Leader leaves behind mixed record at agency

Retiring CIA Director George J. Tenet had a mixed record of failure and success during his nine years at the agency, including the major intelligence failure surrounding the September 11 attacks and lapses in assessing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Tenet, who resigned yesterday, has been a target of critics both in and out of government who say that he was in the post too long and that a new CIA chief could lead the Bush administration’s global war on terrorism better.

Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican and former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said yesterday that Mr. Tenet’s departure was “long overdue.”

“There were more failures of intelligence on his watch as director of the CIA than any other [director of central intelligence] in our history,” Mr. Shelby said.

Mr. Shelby said the resignation is an opportunity to appoint new leadership that can carry out needed structural reforms within the 14-agency intelligence community and to improve intelligence-sharing.

An intelligence official said Mr. Tenet’s key successes were the CIA’s support for the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, the dismantling of Libya’s weapons programs and his role as negotiator of the Middle East peace process from 1998 to 2001.

“Tenet has much to be proud of. … He restored morale and provided stability and continuity at a crucial time,” said California Rep. Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. Tenet, the highest-ranking holdover from President Clinton’s administration, came under sharp criticism in recent months over the CIA’s inaccurate assessments of Iraq’s hidden stocks of chemical, biological and nuclear arms and equipment. The assessments were a key factor in going to war in Iraq.

Asked in March whether he planned to resign, Mr. Tenet quipped as he left a contentious Senate hearing, “And miss all this fun?”

Mr. Tenet cited his desire to spend more time with his family when announcing his resignation yesterday.

Bush administration officials said President Bush had grown close to Mr. Tenet during the past four years and kept him on, in part, at the suggestion of his father, former President George Bush. The elder Mr. Bush was a former CIA director and a supporter of Mr. Tenet.

Mr. Tenet’s stewardship of the CIA has been marked by numerous intelligence failures. They include:

• The CIA’s failure to track and stop the al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. The airline-missile strikes killed about 3,000 people.

Investigations into the attacks found that the CIA failed to share information with other agencies and was unable to piece together a comprehensive picture of al Qaeda and penetrate its operations. No U.S. intelligence or law-enforcement official was disciplined or fired as a result of the September 11 attacks.

• CIA assessments of Iraq’s hidden stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and equipment were wrong. Since U.S. military forces ousted Saddam Hussein’s regime in March 2003, no large stockpiles of weapons have been uncovered.

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