CIA chief leaving as agency braces for critical reports on U.S. intelligence-gathering

Friday, June 4th 2004, 6:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ With CIA Director George Tenet on the way out, the Bush administration faces crucial questions over how to improve America's intelligence gathering during a time of high terror threats and continued finger-pointing over past failures.

Surprising many in Washington, Tenet announced his resignation Thursday in an emotional address to CIA staff, ending seven years as the agency's head during two presidencies. President Bush named Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, to temporarily lead America's spy agency when Tenet steps down in mid-July.

Tenet's decision comes just before the expected release of several long-awaited and highly critical reports on intelligence failures by the CIA and other agencies.

Among them, the presidential commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks soon will make its findings and recommendations, after already strongly condemning the CIA for pre-Sept. 11 failures.

And a Senate Intelligence Committee report on faulty prewar estimates of Iraq's weapons capabilities, expected soon, is ``a very stinging report of failure inside the CIA,'' said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., an Intelligence Committee member.

It seems unlikely that Bush will send a nomination for a new CIA director to the Senate before the fall _ for what could be a bitter confirmation battle _ rather than wait until after the election, should he win.

Among names mentioned as a possible successor are the House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla.; Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose spokeswoman discounted the speculation.

In a hastily arranged announcement Thursday, Bush said he was sorry to see Tenet go. ``I will miss him,'' the president told reporters just before departing for Europe.

An emotional Tenet told CIA employees that his resignation was the most difficult decision he's made. ``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, a gregarious man described by some as a political animal, was appointed by President Clinton.

Under Tenet's command, the CIA saw its resources boosted and its clandestine service grow. Among the agency's successes, the CIA went into Afghanistan to help dismantle al-Qaida and, in Iraq, the agency was involved in the capture of fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

But the failures were among the worst in the agency's history.

First and foremost, Tenet and his agency were strongly criticized for failing to predict and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The agency also came under blistering attacks for overestimating Iraq's weapons capabilities.

Likewise, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden remains at large.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said Thursday the intelligence community has to be held accountable for its failings.

``We need fresh thinking within the community,'' Roberts said before learning of Tenet's decision.

Some Democrats suggested Tenet was being made a scapegoat for failures during Bush's term in office.

``I did not lose confidence in his judgment,'' House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. ``I think there are many more people who are responsible for the mess that the administration has'' created.

Officials close to Tenet say the taxing job had taken a toll and that he thought about resigning last summer. But some believed he had wanted to see bin Laden's capture.

For many reasons, it has been a tense final year for Tenet.

Agency officials are upset over last summer's leak of a covert CIA operative's name. Bush said Wednesday he was considering hiring a private attorney for legal advice in a grand jury investigation into that leak.

The CIA also has been angered over recent allegations that Defense Department civilians may have given highly classified information on Iran to an Iraqi politician and former Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi.

The insurgency in Iraq remains strong, and al-Qaida threat levels against American targets are high, with many U.S. officials worried militants could try a strike to influence the U.S. elections in November.

Tenet's is not the only departure at the CIA. The head of the agency's clandestine service, James Pavitt, plans to announce his retirement Friday _ a decision the 31-year CIA veteran made several weeks ago, before he knew of Tenet's decision, a CIA official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Stephen Kappes, a 23-year agency veteran, is expected to take over the agency's best-known division, responsible for foreign intelligence gathering.