George Tenet

AP interview with former CIA chief Tenet on new book

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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New York 1. George Tenet, former CIA Director walking into room and sitting down 2. SOUNDBITE: (English) George Tenet, former CIA Director: "I highly doubt that in this time period, where we're dealing with Iraq, we're dealing with Afghanistan, we're dealing with terrorism, there was much thinking about this (invading Iran). I could be wrong but I never recall it." 3. Tenet 4. SOUNDBITE: (English) George Tenet, former CIA Director: "We have lots of fissile material in the world. We have scientists in the world. This needs, this needs a major national effort that involves our national labs, science, policy, our intelligence and law enforcement community to give it a focus, to pay attention to it, because the consequences of something like this are devastating for us." 5. Tenet, zoom in to his book on table 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) George Tenet, former CIA Director: "To offset Iranian influences, a Palestinian-Israeli peace process has to be resuscitated at some point in time. The Secretary's trying to work at that but I think this is something that steals the Iranian's thunder. I think we should be talking to the Syrians more directly. I think we should be talking to the Iranians more directly themselves about Iraq. I think we need to look at this region. Iraq's a problem. We are working through a difficult environment today. We have a strategy that General Petraeus has worked out, but we need to elevate the discussion." 7. Tenet seated in chair 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) George Tenet, former CIA Director: "It took me a long time to think about what I thought about. To think about how I wanted to say what I wanted to say. I mean it is unusual for people to come out of our business to say much to anybody or to write. I thought I had a historical obligation to write. I thought I had an obligation to the men and women of the intelligence community, to give the American people a true sense of not just what we got wrong, but the so many good things I think we've done for the country." 9. Tenet in chair 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) George Tenet, former CIA Director: "My reflection on all of this was to think about larger strategic questions, about how we integrate the war fighting, peacekeeping, stabilisation, our equities in the region in a broader strategy because when you look at the post-war situation, we encountered many many difficulties. And my own view, is perhaps, more serious discussion should have occurred to link the war fighting, the peacekeeping, the stabilisation and looking at the region. That's my perspective on it. I don't doubt that they had their discussions. I think we needed to do more of it." Washington, DC 11. Close-up of Tenet's book in store 12. Tenet's books on shelf 13. Wide of poster promoting books STORYLINE: The former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), George Tenet, says the country needs to revitalise the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and do a better job leveraging its political, diplomatic and economic strength to offset Iran's growing influence in the Middle East. In an interview with The Associated Press, Tenet said the discussion about Iraq needs to be elevated to consider the entire region, with an eye towards minimising Iranian political influence. His to-do list for the Bush administration is long and involves talking to all regional leaders in the Mid East, including Syria and Iran. "The Palestinian-Israeli peace process has to be resuscitated at some point," said Tenet, whose new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," provides extensive details about his hands-on involvement in the peace talks during the Clinton administration. He said US political, diplomatic and economic strength is enormous, and can be used to offset Iranian influence. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e22c8cd5cea7746450efb92f2cd1063b Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork