First head rolls as Bush tries to save his ass?

Drolgin Steingrinder · Post by **Drolgin Steingrinder** » June 3, 2004, 12:20 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/ ... index.html

CNN wrote: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.

Somwhow I doubt the parting was as amicable as Bush made it out to be...

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » June 3, 2004, 12:32 pm

Can anyone get the audio clip from the Tony Bruno show....

That's it you're gone!

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » June 3, 2004, 12:39 pm

Personal reasons my ass. I'm sure some report or memor will be leaked sometime down the road, probably after the election tho!

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » June 3, 2004, 12:52 pm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5123701/

This is another development, I said it 6 months ago on here, Bush's Waterloo will be the outing of the CIA op, you don't fuck with the CIA, Nixon learned that the hard way

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » June 3, 2004, 12:55 pm

Do you mean Watergate?

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » June 3, 2004, 1:13 pm

Yes, Nixon had a plan to supplant the CIA with his own new intelligence agency, then oddly enough, Mr Woodward, a suspected CIA agent both at the time and since breaks a little story known as Watergate, the rest as they say is history

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 3, 2004, 1:48 pm

There will be no Watersports this time. Tenet was probably assigned to orchestrate the terrorist attack that will assure Bushes re-election and needs to focus on that.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 3, 2004, 2:45 pm

hmm, CIA interrogations suspected as one of the things leading to beating and other heinous crimes...CIA director leaves instead of Rummy which everyone is calling for.

Don't see anything suspicious when JUST looking at this information. I have a feeling that it has more to do with him being blamed for what happened in the interrogations than with the leaking of the operative's name.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » June 3, 2004, 4:42 pm

I am sure there are a lot of factors as to why he was pushed out. Personally, I think the Bush Corperation is making a big push to clean house of anyone remotely bi-partisan/non-partisan so that their wagons are circled for the upcomming election. The GOP is starting to have stress from within, since a lot of legislators are concerned about their local elections (and not everywhere is like the south where you can smack the bible around and assure your incombancy) and the breaking ranks on the Iraq funding is the first sign of it. There will be more as individual GOP incumbants start seeking to save their own asses.

If there was a plan to stage or green light another terrorist attack on US soil, having an outgoing CIA chief to pin the blame on is a great way to avoid any accountability for it, though.

Adelrune Argenti · Post by **Adelrune Argenti** » June 3, 2004, 5:25 pm

Winnow wrote:There will be no Watersports this time. Tenet was probably assigned to orchestrate the terrorist attack that will assure Bushes re-election and needs to focus on that.

That was a good one.

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » June 4, 2004, 6:07 am

The guy has looked half dead for years so maybe there is something in the Personal Reasons line.
There are also a couple more reports relating to 911/Afghanistan/Iraq due in the coming weeks. I'm betting they're pretty highly critical of the CIA and this is a case of jumping before being pushed.

Kylere · Post by **Kylere** » June 4, 2004, 9:43 am

Considering how accurate the CIA reports have been for the last 7 years, they should have fired him forever ago.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » June 4, 2004, 9:57 am

He was asked to step down because he preferred cake over pie.

Akaran_D · Post by **Akaran_D** » June 4, 2004, 1:26 pm

2nd Head
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/ ... index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The man in charge of the CIA's covert operations plans to announce his resignation Friday, U.S. sources said, a day after his boss, Director George Tenet, announced he was leaving the agency for personal reasons.

Sources said the resignation of James Pavitt, the CIA's deputy director of operations, was "entirely unrelated" to Tenet's departure and that he had been planning to leave for three or four weeks.

Pavitt, who has spent 30 years in the intelligence business, including the last five years in his current post, testified before the 9/11 commission in mid-April.

It marked the first time in the agency's history that an official in his position testified publicly.

Pavitt told the panel that the United States is "in the midst of inflicting irreversible damage on the al Qaeda organization" but admitted that the fight continues "with no clear end in sight."

President Bush announced Tenet's resignation before leaving Thursday on a trip to Europe to attend ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in World War II. (D-Day: Return to Normandy)

Tenet had faced sharp criticism over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the war in Iraq, where pre-invasion U.S. estimates that Iraq was amassing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction now appear to have been incorrect.

A White House official said Bush would have liked Tenet to stay on, denying that his departure was "worked out beforehand" or "engineered."

"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 -- nothing more and nothing less," Tenet said in a speech to employees at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. (Transcript; Tenet has enjoyed lifetime of public work)

But former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said the timing of Tenet's resignation -- five months before the presidential election -- cast doubt on the explanation that it was a personal decision.

"I think he's being pushed out or made a scapegoat," said Turner, who led the CIA during the Carter administration.

"That is that the president feels he's got to have somebody to blame, and he's doing it indirectly by asking Tenet to leave. ... I don't think he would pull the plug on President Bush in the middle of an election cycle without having been asked by the president to do that."

Tenet said his resignation will be effective July 11 -- the seventh anniversary of his 1997 appointment by President Clinton. (Tenet's resignation letter)

Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin will become the agency's acting chief once Tenet steps down. (Interactive: John McLaughlin background)

Calls for sweeping changes
Several key lawmakers -- including U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee -- have called for Tenet's resignation, and coming reports are expected to call for sweeping changes in the intelligence community.

Kerry issued a statement Thursday saying he wished Tenet "the very best" but adding that the Bush administration has to take responsibility for "significant intelligence failures."

"Sometimes with change comes opportunity," Kerry said. "This is an opportunity for the president to lead. As I've said for some time, 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."

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, a former Intelligence Committee chairman, said Tenet's decision to step down 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," the Alabama Republican said in a statement.

"I have long felt that, while an honorable man, he lacked the critical leadership necessary for our intelligence community to effectively operate, particularly in the post-9/11 world."

But the current chairman and the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a joint statement praising Tenet, saying he "provided much-needed stability and leadership to an agency that was largely adrift."

"While he steps down during a period of controversy over events leading up to the attacks of 9/11 and the quality of intelligence prior to the Iraq war, we should not lose sight of a simple truth: George Tenet has served his country with distinction and honor during difficult and demanding times," said Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tenet "always did his best to defend this nation against terrorists and those states that support them."

"Mr. Tenet had a monumental task to rebuild human intelligence-gathering capabilities devastated by eight years of liberal Clinton administration policies," said Hastert, R-Illinois.

CIA Director George Tenet speaks Thursday to staff members at agency headquarters about his resignation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said her confidence in Tenet's judgment had never wavered, even though the CIA chief was in a "very difficult situation."

"I think there are many more people who are responsible for the mess that the Bush administration has gotten us into," said Pelosi, D-California.

"But if Mr. Tenet thinks there should be a change of leadership at the Central Intelligence Agency -- for whatever reason, including taking one for the administration -- then so be it."

CNN's Ted Barrett, David Ensor, Suzanne Malveaux and Henry Schuster contributed to this report.