GEORGE TENET

'George John Tenet' (born January 5, 1953) was previously the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. Tenet held the position as the DCI from July 1997 to July 2004, making him the second-longest serving director in the agency's history — behind Allen Welsh Dulles — as well as one of the few DCIs to serve under two U.S. presidents of opposing political parties.

Contents

Background

Early career

CIA career

Tenet and Iraq WMD controversy

Resignation

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Recent activities

QinetiQ

Memoir

References

See also

External links

Background

Tenet was born in Flushing, Queens, New York to Greek immigrant parents^[1][2] John Tenet and Evangelina. , , George, Tenet, HarperCollins, 2007, Tenet was raised in Little Neck, Queens where he and his brother Bill worked as busboys in their family's diner (later renamed the Scobee Diner). He attended Public School 94, Louis Pasteur Junior High School 67, and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School (he was a classmate of celebrity pornographer Ron Jeremy and actor Reginald VelJohnson).^[3] Tenet holds a bachelor's degree (1976) from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a master's degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University (1978).
Tenet is married to Stephanie Glakas-Tenet. They have one son, John Michael.^[4]

Early career

After he received his M.A., Tenet became research director of the American Hellenic Institute from 1978 to 1979.^[5] He then began working for the Senate, first as a legislative assistant and later as Legislative Director to former Senator H. John Heinz III of Pennsylvania (1982-1985). He was a staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) from 1985-1988, then Staff Director of the SSCI from 1988-1993. He had no military service. Later, Tenet joined President-elect Bill Clinton's national security transition team. Clinton appointed Tenet Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council (1993-95).^[6][7]

CIA career

Tenet was appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in July 1995. After John Deutch's abrupt resignation in December 1996, Tenet served as acting director until he was officially appointed the position on July 11, 1997, after a unanimous confirmation vote in the Senate. This was followed by the withdrawal of Anthony Lake, whose nomination had been blocked by Republicans in Congress. While the Director of Central Intelligence has typically been replaced by an incoming administration ever since Jimmy Carter replaced DCI George H. W. Bush, Tenet served through the end of the Clinton administration and well into the term of George W. Bush.

On September 15, 2001, at Camp David, Tenet presented the Worldwide Attack Matrix, an outline of an anti-terrorism campaign in 80 countries. However, after the September 11 attacks, many observers criticized the Intelligence Community for numerous "intelligence failures" as one of the major reasons why the attacks were not prevented.^[8]

Tenet and Iraq WMD controversy

According to a report by veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward in his book ''Plan of Attack'', Tenet privately lent his personal authority to the intelligence reports about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. At a meeting on December 12, 2002, he assured Bush that the evidence against Saddam Hussein amounted to a "slam dunk case "After several months of refusing to confirm this statement, Tenet later stated that this remark was taken out of context. (Tenet indicated that the comment was made pursuant to a discussion about how to convince the American people to support invading Iraq, and that, in his opinion, the best way to convince the people would be by explaining the dangers posed by Iraq's WMD i.e., the public relations sale of the war via the WMD, according to Tenet, would be a "slam dunk").^[9] The search following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S., British and international forces yielded no stockpiles of WMDs, however.
In August 2007, a secret report written by the CIA inspector general was made public (originally written in 2005 but kept secret). The 19-page report states that Tenet knew the dangers of Al Qaeda well before September 2001, but that the leadership of the CIA did not do enough to prevent any attacks. Tenet reacted to the publication of this report by calling it "flat wrong"^[10].

Resignation

Citing "personal reasons," Tenet submitted his resignation to President Bush on June 3, 2004. James Pavitt, his Deputy Director for Operations at the CIA, announced his resignation the following day, leading to speculation that the exit of both senior intelligence officials was related to the controversy over alleged Iraqi WMDs and the decision to go to war. Admiral Stansfield Turner, director of the CIA under President Jimmy Carter, said, "I think the president feels he's in enough trouble that he's got to begin to cast some of the blame for the morass that we are in Iraq on to somebody else and this was one subtle way to do it." (''Boston Herald'', June 4, 2004) However, Bush voiced support for Tenet's efforts, stating, "George Tenet did a superb job for America. It was a high honor to work with him, and I'm sorry he left." (''Reuters'', June 5, 2004)

Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Tenet's seven-year term as Director of Central Intelligence was the second-longest in U.S. history. On December 14, 2004, President Bush awarded Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This was a decision that some senior Democrats questioned, citing intelligence failures to find WMDs in Iraq. A spokesperson for Senator and 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry said that "George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and [Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul] Bremer that was applied to previous honorees." Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, in response to the award said that he "would have reached a different conclusion" on Tenet. "I don't think [he] served the president or the nation well."^[11]

Recent activities

QinetiQ

In October 2006 Tenet joined QinetiQ as an independent non-executive director.^[12]

Memoir

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In April 2007 Tenet released his memoir titled ''. He appeared on ''60 Minutes'' on April 29 2007, making several accusations against the Bush administration. The book was the top-selling book in sales in the first week after publication. It has received some discussion in the media from former government officials.
Critics pointed out a major factual error in Tenet's book. On the book's first page, Tenet tells of a conversation with then-Pentagon advisor Richard Perle on September 12, 2001 in which Tenet claims Perle told him in person that "Iraq had to pay for the attack." But the conversation could not have occurred because Perle was stranded in Paris, [France] on September 12 and didn't return to Washington until three days later.
In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer during an episode of ''The Situation Room'' Perle admitted that the two men indeed crossed each other one morning, as claimed by Tenet, but only later in the same week and not on September 12. But Perle insisted that he and Tenet exchanged no words in that encounter. ^[13]

References

1. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/march97/cia_3-19.html
2. http://graduation.tamu.edu/04A_GeorgeTenet.html
3. http://www.queenstribune.com/archives/confarchive/2002/0110/qconfidential.html
4. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040614/14cia.b.htm
5. http://hellenicnews.com/readnews.html?newsid=1648&lang=US
6. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-10-09-tenet_x.htm
7. http://www.militaryfactory.com/generals/george_tenet.asp
8. http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/sept02/homeland.asp
9. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/washington/27intel.html?ex=1335326400&en=e6f2a5232d75afb5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
10. CIA criticises ex-chief over 9/11
11. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63623-2004Dec14.html
12. http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article1927199.ece
13. Tenet Memoir Draws Heat From Key Players

See also

★ Bin Laden Issue Station: The CIA's Osama bin Laden-tracking unit, 1996-2003.

External links

★ Frontline: The Dark Side

★ SourceWatch entry for George Tenet

★ James Gordon Prather, When intelligence is disinformation, ''WorldNetDaily'', May 1, 2004.

★ CNN: Tenet told Bush WMD case a 'slam dunk'

★ Official excerpt of George Tenet's 60 Minutes interview at YouTube