NationStates Jolt Archive


CIA Director resigns...Tenet out

Salishe
03-06-2004, 16:29
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121665,00.html

Even Fox has been calling for Tenet's ouster...personal reasons my ass.
03-06-2004, 16:31
Wow.
Berkylvania
03-06-2004, 16:32
Doh! Heads are starting to roll. What fun!
Salishe
03-06-2004, 16:35
Ya know...part of me feels sorry for Tenet..he inherited a CIA that had been gutted during the Clinton Years...prior to that for over 50 yrs the CIA had been primarily concerned with Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and the USSR...our intelligence assets in the Middle East were pathetic, relying heavily on Israeli intelligence assets who have agents in places and groups we could only dream about over there.

We simply don't have the trained agents to work in the Middle Eastern enviroment...we can't use women..and it takes years to cultivate a local into becoming an agent..quite simply Tenet was caught with his pants down since day one of his tenure...

But he should have stepped down long since.
Berkylvania
03-06-2004, 18:28
True, Tenet did get a raw deal on what he inherited. However, he was one of the main people providing intel on WMDs in Iraq which led to the invasion and also at least took credit for the misstatement that Iraq was trying to buy Uranium from Africa.

There had to be a fall guy somewhere, and it looks like Tenet will be the first. The question is, will jetisoning Tenet now be the only move needed to regain stability or are other's in jeopardy?
Machiavellian Dream
03-06-2004, 18:54
Someone had to fall on their sword.
Tuesday Heights
03-06-2004, 18:57
Come on now! Did this really surprise anyone? Someone had to take the blame.
Berkylvania
03-06-2004, 18:58
Yeah, but is one sword dive going to be enough?
Salishe
03-06-2004, 19:28
Oh there are bound to be more..probably already long since have been more, only he's the biggest fish yet...no doubt the shakeup over at Langley VA registers somewhere on the scale of 8.5 on the richter scale. I'm sure dept heads left and right had been sacked or reassigned.

Now..the Director of the National Security Agency is another head that might roll..but I doubt it..this sacrificial bulll appears to be Tenet's baby.
Incertonia
03-06-2004, 19:39
Anyone think it's just a coincidence that this happened the day after the news broke that the President had lawyered up for the Plame case, in case he gets called as a witness? Plame was a CIA agent after all.

Maybe we ought to start a pool predicting the next victim--Rumsfeld? Feith? Cambone? Cheney? Rice? Powell? Who do you think?
Berkylvania
03-06-2004, 19:47
Anyone think it's just a coincidence that this happened the day after the news broke that the President had lawyered up for the Plame case, in case he gets called as a witness? Plame was a CIA agent after all.

Maybe we ought to start a pool predicting the next victim--Rumsfeld? Feith? Cambone? Cheney? Rice? Powell? Who do you think?

LOL, I was just going to say that!

My dead pool bet would go for Powell. They've set him up to move him out for awhile now. Rumsfeld might kick Wolfie, but I don't think that'll happen. Regardless, White House politics are about to get a lot more Byzantine.
Incertonia
03-06-2004, 21:00
Powell's a tough one to lay odds on for a couple of reasons. He's long said that he wouldn't be around for a second Bush term were it to happen, so the question really isn't if, but when he'll resign. The real problem is that of the people I listed, he's got the most credibility--largely undeserved in my opinion, but that's another subject. I wonder if the Bush administration keeps him around in hopes that some of his cred will rub off on them.

So here are some odds on who resigns before say, October 1--just pulling them out of my ass.

Powell 8-1 He's the loyal soldier, but that's got to be wearing thin by now.

Rumsfeld 6-1 Bush won't let him go--the confirmation of a SecDef in an election year will be neither pretty nor helpful to any campaign.

Cambone 3-2 My odds on favorite--he's got fall guy written all over him.

Feith 2-1 Close second in the fall guy running. Plus, he's loathed by the Pentagon. General Myers called him "the stupidest fucking man in Washington." Has the best potential to be led away in handcuffs if the Chalabi/Iran spying charges prove out.

Wolfowitz 4-1 A month ago, he would have been the favorite, but Cambone and Feith have surpassed him.

Rice 500-1 Bush relies too heavily on her and I'm not certain if she realizes just how bad a job everyone thinks she's doing.

Cheney 1000-1 If he resigns, it's because he's the second coming of Agnew. He's more likely to withdraw from the ticket than to resign.

