In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal calls attention to some interesting tidbits from Bob Woodward’s latest book, Plan of Attack:

The President continued, “I’ve been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we’ve got?” At which point Mr. Tenet is said to have thrown his hands in the air and remarked, “It’s a slam-dunk case!” Mr. Bush pressed again, “George, how confident are you?” Mr. Tenet: “Don’t worry, it’s a slam dunk!”

It isn’t a shock, of course, that the CIA believed Iraq possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The Clinton Administration bombed Iraq for four days in December 1998 based on that assessment. Every other major intelligence agency in the world believed the same. What is new in the Woodward account is the extent to which Mr. Bush appears to have been a thoughtful and critical consumer of such intelligence. The President reportedly told Mr. Tenet several times, “Make sure no one stretches to make our case.”

These revelations, of course, haven’t been widely discussed. Doing so would debunk many of the media-propelled myths intended to damage President Bush.

It does make one wonder about Tenet, though. If I were as conspiratorially-minded as many on the left, I’d think that Tenet, a Clinton hold-over, was trying to sabotage the Bush presidency. I don’t think that. I just think intelligence gathering and analysis is a tough business, and that our systems need serious work.