« Comics and Politics | Main | 101 Reasons Why Tenet Left »

Breaking News

George Tenet has resigned. Check Command Post for coverage. Just out of curiousity, is there anyone who is saddened that he's gone? Hmm..the more I think about this, the more strategical promise I see. So, any bets on who will take his place? Update: This could get very interesting. So far the readings on the left and the right are - not suprisingly - very different.

TrackBack

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Breaking News:

» Tenet to Resign from Outside the Beltway
CIA Director George Tenet has apparently announced his resignation. Barry Ritholtz e-mailed me the news and Drudge also has it, minus any link. Update: Fox... [Read More]

» Tenet "resigns" from CIA from BoiFromTroy
AP reports this morning's breaking news: WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Thursday that CIA director George Tenet has resigned "for personal reasons" and that his deputy will temporarily lead America's premier spy agency until a successor is found... [Read More]

» Tenet resigns from Rooftop Report
Well, it had to happen, somebody had to be the scapegoat in order for the President to deflect blame in the upcoming months. I would have preferred Cheney, Rumsfield, Rice, Ashcroft, or the big boy himself, but why get rid [Read More]

» Tenet Resigns from Rooftop Report
Well, it had to happen, somebody had to be the scapegoat in order for the President to deflect blame in the upcoming months. I would have preferred Cheney, Rumsfield, Rice, Ashcroft, or the big boy himself, but why get rid... [Read More]

Comments

Not sad he's gone.

Not sure what strategic implications there are. If Bush tries to put the intelligence failures in Iraq entirely off on Tenet, I expect Tenet will push back. Which will serve Kerry and the Democrats very nicely.

No idea who will take his place. But I wouldn't mind seeing Rudy in there.

I'm hoping for Richard Clark, myself. Next to the Clinton's, he's the smartest man in America. If we had only listened to him, 9/11 would never have happened, you know.

I've put in Allah's name for Director. He's done a great job of keeping a low profile lately, is very mysterious, and knows the Ay-rabs inside and out!

I'm not sure that Rudy's (we're talking the former mayor of NY, I assume, and not the undersized Notre Dame football player) skill set matches up with the CIA... wouldn't he more of a guy to head up the Justice Department after Ashcroft needs to spend more time with his family?

Better news... K-LO over at the National Review's The Corner is hinting at

drumroll

Rudy Giuliani

Suh-weeeeeeeet!

Excellent pick, Mayor Giuliani. He'd serve a few years, straighhten things up, then beat the pantsuit off Sen. Clinton.

As for anyone being sad, I heard on Rush that the two men are quite close (President Bush and Director Tennet), and while I would have asked for his resignation long ago (not Sept 12 but some respectable time thereafter), I defer to the friendship the two men apparently have.

I'm very happy that Tenent is gone, but many more from the FBI and CIA should have been gone long ago. If the rumor of Giuliani is true, that would be brilliant.

Interestingly I heard a quote from Nancy Pelosi on the radio and she was very very unhappy he'd resigned (with the usual hint that Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld should have resigned instead).

Bad idea for Rudi. The agency jumped the shark years ago after the Church hearings. It is terminally ossified and not even high colonics and applications of the cardiac paddles will ever get it going again. DIA has been eating their lunch for quite a while esp in terms of HUMINT and CI ops.

Let me ask you if you would want to be an field officer living on the local economy in deep cover where dysentery is a life style? Or would you prefer to schmooze your host government counterparts at embassy cocktail parties where the most dangerous thing is getting stuck with tooth pick in a canape?

Will not miss him but I do think the departure has interesting timing. My guess is that the 9-11 commission is going to hang the CIA and FBI and Tenet is just getting out ahead of the curve. Since Bush would have had to have sacrificed Tenet once the commission report was finished in June/July.

My suggestion to replace him is Congressman Porter Goss (R-Fl). Goss is a former spook who has chaired the House Intel Committee for years. He is well respected by both parties and is leaving congress at the end of this year.

I vote for Bush the Elder as the new DCI--mostly out of the expectation that the nomination alone would cause enough cranial explosions in the moonbat population to make for several weeks of evening entertainment.

First, I second the Porter Goss nomination. Former spook and Army Intel guy, bi-partisan support- he'd be a great choice.

As for Tenet, I'm not sure what to think. Yeah, the CIA missed some stuff in a big way, but the tools that would have helped avoid that were RiFed long before he took over. We're just now starting to get to where we need to be in a Human Intel capability. He's done a lot to make that happen. (aside from the big collective oops on 9/12/01 from everyone that thought the CIA was irrelevant in post Cold War...)

There are only a few people qualified to judge how "good" a CIA director has been- and 99.9% of the pundits/politicians aren't one of them. You have to know what has been missed... but you have to know what has been caught, as well. The latter is not, and never will be public knowledge.

I do think that there needs to be a major overhaul of the intelligence community. I believe there will be, and it will be based on the 9/11 commission's report. Not because it will say anything "new", but because there always has to be a "report" before anything happens. That way, if it gets more screwed up, you can blame the report. George Tenet would not be the man to make those changes- too much baggage.

I think he's a good man and a patriot- but his time was up.