George Tenet | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait | |
| 18thDirector of Central Intelligence | |
| In office December 16, 1996 – July 11, 2004 Acting: December 16, 1996 – July 11, 1997[1] | |
| President | Bill Clinton George W. Bush |
| Deputy | John A. Gordon John E. McLaughlin |
| Preceded by | John M. Deutch |
| Succeeded by | Porter Goss |
| 19thDeputy Director of Central Intelligence | |
| In office July 3, 1995 – July 11, 1997[1] | |
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | William O. Studeman |
| Succeeded by | John A. Gordon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George John Tenet (1953-01-05)January 5, 1953 (age 73) Flushing, New York City, U.S. |
| Spouse | Stephanie Glakas |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | Georgetown University (BS) Columbia University (MIA) |
| Signature |  |
Tenet testifies on coordination between theintelligence community and a proposedhomeland security department Recorded June 27, 2002 | |
George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as theDirector of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United StatesCentral Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy atGeorgetown 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—behindAllen Dulles—as well as one of the few DCIs to serve under twoU.S. presidents of opposingpolitical parties. He played a key role in overseeingintelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction in advance of theIraq War. A 2005 Inspector General's report found that Tenet bears "ultimate responsibility" for the United States intelligence community's failure to develop a plan to controlal-Qaeda in the lead-up to 9/11.[2] Tenet has been criticized for personally authorizing the CIA's use of brutal and ineffectivetorture techniques during his tenure, in contravention of international law,[3][4][5] something which he has repeatedly denied.[6]
In February 2008, he became a managing director at investment bankAllen & Company.
George John Tenet was born on January 5, 1953, inFlushing, New York City, the son ofGreek immigrants Evangelia and John Tenet.[7][8] His father was from the ethnicGreek community ofHimarë, inAlbania, and worked in a coal mine in France before arriving in the United States viaEllis Island, just before theGreat Depression. His mother was fromEpirus, Greece, and had fled from the communists by stowing away on aRoyal Navy submarine.[9][10]
Tenet was raised inLittle Neck, Queens, where as a teenager, he and his older brother Bill worked asbusboys in their family's diner, the Twentieth Century Diner. Despite Bill and George beingfraternal twins, they had very different personalities; in his bookGhost Wars,Steve Coll described Bill as "reserved, precise, and studious" (he would later become acardiologist) and George as "loud, sloppy, and boisterous".[9] Because of his tendency to talk a lot, he was known as "the mouthpiece". He was also interested in the news; the host of a localcurrent affairs host sent him an autograph in response to Tenet's letters, calling him "the future editorial page editor ofThe New York Times".[9] He played basketball and softball for hisGreek Orthodox church, where he was also analtar server.[11]
Tenet attended Public School 94, where he was president of his sixth grade class;[11] Junior High School 67; andBenjamin N. Cardozo High School.[12][13] In high school he played soccer and edited the school newspaper, graduating in 1971.[11] After studying at theState University of New York at Cortland,[14] Tenet graduated from theGeorgetown UniversitySchool of Foreign Service in 1976 with aBachelor of Science inForeign Service (B.S.F.S.) and received aMaster of International Affairs degree fromColumbia University in 1978.[12][15]
Tenet's first job after graduating from Columbia University[16] was research director of theAmerican Hellenic Institute from 1978 to 1979. Next, he worked for theSolar Energy Industries Association as Director of International Programs until 1982. He then began working for theSenate, first as a legislative assistant and later as legislative director to then–Pennsylvania SenatorH. John Heinz III from 1982 to 1985. He was a staff member of theSenate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) from 1985 to 1988, then Staff Director of the SSCI from 1988 to 1993.[17] Tenet joined President-electBill Clinton's national security transition team in November 1992.[18] Clinton appointed Tenet Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at theNational Security Council, where he served from 1993 to 1995.[17]
Tenet was implicated in an illegal wiretapping case brought by Richard Horn. The CIA invoked thestate secrets privilege to force dismissal of the case. It was later reopened and settled out of court, but during the court proceedings, the judge ruled that several people including Tenet committed fraud.[19]
Tenet was appointedDeputy Director of Central Intelligence in July 1995. AfterJohn Deutch's abrupt resignation in December 1996, Tenet served as acting director. This was followed by the reluctant withdrawal ofAnthony Lake, after it became apparent to Lake that his nomination had been successfully blocked byRepublicans inCongress.[20] Tenet was then officially appointed Director on July 11, 1997, after a unanimous confirmation vote in the Senate.
