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Puck The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 5596
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Thu Jun 03, 2004 10:26 am CIA Director Tenet Resigns |
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CIA Director Tenet Resigns
Thursday, June 03, 2004
WASHINGTON � CIA Director George Tenet (search) has submitted his letter of resignation, President Bush announced on Thursday.
�I met with George last night in the White House," Bush said. "I had a good visit with him. He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving"
Tenet has been at the center of controversy over the government's response to terror threats prior to Sept. 11 and the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (search).
Bush said Tenet has "done a super job" and is the "kind of public servant you like to work with."
Tenet will serve as the CIA director until mid-July, Bush said, then CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin (search) will serve as acting director.
"I send my blessings to George and his family," Bush said from the White House lawn. "I look forward to working with him until the time he leaves the agency, and I wish him all the very best."
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., told Fox News that while he appreciates the years of hard work Tenet has put in, his resignation should be looked upon as a fresh start for the intelligence community.
"We should view this as an opportunity to do a better job in the future. The important thing is to ask 'How are we going to do a better job from now on?'" Lott said.
Tenet had been under fire for months in connection with intelligence failures related to the U.S.-led war against Iraq, specifically assertions the United States made about Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction and the threat from the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
In May, a panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks released statements harshly criticizing the CIA for failing to fully appreciate the threat posed by Al Qaeda before the terrorist hijackings. Tenet told the panel the intelligence-gathering flaws exposed by the attacks would take five years to correct.
During his seven years at the CIA, speculation has swirled at times around whether Tenet would retire or be forced out. This speculation peaked after Sept. 11 and surged again after the flawed intelligence estimates about Iraq's fighting capability.
Lott said the CIA has recently begun to improve under Tenet.
"I think it has been getting better, particularly in last year or so," he told Fox News. "After 9/11 we found that there were a number of problems ... that is beginning to turn around."
Even when his political capital appeared to be tanking, Tenet managed to hang on with what some say was a fierce loyalty to Bush and the CIA personnel. A likable, chummy personality also helped keep him above water.
Conventional wisdom had been that Tenet, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, did not plan to stay on next year, no matter who won the White House. Tenet has been on the job since July 1997, an unusually lengthy tenure in a particularly taxing era for the intelligence community.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called Tenet "an honorable and decent man who has served his country well in difficult times, and no one should make him a fall guy for anything."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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borgslayer Rear Admiral
Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 2646 Location: Las Vegas
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Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:20 pm |
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I can say that he's resignation tells us that he did not do a good job as a CIA Director.
I dont like the fact the he resigned.
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Puck The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 5596
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Thu Jun 03, 2004 11:22 pm |
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I would have resigned if I were him as well....would be tired of takin all the sh*t from everyone. But he said it was so he could spend more time with his family...if you have seen his speech, he gets incredibly emotional when he starts talking about his son.
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Paul Marshall Rear Admiral
Joined: 30 Aug 2002 Posts: 2976 Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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Fri Jun 04, 2004 12:10 am |
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I heard that someone under him was retiring fairly soon, .
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