Weyrich: Investigate Intelligence and Fire Tenet

Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the contemporary conservative movement, called today for an independent investigation of the U.S. intelligence "community."

"I admire President Bush's loyalty. It is rare in politics these days. But his loyalty to CIA Director George Tenet is misplaced. Tenet never should have been held over from the Clinton administration. Regardless, it is time for him to go," said Weyrich, a pundit for NewsMax and chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.

"The president should understand that only bitter partisans blame him over the situation in Iraq. He should also understand that if he does not get to the bottom of what happened, and he has to come to the nation to advocate military action somewhere else in the world, he would lack the credibility to do so.

"The president based his decision to go to war in Iraq on reports from his intelligence services that indicated that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which they were prepared to use, perhaps imminently. Now David Kay, who also believed there were WMD in Iraq, says there are none and there may never have been any. We ought to listen to what he says about our lack of human intelligence," Weyrich stated.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has also called for such an investigation.

Bush today repeated his lack of support for an independent inquiry but said he wanted "to know the facts" about the failures in intelligence.

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