While the Director of Central Intelligence has been replaced by an incoming administration sinceJimmy Carter replaced DCIGeorge H. W. Bush, Tenet served through the end of theClinton administration and well into the first term ofGeorge W. Bush. In 1999, Tenet declined to reveal the overall budget for intelligence operations (including the CIA) which was a departure from his release the previous two years. This later led to criticism from government transparency advocates.[21]
Tenet embarked on a mission to re-energize the CIA, which had experienced a relative loss of status following the end of theCold War. The number of agents recruited each year had fallen to an all-time low, a 25% decline from the Cold War peak. Tenet appealed to the original mission of the agency, which had been to "prevent anotherPearl Harbor", i.e. to predict where danger might come from in the post–Cold War world. Tenet focused on potential problems such as "the transformation of Russia and China", "rogue states" like North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, and terrorism.[22]
On May 7, 1999, during theKosovo War, U.S. bombers accidentally struck theChinese embassy inBelgrade, Serbia with fiveJDAM precision guided bombs, killing three Chinese reporters and injuring 20 others.[23] In testimony before a congressional committee, Tenet later admitted the strike was the only one in the campaign organized and directed by his agency, though he still claimed it was not deliberate.[24][25] Later analysis has suggested that a 100-yard (91 m) error in a military targeting database maintained bythe Pentagon was not corrected or updated in a timely manner and that other systems intended to prevent such incidents failed to perform as expected. As a result of this and other incidents, systematic changes were made to pre-strikeRules of Engagement for U.S. pilots, including checklists verifying target information and coordinates. China has never accepted the United States' version of events, although Tenet in a published work noted in a bit of black humor that in the prelude to the bombing of Iraq, China had, through unofficial channels, provided the Agency with the exact GPS coordinates of their Embassy in Baghdad so as to ensure the CIA knew the precise location.[26]
In 2001, Tenet brokered a short-lived Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire.[27][28]
Tenet strongly opposed releasing convicted spyJonathan Pollard, going so far as threatening to resign if then President Clinton pardoned him.[29][30]
By 1999,al-Qaeda had emerged as a significant terrorist threat. The1998 bombings of two U.S. African embassies were the latest in a string of attacks on American interests in the west Indian Ocean region. In 2000, theUSSCole was bombed inAden in an attempt to sink her, killing 17 naval personnel.
In 1999, Tenet put forward a "Plan" for dealing with al-Qaeda. In preparation, he selected new leadership for the CIA'sCounterterrorist Center (CTC). He placedCofer Black in charge of the CTC, and Richard Blee in charge of the CTC'sBin Laden unit. Tenet assigned the CTC to develop the Plan. The proposals, brought out in September, sought to penetrate Qaeda's "Afghan sanctuary" with U.S. and Afghan agents, in order to obtain information on and mount operations against Bin Laden's network. In October, officers from the Bin Laden unit visited northernAfghanistan. Once the Plan was finalized, the Agency created a "Qaeda cell" (whose functions overlapped those of the CTC's Bin Laden unit) to give operational leadership to the effort.
The CIA concentrated its inadequate financial resources on the Plan, so that at least some of its more modest aspirations were realized. Intelligence collection efforts on bin Laden and al-Qaeda increased significantly from 1999 onward. "By 9/11", said Tenet, "a map would show that these collection programs and human [reporting] networks were in place in such numbers as to nearly cover Afghanistan" although Bin Laden's inner circle was not included.[31][32][33][34]
Contrary to the 2005 Inspector General's report, George Tenet had in fact reported the potential threat to then national security advisorCondoleezza Rice during an urgent meeting on July 10, 2001, in which his team informed her that "There will be significant terrorist attacks against the United States in the coming weeks or months."[35]
The CIA experimented with a small remote-controlled reconnaissance aircraft, the Predator, to try to spot Bin Laden inAfghanistan. A series of flights in autumn 2000, overseen by CTC officials and flown by USAF drone pilots from a control room at the CIA's Langley headquarters, produced probable sightings of the al-Qaeda leader.[36][37]
Cofer Black and others became advocates of arming the Predator with adaptedHellfire anti-tank missiles to try to kill Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders intargeted killings. But there were both legal and technical issues. Tenet in particular was concerned about the CIA moving back into the business of targeted killing. A series of live-fire tests in theGreat Basin Desert inNevada in summer 2001 produced mixed results.
