With CIA Director George Tenet on the way out, US President George W. Bush's administration faces crucial questions over how to improve the US' 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. Bush named Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, to temporarily lead the US 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 Senator Carl Levin, an Intelligence Committee member.
It seems unlikely that Bush will send a nomination for a new CIA director to the Senate before autumn -- 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, Representative Porter Goss; Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; former Senator Bob Kerrey; and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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."
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-Qaeda 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 US.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts 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 said.
"I think there are many more people who are responsible for the mess that the administration has created," Pelosi said.
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