Europe wonders why CIA chief quit

[dplax]

LONDON, England (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday that CIA director George Tenet had resigned for personal reasons, not because of intelligence failings linked to September 11, 2001, or the Iraq war. But not everyone in Europe agreed with that assessment.

In Germany, Tenet's resignation was seen as a move by U.S. President George W. Bush to boost his re-election campaign by dumping a top official associated with intelligence lapses.

"Tenet survived onslaughts until now," the Frankfurter Rundschau daily commented. "It's possible that now that Bush's star is sinking in the polls, he (Tenet) has become a burden for his boss."

In Spain, the El Mundo newspaper carried an editorial cartoon showing Bush arriving in Europe aboard Air Force One.

The door opens and down walks Bush, holding up a disembodied head with a tag saying "Tenet" hanging from it.

European leaders look up slightly bemused.

On Thursday, Tenet surprised many people in Washington by announcing his resignation in an emotional address to Central Intelligence Agency staff. Citing personal reasons, Tenet ended seven years as the CIA's director during two presidencies.

His decision came shortly before the expected release of several reports on intelligence failures by the CIA and other U.S. agencies regarding the September 11 attacks and erroneous prewar estimates about Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities in Iraq.

Blair, Bush's strongest ally during the Iraq war, said Friday, "I would just say that the head of the CIA left for personal reasons. He said that very, very clearly."

Speaking on British Broadcasting Corp. television, Blair said: "As far as I understand it, the decision of the CIA director has got absolutely nothing to do with Iraq, 9/11 or anything else."

The British prime minister has been criticized at home for justifying the Iraq war by saying that Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction posed a big threat. Coalition troops have failed to find such weapons in Iraq.

The Independent newspaper in London, which strongly opposed the war, described Tenet's departure as a "cheap sacrifice."

"His resignation lifts a weight of baggage from Mr. Bush," the paper wrote in an editorial. "The more flak Mr. Tenet takes, the less falls on anyone else."

But the foreign minister of Italy, another U.S. ally in the Iraq war, praised Tenet, who plans to step down in mid-July and be temporarily replaced by his deputy, John McLaughlin.

"Italy joins with the president of the United States George Bush in complimenting the CIA chief for his work carried out in these years," the ANSA news agency reported Franco Frattini as saying.

Others viewed the loss of Tenet as a setback for Bush.

"Five months before the presidential election, the resignation of a trusted aide of this caliber means a weakening for Bush," Germany's Handelsblatt economic daily said.

In France, terrorism consultant Alexis Debat said Tenet had a reputation as a yes-man for the president. "He said what Bush wanted to hear," Debat said in an interview. "The extent to which Tenet compromised his administration to retain the link with Bush is damning."

In London, The Times newspaper pointed out the stark contrast in fortunes of Tenet and John Scarlett, the author of a controversial, prewar British intelligence dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons that Blair had used to justify the conflict.

Scarlett was chosen Thursday to head Britain's foreign intelligence agency MI6. Although the claims in the September 2002 dossier are in dispute, a judge last year decided that the BBC had been wrong to report that officials had knowingly manipulated evidence.

[Timber Loftis]

Maybe he just go fed up with annoying articles like this one and annoying people like us. Seven years is a long time to put up with the public -- because people can be so damned annoying and ignorant, you know? He failed, he succeeded, it matters not -- the press and most people have their minds made up already. If we're going to bitch about "trial by press conference" then Tenet should certainly get our sympathies. Anyway, if I were him, I'd hang it up, too.

At least maybe he'll get a bit of time with his family before the lynch mob comes around looking to blame him for the unpredictable again.

[promethius9594]

agreed, timber. i think that hes just an old man tired of being in one of the most stressful jobs in the nation. seven years as director, but also all that time climbing the ladder... he has to retire sometime.

[Dreamer128]

Second senior CIA official steps down

A second senior CIA official has announced his resignation today, just a day after the agency's director, George Tenet, decided to step down.

Deputy director of clandestine operations, James Pavitt, said he had already made his decision to retire a month ago.

The CIA has been criticised for not preventing the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001, as well as for insisting that Iraq still possessed weapons of mass destruction.

(Rnw.nl)