Others for consideration--Scooter Libby, Alberto Gonzales.
Superpower07
03-06-2004, 21:27
Cheney could go quicker than you think, he does have heart problems and Tenet's resignation has prolly sent one helluva shock through his system :twisted:
Incertonia
03-06-2004, 21:29
Cheney could go quicker than you think, he does have heart problems and Tenet's resignation has prolly sent one helluva shock through his system :twisted:That's true, but I figure that he's the least likely to go willingly, and the least likely to be fired, since I imagine he's the guy who actually does the firing.
Great Victory
03-06-2004, 21:43
I believe that if people in Washington and Virginia began to resign then it will be a major blow to the bush campaign because the WMD has some what died out in the debates and if these people began to resign it will look like these people were incapable of doing their jobs and the democrates will begin to bring this topic back to take votes from bush in november
Onion Pirates
03-06-2004, 22:40
+Tenet did want to quit once they started this war. He is a scapegoat for the real culprits, Rumsfeld and Wolfie.
Incertonia
04-06-2004, 02:28
Now it's more than just Tenet. He's the Director of Central Intelligence. James Pavitt, the Deputy Director of Operations--the number three guy in the CIA--is resigning as well. They're supposed to announce it tomorrow. Coincidence? Or rats leaving a sinking ship?
Berkylvania
04-06-2004, 02:32
Hmmm, this is actually a little worrying. I wonder what they know that's making them want to get out now?
Purly Euclid
04-06-2004, 02:34
To bad Tenet had to go. Whether he worked for either Clinton or Bush, he worked well. When the War on Terror began, he did beautifully placing intelligence assets in the Middle East, and rebuilding human intelligence. It's almost sad to see him go. And I really do hope he left for personal reasons.
Incertonia
04-06-2004, 02:38
Hmmm, this is actually a little worrying. I wonder what they know that's making them want to get out now?Wouldn't it be awesome if it turned out that Tenet was wearing a wire and has the political equivalent of a nuke on Bush/Cheney?
Berkylvania
04-06-2004, 02:46
Hmmm, this is actually a little worrying. I wonder what they know that's making them want to get out now?Wouldn't it be awesome if it turned out that Tenet was wearing a wire and has the political equivalent of a nuke on Bush/Cheney?

Yes, it would. However, I'm more concerned that Tenet knows something that's going down in the White House or in policy and wants to get clear before it happens. Perhaps I'm just paranoid, though.
Incertonia
04-06-2004, 03:00
When it comes to these people, you'll find fewer more paranoid than me. The way the announcement was handled makes me think that not only was this more a firing than a resignation, but that it came on real quickly. Add in that the DDO is resigning as well and that Bush saw an outside lawyer in the Plame matter, and you've got a big heap of circumstance and a lot of speculation.
Onion Pirates
04-06-2004, 04:23
When it comes to these people, you'll find fewer more paranoid than me. The way the announcement was handled makes me think that not only was this more a firing than a resignation, but that it came on real quickly. Add in that the DDO is resigning as well and that Bush saw an outside lawyer in the Plame matter, and you've got a big heap of circumstance and a lot of speculation.-


Bush wanted Tenet to lie for him (Dubya has to be culpable somehow) in this Plame investigation but he refused out of loyalty to his agents. That's my take.
Salishe
04-06-2004, 11:20
Now it's more than just Tenet. He's the Director of Central Intelligence. James Pavitt, the Deputy Director of Operations--the number three guy in the CIA--is resigning as well. They're supposed to announce it tomorrow. Coincidence? Or rats leaving a sinking ship?

More like Bush cleaning house...Tenet offered to resign 2 yrs ago..but Bush wouldn't accept it...looks like Bush can no longer afford after this Chalabi situation came to lite...our hand-picked man we now have to arrest...nope..Tenet has become a liability...Bush must appear like Reagan, the Teflon President in that nothing sticks to him...distance is his only protection now.
Genaia
04-06-2004, 11:24
Anyone think it's just a coincidence that this happened the day after the news broke that the President had lawyered up for the Plame case, in case he gets called as a witness? Plame was a CIA agent after all.

Maybe we ought to start a pool predicting the next victim--Rumsfeld? Feith? Cambone? Cheney? Rice? Powell? Who do you think?

LOL, I was just going to say that!

My dead pool bet would go for Powell. They've set him up to move him out for awhile now. Rumsfeld might kick Wolfie, but I don't think that'll happen. Regardless, White House politics are about to get a lot more Byzantine.

The rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide.
Niccolo Medici
04-06-2004, 12:33
Ya know...part of me feels sorry for Tenet..he inherited a CIA that had been gutted during the Clinton Years...prior to that for over 50 yrs the CIA had been primarily concerned with Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and the USSR...our intelligence assets in the Middle East were pathetic, relying heavily on Israeli intelligence assets who have agents in places and groups we could only dream about over there.

We simply don't have the trained agents to work in the Middle Eastern enviroment...we can't use women..and it takes years to cultivate a local into becoming an agent..quite simply Tenet was caught with his pants down since day one of his tenure...

Oh, come on now! Tenet came in halfway throug the Clinton presidency, taking over from a guy who Bush Sr. put in office, who himself was a former CIA head...How is it that Tenet got a "raw" deal? He was in a CIA that had everything from the Iranian crisis of the early 80's through Kuwaiti and Saudi intelligence during the first gulf war to get their forces in motion.

The guy simply dropped the ball big time; which is a pity because when he came in everyone had high hopes for him. He presided over horrible intelligence failures under Clinton and he's been in rare form with Bush. The reason we don't have the reasources in the mid-east is because we simply haven't been pushing for them. If you look at the numbers, there were only a few small recruitment drives into such programs, and they were half-hearted and ineffective.

The reason our human assets were pathetic is because the focus of the CIA was to get as far away from such "dirty" work as possible and let our spy sattilites do the work. Turns out, that idea sucked. And we only have our own longstanding disdain for the human resource side of the CIA to thank for it. If the US had greater awareness of the need for human intelligence sources during the formative phases of the Jihadist movements (say, early 80's to mid 90's), we wouldn't be in this situation where our own government is getting intelligence from crooks like Chalibi.

It also doesn't help when you take good agents and then blow their cover as political retribution; sorry, but I take personal offense at that one.