The Dallas Morning News June 04, 2004
Many ask if Tenet is fall guy for Iraq
Experts say CIA chief's resignation offers chance to revamp spy agency
By G. Robert Hillman and Michelle Mitelstadt
WASHINGTON - Under steady fire for faulty intelligence, CIA Director George Tenet said Thursday that he was resigning to spend more time with his family.
His departure after seven years was not unexpected. But his timing nonetheless took much of official Washington by surprise, sparking speculation about whether he was leaving voluntarily or being pushed aside by President Bush, who faces election year battles on intelligence and foreign policy fronts.
A spirited debate also erupted over whether to overhaul the nation's vast intelligence network.
The president, who formed a tight bond with the Clinton administration holdover, praised the CIA chief as a strong, resolute leader.
"I'll miss him," Mr. Bush said Thursday, announcing Mr. Tenet's departure, effective July 11.
The strong words of support, however, did little to quell speculation that Mr. Tenet fell victim to one of several controversies swirling around the agency in recent months.
Among the possibilities:
- Continuing fallout of the prewar intelligence reports that said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was harboring chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; no such stockpiles have been found.
- The intelligence lapses before the Sept. 11 attacks and the ongoing search for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
- U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners, in which the CIA's role has yet to be fully explained.
- Or, as Mr. Tenet told colleagues at the CIA's suburban Washington headquarters: a strictly personal decision based solely on the well-being of his family.
"It's going to take a little while for the tea leaves to get read," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan research organization.
What's clear, though, is that the change of guard in the CIA may make it easier to consider an overhaul of an intelligence bureaucracy that stretches across 15 agencies, most of them out of the CIA director's reach.
'A nice clean break'
"It makes a nice clean break for the next phase of the debate," said Loch Johnson, a University of Georgia professor who's an expert on intelligence agencies.
One option considered after the Sept. 11 attacks would be to create a new national intelligence directorship with broad authority over the nation's myriad spy operations, including those of the military.
It's a change that Mr. Tenet opposes, but one that has nonetheless caught the attention of the White House, congressional leaders and the 9-11 commission.
Mr. Bush, while acknowledging that he's weighing an intelligence overhaul, has not offered any details nor any timetable.
The president, who announced the resignation at the White House on a somber note of praise, said Deputy Director John McLaughlin would become acting director when Mr. Tenet leaves.
Mr. Bush has no immediate plans to nominate a permanent successor before the November election, a decision that analysts said was designed to avert a partisan confirmation battle.
The president accepted Mr. Tenet's resignation Wednesday night at the White House during a hastily arranged meeting requested by the CIA director. Mr. Bush announced it Thursday morning just before leaving on a four-day trip to Europe.
The president did not seek Mr. Tenet's resignation, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, and he was surprised by it.
Mr. Tenet, promoted from CIA deputy director by former President Bill Clinton, had become a political lightning rod for much of the criticism over the prewar intelligence-gathering on Iraq.
Still, he had grown close to Mr. Bush, usually personally delivering to him the CIA's daily briefing.
In an emotional farewell at CIA headquarters, Mr. Tenet praised Mr. Bush and emphasized the personal nature of his decision.
"While Washington and the media will put many different faces on the decision, it was a personal decision and had only one basis in fact - the well-being of my wonderful family," he said. "Nothing more and nothing less."
Even as he spoke, though, there was speculation in Washington and in political circles about exactly why Mr. Tenet has decided to resign now and what it would mean for the besieged intelligence agency.
"He had been under very heavy pressure several times in the last three years, and he did not resign," said Daniel Byman, professor of security studies at Georgetown University. "It caught me by surprise."
Members of Congress who deal with intelligence issues said they were also caught off guard, more by the timing of Mr. Tenet's announcement than by his resignation.
Taking one for the team
"There certainly were intelligence failures in the Iraq operation, particularly in the months preceding the invasion," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who had served for a decade on the Intelligence Committee. "There had been many other failures, as well. I do not believe that the resignation of George Tenet should be the only response to those failures," she said, suggesting that Mr. Tenet had taken "one for the administration."
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Mr. Tenet's departure a "positive move" that will give the president "the opportunity to implement other needed reforms. ..."
Rep. Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, agreed.
"I have been critical of the prewar intelligence on Iraq's WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and ties to terror, as well as failures leading up to the attacks of 9-11," she said. "With Tenet's departure, the president has the opportunity to fix these problems by transforming the job that Tenet held."
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, saluted Mr. Tenet for his hard work, then urged the administration to accept responsibility for what he called "significant intelligence failures."
"Sometimes with change comes opportunity," Mr. Kerry said. "This is an opportunity for the president to lead. ...We must reshape our intelligence community for the 21st century and create a new position of director of national intelligence with real control of all intelligence personnel and budgets."
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, however, that Mr. Tenet should not be the "fall guy" for intelligence shortcomings.
"I don't think resignations are the answer here," Mr. Schumer said. "The answer is to look at the mistakes that were made and straighten them out rather than just point fingers."
© Copyright 2004, The Dallas Morning News
