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Clinton Appointee George Tenet Resigns

Clinton Appointee Tenet Resigns? (booted out)

George Tenet, the director of central intelligence who presided over critical intelligence failures, bit the dust and resigned. The Clinton Appointee has a lot of baggage under his bed that will be revealed

Both Mr. Tenet and President Bush said the resignation was for personal reasons. But current and former intelligence officials noted that Mr. Tenet was anticipating heavy criticism from three reports expected to assail the agency either over its failure to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot or the assessments that Iraq possessed unconventional weapons before the American invasion last year.

Most damaging among them is a Senate Intelligence Committee report which is expected to single out errors made by the agency in its prewar judgments.

Some Republican senators, including Pat Roberts of Kansas, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, signaled to the administration in the past two weeks that the report's conclusions would be so critical that it would raise questions about who should be held accountable, an official said. Another official said the highly critical nature of the report was widely known at the White House.

Mr. Tenet is to be replaced by his deputy, John McLaughlin, who will serve as acting director. Mr. Bush is unlikely to nominate a permanent successor before the November election, Republicans said, because a confirmation battle this summer would attract more attention to the agency's assessments of Saddam Hussein's weapons.

In another resignation at the C.I.A., a senior intelligence official said Thursday evening that James Pavitt, the head of the agency's clandestine service, is to announce Friday that he is retiring. The retirement of Mr. Pavitt, a C.I.A. veteran whose current title is deputy director of operations, had been planned for some time and had nothing to do with Mr. Tenet's resignation, the agency official said.