http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Did_Medal_of_Freedom_buy_Tenets_0626.htmlDid Medal of Freedom buy Tenet's silence?RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday June 26, 2007
Revealing that former CIA director George Tenet gave up $2 million in delaying publication of his memoir, an essay in The New Republic speculates President Bush or his father -- or someone close to them -- convinced Tenet to delay and write a book uncritical of the president.
Tenet began preparing an auction of his memoirs almost immediately after his 2004 resignation, garnering a winning bid of more than $4 million from Random House's Crown Publishing Group, reports Patrick Tyler in TNR. Tenet suddenly got cold feet when it came time to put ink to paper on the deal, and he ended up delaying a book contract for the next 18 months. When it finally came time to ink a deal, the value of Tenet's memoir was cut in half, and he settled for around $2 million from HarperCollins, Tyler reports, based on a source in the publishing industry.
"Which raises a question: Why did a man who seemed so bent on cashing in put off writing his memoir -- at a loss of some $2 million?" Tyler asks. "There can be no doubt that, while the delay was costly to Tenet, it was valuable to the White House," Tyler writes. "The net effect was to push the book's publication date beyond the 2006 elections."
At the time he was hemming and hawing over the book deal, Tenet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tyler notes, but Tenet insists that's simply a coincidence. Tenet wasn't "clear on what conversations he'd had with members of the Bush family during the 18-month interval between actions," the article notes.
Former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar also hyped speculation of a Bush intervention in the publication delay. "I knew President Bush called him," Bandar, a close friend of Tenet, told Tyler. "The question is: Was it 41 or 43?"