Tenet regrets ‘slam dunk’ evidence advice to Bush

FORMER CIA director George Tenet yesterday said he regretted assuring President George Bush in 2002 that he had “slam dunk” evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

“Those were the two dumbest words I ever said,” Mr Tenet told about 1,300 people at Kutztown University, in Pennsylvania.

The theory was a leading justification for the war in Iraq. Such weapons were never found.

Mr Tenet, who left the CIA in July after seven years as director, also said apathy towards terrorism - including congressional restrictions and budget and personnel cuts - had sapped US intelligence efforts for most of the last decade. “The atrophy was tremendous,” said Mr Tenet, aged 52. “We were nearly bankrupt.”

The CIA’s assessment of Iraq’s capabilities was not developed “for political reasons or a craven desire to lead the country to war,” he said.

Mr Tenet, a trusted Bush adviser, made the weapons’ remark in December 2002, during one of his frequent intelligence briefings with the president. Late last year, Mr Bush awarded Mr Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award.