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Journalism of Courage
Even among top administration officials in Washington, the relationship between President Bush and George J. Tenet, the CIA Director, was unusually close.
The only holdover from the Clinton administration, Tenet has had half-hour meetings with Bush almost daily. The President has seen Tenet more often than he does Secretary of State Colin L. Powell or even Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. ‘‘I wanted Tenet in the Oval Office all the time,’’ Bush said in April, talking about the threat of terror. And even as criticism has continued to mount almost daily about intelligence failures that preceded the 9/11 attacks on Tenet’s watch, Bush has stuck by his CIA chief.
But no more. Today, President Bush announced that Tenet would be leaving his post by next month, for ‘‘personal reasons’’. ‘‘I told him I’m sorry he’s leaving,’’ the President, appearing grim, said. ‘‘He’s done a superb job on behalf of the American people.’’ The resignation will bring to an end the second-longest tenure of CIA chiefs in the country’s history. Tenet will have been on the job seven years in July.
It might seem surprising that a warm and close relationship would develop between Bush, the Texas-born, Yale-educated son of prominent New England political family, and Tenet, the voluble and barrel-chested Clinton appointee who, as a youth, worked as a busboy in his father’s Greek diner in Queens. But those who know them say their chemistry was born out of both men’s penchant for bluntness and straight talk.
‘‘The most important factor in determining the CIA director’s success is his relationship with the President,’’ John M. Deutch, Tenet’s predecessor, said. ‘‘And Tenet has that as well as anybody ever has.’’
When President Bush made his brief remarks about Tenet before boarding Air Force today, Bush seemed genuinely sad about the news of the intelligence chief’s departure.
‘‘George Tenet is the, is the kind of public service you like, servant you like to work with. He’s strong. He’s resolute,’’ Bush said. ‘‘He has been a strong and able leader at the agency. He’s been a, he’s been a strong leader in the war on terror, and I will miss him.’’ — (NYT)
