Secrecy Kills
WHO IS RICH BLEE?What do they have to say?
Read the joint statement in response to the video by CIA Director George Tenet, CTC Director J. Cofer Black, and Richard Blee of Alec Station.
Also see our email back and forth with Tenet, Black and Blee, and our reply to their joint statement.
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From: FF4 Films
Date: Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 10:52 AM
Subject: Request for response from George Tenet (At the Center of the Storm)
To: ZZZZZ
ZZZZZ,
It was a pleasure to speak with you briefly over the phone late last Thursday. Thank you for forwarding the following request to Mr. Tenet, as per our conversation.
Best,
Ryan
Dear Mr. Tenet,
I write as part of a documentary production team working in association with the Emmy-winning media firm Globalvision, also the winner of a George Polk Award for Journalism. We've been investigating the Mihdahr/Hazmi matter for several years, and we would like to speak with you by phone soon, either for a recorded interview or, less preferably, off-the-record.
CIA insiders, as well as others at NSC, FBI, and DOD, have already spoken to us, and if you will speak with us I think you will be interested to learn that the picture they've painted often differs greatly from that recounted in your book At the Center of the Storm.
In ten days, we will be releasing via public television one such interview -- with Richard Clarke -- ahead of our full release on the 9/11 anniversary. We are providing it to you now in a private YouTube link here:
YouTube Video (link has been changed to allow public access)
We sincerely hope that you will speak with us in order to set the record straight and respond to specific allegations made by Clarke and others.
Thank you,
Ryan XXXXX
Associate Producer
FF4 Films
Globalvision
From: Bill Harlow
Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Subject: Your Request To Interview George Tenet
To: FF4 Films
Mr. XXXXX,
ZZZZZ relayed to us your request to interview George Tenet.
Mr. Tenet does not wish to be interviewed either on camera or on background for your project.
However, in light of some of the absurd and patently false statements made by Richard Clarke in the YouTube clip you shared, Mr. Tenet reached out to Cofer Black and Richard Blee. Together they are providing the attached joint statement to you. We request that you make their statement available, in its entirety, to any media organization to which you distribute your interview with Richard Clarke.
Bill Harlow
Joint Statement
from George J. Tenet, Cofer Black and Richard Blee
August 3, 2011
Richard Clarke was an able public servant who served his country well for many years. But his recently released comments about the run up to 9/11 are reckless and profoundly wrong.
Clarke starts with the presumption that important information on the travel of future hijackers to the United States was intentionally withheld from him in early 2000. It was not.
He wildly speculates that it must have been the CIA Director who could have ordered the information withheld. There was no such order. In fact, the record shows that the Director and other senior CIA officials were unaware of the information until after 9/11.
The handling of the information in question was exhaustively looked at by the 9/11 Commission, the Congressional Joint Inquiry, the CIA Inspector General and other groups.
The 9/11 Commission quite correctly concluded that “...no one informed higher levels of management in either the FBI or CIA about the case.”
In early 2000, a number of more junior personnel (including FBI agents on detail to CIA) did see travel information on individuals who later became hijackers but the significance of the data was not adequately recognized at the time.
Since 9/11 many systemic changes have been made to improve the watchlisting process and enhance information sharing within and across agencies.
Building on his false notion that information was intentionally withheld, Mr. Clarke went on to speculate--which he admits is based on nothing other than his imagination--that the CIA might have been trying to recruit these two future hijackers as agents. This, like much of what Mr. Clarke said in his interview, is utterly without foundation.
Many years after testifying himself at length before the 9/11 Commission and writing several books but making no mention of his wild theory, Mr. Clarke has suddenly invented baseless allegations which are belied by the record and unworthy of serious consideration.
We testified under oath about what we did, what we knew and what we didn't know. We stand by that testimony.
###
On 8/4/2011 3:37 PM, FF4 Films wrote:
Mr. Harlow, Thank you very much for providing that joint statement. We will make it available in its entirety to any media organization to which we distribute the Clarke interview, as requested.
We are passionate about telling an accurate story, but the refusal of Mr. Tenet, Mr. Black, and Mr. Blee to discuss it even on background makes that impossible, as we are forced to rely on the info we've been provided by those who will talk to us. I have summarized the highlights of that information in an attached doc, including many, many issues still unaccounted for with regard to CIA's handling of Mihdhar/Hazmi, none of which have anything to do with Mr. Clarke's judgement or accuracy.
If there are simple -- even benign or admirable -- explanations for those issues, I sincerely wish Mr. Tenet, et al, would break their media silence and simply provide those answers. I want them to realize that their failure to do so only appears to give credence to speculation like that in the Clarke interview.
Furthermore, Mr. Clarke is not the only gov't insider who has stated to us that he/she believes these unexplained events can be explained by high-level deliberate choices within the CIA. If these folks are wrong, Mr. Tenet, et al, could easily choose to make them look foolish and set the record straight for all concerned by going through this story with us and providing explanations in detail, case by case. Their motivations in continuing to refuse to do so a full decade after the terrible tragedy and in the face of accusations from other gov't officials is, frankly, baffling to me.
Also, a quick correction on a couple items in the joint statement: Mr. Clarke did previously make this same accusation in his 2009 book Your Government Failed You, p. 165-171. Also, the Commission line quoted, "no one informed higher levels of management in either the FBI or CIA about the case" actually began "It appears that..." and concerned only the search for Mihdhar/Hazmi from Aug 2001 onward, although we have spoken to an insider from Alec who claims even that simple fact was not the case. In fact, they should be made aware that in our interview with Chairman Tom Kean, he told us explicitly that he believed the withholding of Mihdhar info was deliberate and purposeful (though he believed this was due to an absurd culture of secrecy within the Agency) and also stated that he and his staff believed Mr. Tenet provided false testimony on a number of points ("No, I don't think he misspoke. I think he misled.")
If you will, please pass on the attached list of issues with the CIA story, if anyone wants to provide a more detailed response. Thank you again.
Best,
Ray Nova
Producer / Co-Director
FF4 Films
Globalvision
On Aug 9, 2011, at 3:30 PM, Bill Harlow wrote:
Got your voice mail message over the weekend...sorry it has taken a little while to get back to you.
Yes....the material you originally sent via XXX was made available to Tenet, Black and Blee and the statement I provided to you was their response in light of that material.
None of them have any plans to go beyond that statement or to respond to the additional material you sent via email on 8/4/11.
Bill Harlow
From: FF4 Films
Date: Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: Your Request To Interview George Tenet
To: Bill Harlow
Understood, Mr. Harlow. Thank you for the response. Also, we truly hope Mr. Blee feels better soon.
Cordially,
Ray
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