donate at least half of the royalties from your book sales to the veterans and their families, who have paid and are paying the price for your failure to speak up when you could have made a difference. That would be the decent and honorable thing to do.

International

Iran to Join U.S. at Iraq Conference

Iran agreed Sunday to join the U.S. and other countries at a conference on Iraq this week, raising hopes the government in Tehran would help stabilize its violent neighbor and stem the flow of guns and bombs over the border.

In an apparent effort to drive home that point, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told an Iranian envoy that the persistent violence in Iraq — some of it carried out by the Shiite militias Iran is accused of arming — could spill over into neighboring countries, including those that are "supposed to support the Iraqi government." Read the details.

Israel, awaiting report on war, wonders if Olmert can hold on

On the eve of the publication of an official report on the Israeli government's failings during the war last summer against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the biggest question on the minds of Israelis is whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be able to hang onto power.

Support for Olmert has been shaky since the war, which many Israelis consider a failure. Polls show his popularity hovering between 2 and 3 percent.

On Sunday, a well-informed senior official said Olmert did not intend to resign. But the official said that could change if the report stated that he bore "personal responsibility" for failure of the war. More here.

National:

Perle v. Tenet
In his new book, George Tenet claims that, one day after 9/11, Richard Perle turned to him and said: “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. They bear responsibility.” The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol leaps to Perle’s defense and challenges Tenet’s account:

Here’s the problem: Richard Perle was in France on that day, unable to fly back after September 11. In fact Perle did not return to the United State until September 15. Did Tenet perhaps merely get the date of this encounter wrong? Well, the quote Tenet ascribes to Perle hinges on the encounter taking place September 12: “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday.” And Perle in any case categorically denies to The Weekly Standard ever having said any such thing to Tenet, while coming out of the White House or anywhere else.

Condi Makes The Rounds To Counter Tenet & Falsely Claims U.N. Inspectors Thought Saddam Hussein Had WMD

Tenet alleges that there was “never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraq threat,” suggesting the administration had made up its mind to go to war from an early stage.

On CNN’s Late Edition, Condoleezza Rice responded, “We all thought that the intelligence case was strong,” adding that even “the U.N weapons inspectors [thought] Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” She concluded, “So there’s no blame here of anyone.” Watch it here.

Now at this point...one would hate to go into detail, but...Rice would like the public to believe that no one is to blame because everyone was misled by the intelligence. In fact, U.N. weapons inspectors declared weeks before the invasion that Hussein did not possess WMD. The inspectors publicly lambasted consistently false and misleading U.S. intelligence leading up to the war:

[March 7, 2003] , the head of the IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei, reported that there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any nuclear weapons or was in the process of acquiring them. Mr Blix said: “By then, Mohamed ElBaradei revealed that Niger was not authentic.” British intelligence falsely claimed Iraq had been trying to acquire uranium from Niger. [4/28/05]

So frustrated have the inspectors become that one source has referred to the U.S. intelligence they’ve been getting as “garbage after garbage after garbage.” … The inspectors find themselves caught between the Iraqis, who are masters at the weapons-hiding shell game, and the United States, whose intelligence they’ve found to be circumstantial, outdated or just plain wrong. [2/20/03]

Chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix told the U.N. Security Council that his inspection teams had not found any “smoking guns” after visiting some 125 Iraqi sites. [1/9/03]

Oh well...to each his own...

Senior Bush official linked to escort service resigns.

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. Tobias, 65, Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the Ambassador for the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

A State Department press release late Friday afternoon said only he was leaving for “personal reasons.” On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the “Pamela Martin and Associates” escort service “to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage.” Tobias, who is married, said there had been “no sex,” and that recently he had been using another service “with Central Americans” to provide massages. In updated news, ABCNEWS Sweeps Special: DC Madam To Name Names

Murtha says Dems could consider impeachment

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) said Sunday that Democrats in Congress could consider impeachment as a way to pressure President Bush on his handling of the war in Iraq.

“What I’m saying, there’s four ways to influence a president. And one of them’s impeachment,” Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

In Other News...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) "asked 27 federal departments and agencies yesterday to turn over information related to White House briefings about elections or political candidates," substantially widening the scope of his investigation into potentially illegal partisan activities being conducted by federal officials.

In a "startling departure from his previously stated position on civil unions," Mayor Rudy Giuliani came out yesterday "in opposition to the civil union law just passed by the New Hampshire state Senate."

From The Right: Robert Bluey: Keeping Democrats Accountable
Longtime congressional staffers Michael Brady and Michael Giuliani are fed up with reporters who cover Congress. Frustrated by their failure to investigate stories and tired of the liberal bias, Brady and Giuliani have vowed to make it right -- by becoming investigative journalists themselves.

From The Left: VIDEO Bill Moyers Journal: "Buying the War"
"Buying the War," a documentary film from Bill Moyers, examines the media's coverage in the lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift in the role of journalists in democracy. And four years after the invasion, Mr. Moyers wonders what has changed? Truthout provides the full documentary and a transcript of the program.

Quote Of The Day: [the ex-CIA chief's memoir] "shows that he remains, first and foremost, a politician - with no clue as to the proper role of intelligence work. He is unhappy about going down in history as 'Slam Dunk Tenet.'" Ray McGovern critiquing George Tenet's book

(Sources: FOXNews, ABCNews, DrudgeReport, ThePolitico, ThinkProgress, NYT, CBSNews, CommonDreams, WeeklyStandard, TownHall, WashingtonPost, NoQuarter.com, Int'lHeraldTribune, NYSun, TruthOut)