not much on the internet, saw this http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121665,00.html WASHINGTON — CIA Director George Tenet submitted his letter of resignation Thursday, President Bush announced. Bush said he met with Tenet on Wednesday night in the White House. Tenet said he was resigning for personal reasons.
Kind of sad really. I always thought Tenet was a good guy caught in a bad situation. What I find more interesting is that the announcement came just as Jr high tailed it out of the country.
Max I would agree if it really was his (and the CIA's) fault. But with Rummy and Cheney setting up their own little "intel agency" outside of the CIA to vet intelligence, one would have to assume that not all intelligence failures were his "fault".
True, but Richard Clarke's book is very praiseworthy of Tenet with regard to terrorism. Apparently, even before 9-11, Tenet saw terrorism as the number 1 threat and tried to get the CIA bureaucracy to embrace the idea. However, he wasn't successful. As for the chalabi thing/wmd scandal, I don't know how he can take the fall for that. The CIA warned everybody not to trust him and about the lack of WMD evidence, Bush, Cheney & the rest did not heed those warnings.
I agree. Obviously mistakes were made in intelligence gathering, and maybe he should be held accountable, but I do not view him as a villain like I do Rumsfeld and the rest of the neo-cons. Those are the ones that really need to go.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/03/tenet.resigns/index.html Dep. Director John McLaughlin to become acting chief Thursday, June 3, 2004 Posted: 11:05 AM EDT (1505 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA Director George Tenet has resigned, citing personal reasons, President Bush said Thursday. Tenet's resignation takes effect in mid-July, after which Deputy Director John McLaughlin will become the agency's acting chief, Bush told reporters at the White House. Bush said that Tenet informed him of his decision Wednesday night. Bush said Tenet had done "a superb job for the American people." "He has been a strong and able leader at the agency," Bush said. "He has been a strong leader in the war on terror and I will miss him." He had faced heavy criticism over the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and on the war in Iraq, in which pre-invasion U.S. estimates that Iraq was amassing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction now appear to have been incorrect. Bush made the announcement before boarding Marine One for a flight to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. He is on his way to Europe, where he will attend ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in World War II. (Full story) Tenet was sworn in as the Director of Central Intelligence on July 11, 1997 by President Clinton. A native New Yorker, Tenet holds a degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and in international affairs from Columbia University.
Particularly when the NIE report completely contradicted the 'findings' of the White House's own intel dept. ( ie, Chalabi), and said that Saddam had no connection with AQ...and there were ongoing battles over intel findings; Bush et al chose to go with those they had established to support the war in the first place, and now Tenet is being made to take the fall. Nice. Thing is, though, we've heard for a long time that Tenet was in conflict with the WH over Iraq, and his being asked to be the fall guy seems a little odd, considering much of that is public knowledge. So there are two ways of looking at this: They're trying to make Tenet the sacrificial lamb hoping to stave off the repercussions of this debacle by pinning it on 'bad intel' ( revisionist history in the extreme), or else this is Tenet getting in his last shot at the administration with whom he has been at loggerheads for quite a while. He would know that, short of publicly criticizing the administration, which he can't do, this is the only move in his power which would reflect on the WH's war. It gives the impression of a sinking ship, in some respcts, at a crucial time. Put it this way; if this was an administrative move, the timing is not all that auspicious.
i understand. of course they're not his fault, entirely. but we've been hearing about intelligence failures left and right. it should come as no surprise that the director of the CIA proves to be a fall guy.
But IF he gives good intel, such as the NIE report ( so far as Iraq/AQ are concerned) and it's ignored in favor of a newly established, WH guided,obiously compromised intel gathering dept., which proves to have been wrong where the CIA et al were right ( AQ) and more wrong where the CIA were wrong ( WMDs)...how do you justify Tenet alone taking the fall? It's like we lose a game because Steve and Yao take late techs, and because Yao turns the ball over 3 times in the last minute, and blaming the loss on Yao, because of the tech.
Macbeth, if you would just fork over 5 dollars Canadian, you could edit your posts forever. Actually, there is no set amount, I'm sure you could give anything to become a contributing member.
Oh, you;re saying as a pragmatic, politcal decision designed to for the sake of WH PR? I sort of agree, except don;t most know what we know, about the WH's own intel vs, the CIA? If people do know this, and Tenet is the only high ranking guy to fall, how will it look like anything but WH CYA at the littler guy's expense? Possibilities: 1) Tenet himself designed this move as a Parthian shot. 2) Tenet isn't the only guy gonna fall. 3) The public doesn't, in general, know about the WH's own intel dept. and the NIE report. 4) The WH think's 3 is true. 5) The Wh believes people are looking for a scapegoat, and will be satsified with this, irrespective of it's justfication. 6) A move of desperation. I don't see other options, do you?
