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George Tenet resigns as director of CIA
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-04 09:09
CIA Director George Tenet, battered by Sept. 11 fallout and criticism
of Iraq intelligence mistakes, said Thursday he would soon resign in a jarring
announcement that threw open a key position at a critical time in the war
against terrorism.
CIA Director George
Tenet. A bipartisan group of US lawmakers called for a massive overhaul of
US intelligence-gathering agencies, in the wake of the sudden resignation
of CIA Director George Tenet. [AFP] | Tenet, a
Democratic appointee whose close relationship to President Bush has helped him
survive the intelligence failures, said he was leaving for personal reasons. But
some in Congress questioned whether he had been pushed out.
Bush said Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, would temporarily lead America's
spy agency during a period in which Iraq remains unstable and U.S. officials
worry terrorists might strike in hopes of influencing the November elections.
In a speech to CIA employees, an emotional Tenet said, "It was a personal
decision and had only one basis in fact: the well-being of my wonderful family,
nothing more and nothing less."
Tenet, 51, spent an hour with Bush at the White House Wednesday night,
informing him of his decision to leave his post as head of the CIA and director
of the 14 other agencies that comprise the intelligence community.
In a hurriedly arranged announcement Thursday before leaving on a trip to
Europe, Bush said, "I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on
behalf of the American people."
A White House official said the president told his staff he did not want
anyone speculating that Tenet was leaving for anything other than personal
reasons. "If (Tenet) wants to expand on that further, then we will leave it to
him to do so," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan later said.
Tenet, a gregarious man described by some as a political animal, is the
second-longest serving Central Intelligence director and just the second to
continue to serve when a new administration came in. He briefed Bush at the
White House almost daily.
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who befriended Tenet while serving on the House
Intelligence Committee, said he talked to Tenet Thursday afternoon and Tenet
told him the president asked him to stay.
It seemed unlikely that Bush would send a nomination to the Senate before the
fall — for what could be a bitter confirmation fight given controversies over
recent intelligence failures — rather than wait until after the election, should
he win.
Among names mentioned as a possible successor are House Intelligence Chairman
Porter Goss, R-Fla., Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former Sen. Bob
Kerrey, D-Neb., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose spokeswoman
discounted the speculation.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., remarked on Tenet's timing — with the nation
on alert for an attack and with the presidential election approaching.
"I can't remember any resignation that has struck me as more startling than
this one," she said. "I suspect there is going to be more of a story to tell
than just personal reasons."
Lawmakers including Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., were pushing for Goss, a former
CIA officer who questioned Thursday morning whether the intelligence community
is too susceptible to misinformation and deception.
McLaughlin, who is nicknamed "Merlin" and is considered close to Tenet, will
take over the agency when Tenet steps down in mid-July, on the seven-year
anniversary of his swearing in.
The head of the agency's clandestine service, James Pavitt, will also
announce his retirement Friday — a decision the 31-year CIA veteran made several
weeks ago, before he knew of Tenet's decision, a CIA official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity. He is expected to be replaced by Stephen Kappes, a
23-year veteran.
On Tenet's watch, the CIA helped capture key al-Qaida leaders including
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, as well as fallen Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. He also oversaw a significant increase in the number of covert
officers in training and came forward with an aggressive plan to go after
al-Qaida in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, winning favor with
Bush.
But Tenet and his agency were strongly criticized for failing to predict and
prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. And al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden remains at
large.
In May, a panel investigating the attacks criticized the CIA for failing to
fully appreciate the threat posed by al-Qaida before the terrorist hijackings.
Tenet said the intelligence-gathering flaws would take five years to correct.
Tenet also has been under criticism for intelligence failures in the U.S.-led
war against Iraq, specifically wrong assessments about weapons of mass
destruction.
In a February speech, Tenet conceded that the intelligence community may have
overestimated Iraq's weapons programs, but he defended his analysts. "They never
said there was an imminent threat," Tenet said.
The CIA has been angered over recent allegations that Defense Department
civilians may have given highly classified information on Iran to an Iraqi
politician and former Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi. After the resignation,
Chalabi, lashed out at Tenet, accusing him of being personally responsible for
spreading the allegations.
Agency officials also still are upset over last summer's leak of a covert CIA
operative's name. Bush said Wednesday he was considering hiring a private
attorney to give him legal advice in a grand jury investigation into that leak.
More criticism of Tenet may be coming soon as various intelligence
investigations conclude, including a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the
Iraq weapons mistakes. "It's a very stinging report of failure inside the CIA,"
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a committee member, said recently.
Tenet had considered leaving before. In 1998, he told his first boss,
President Clinton, he would resign if Clinton pardoned convicted spy Jonathan
Pollard, a former naval intelligence officer who gave top-secret documents to
Israel.
Officials close to Tenet say he also thought about resigning last summer, but
decided to stay on. Some believed he had wanted to see through bin Laden's
capture.
Since the intelligence failures on the Iraq war, congressional aides have
said that Tenet's capital among some key lawmakers — Republicans and Democrats
alike — had dwindled.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said
the intelligence community had to be held accountable for its failings.
"Simply put, I think the community is somewhat in denial over the full extent
... of the shortcoming of its work on Iraq and also on 9/11," Roberts said
Thursday morning before learning of Tenet's decision. "We need fresh thinking
within the community, especially within the Congress," Roberts said.
Former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said he believed Tenet had been pushed
out.
"I think the president feels he's in enough trouble that he's got to begin to
cast some of the blame for the morass that we are in in Iraq to somebody else,"
said Turner, a retired Navy admiral.
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