GEORGE TENET’S JUST released book, At the Center of the Storm, has created quite a stir. Over the past few days, a myriad of news accounts have referenced various snippets of the former director of Central Intelligence’s self-serving collection of remembrances. But here is something you probably have not heard or read about Tenet’s book: it confirms that there was a relationship between Saddam’s Iraq and al Qaeda. And, according to Tenet, “there was more than enough evidence to give us real concern” about it too.

Tenet devotes an entire chapter to the question of Iraq’s ties to al Qaeda (Chapter 18, “No Authority, Direction, or Control”). Much of the chapter is used to vilify Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense, and Vice President Cheney. Tenet claims, repeatedly, that Feith, Cheney, and others in the Bush administration exaggerated the intelligence on Saddam’s ties to al Qaeda. The former DCI says they “pushed the data farther than it deserved” and “sought to create a connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks that would have made WMD, the United Nations, and the international community absolutely irrelevant.” (In this vein, Tenet also erroneously claimed to have met Richard Perle on September 12, 2001. According to Tenet, Perle said “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday [September 11].” However, Perle was in France and, therefore, could not have met with Tenet. Perle denies the conversation took place at all.)