Tenet advised cautiously on the matter at a meeting of the Cabinet-level Principals Committee on September 4, 2001. If the Cabinet wanted to empower the CIA to field a lethal drone, Tenet said, "they should do so with their eyes wide open, fully aware of the potential fallout if there were a controversial or mistaken strike". National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice concluded that the armed Predator was required, but not ready. It was agreed to recommend to the CIA to resume reconnaissance flights. The "previously reluctant" Tenet then ordered the Agency to do so. The CIA was authorized to "deploy the system with weapons-capable aircraft".[38][39][40][41]
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After the September 11 attacks, many observers criticized theIntelligence Community for numerous "intelligence failures" as one of the major reasons why the attacks were not prevented.[42]
Tenet testified before a public hearing of the9/11 Commission investigating 9/11, that he did not meet with Bush in August 2001, the month before the September 11 attacks. The evening after the hearings, a CIA spokesman corrected Tenet's testimony, stating that Tenet did indeed meet with Bush twice in August.[43] Tenet in his memoir writes of his memorable visit to Bush at Bush's ranch inCrawford, Texas, in August 2001.[20]
In August 2007, a report written by theCIAinspector general was made public (it was originally written in 2005 but kept classified). The 19-page summary 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 and that Tenet personally "bears ultimate responsibility" for the intelligence community's failure to develop a plan to counter al-Qaeda.[2] Tenet reacted to the publication of this report by calling it "flat wrong", citing in particular the planning efforts of the prior two years.[2]
Tenet immediately increased the size and capability of the CIA's special operations component housed in the Special Operations Group of theSpecial Activities Division. This force had been allowed to diminish under the early Clinton administration. These paramilitary officers were the first to enter both Afghanistan and Iraq. Once in these countries these officers organized and led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Kurds against Ansar Al-Islam and Saddam's forces in Iraq. The rebuilding of this capability and the successful deployment of these elite commandos is considered one of Tenet's greatest achievements in the Global War on Terror.[44][45] The increased use of paramilitary officers led to fatalities in their ranks. The first of these wasJohnny Micheal Spann, a former Marine Corps officer killed during theBattle of Qala-i-Jangi on 25 November 2001. Tenet personally informed CIA staff of Spann's death.[46]
Tenet consideredhis Al-Qaeda plan to have placed the CIA in a better position to respond after the September 11 attacks. As he put it:[47]
How could [an intelligence] community without a strategic plan tell the president of the United States just four days after 9/11 how to attack the Afghan sanctuary and operate againstal-Qa'ida in ninety-two countries around the world?
This was at a meeting of the restrictedNational Security Councilor "war council"—atCamp David on September 15, 2001. Tenet presented the Worldwide Attack Matrix, a blueprint for what became known as thewar on terror.[42] He proposed firstly to send CIA teams into Afghanistan to collect intelligence on, and mount covert operations against, al-Qaeda and theTaliban. The teams would act jointly with militarySpecial Operations units. "President Bush later praised this proposal, saying it had been a turning point in his thinking."[48]
During Tenet's directorship, President Bush authorized the CIA to use waterboarding and other forms of torture (euphemistically referred to as "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques") during interrogations ofKhalid Sheikh Mohammed,Abu Zubaydah andAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, all suspected Al Qaida members.[49][50] CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss, and Michael Hayden provided inaccurate and misleading information to members of the U.S. Congress, the White House and the Director of National Intelligence about the program's effectiveness and the number of prisoners that the CIA held.[51][page needed]
According to a report by veteraninvestigative journalistBob Woodward in his bookPlan of Attack, Tenet privately lent his personal authority to the intelligence reports aboutweapons of mass destruction (WMDs) inIraq.[52] At a meeting in December 2002, he assured Bush that the evidence that Iraq had WMDs amounted to a "slam dunk case". After several months of refusing to confirm this statement, Tenet stated that it was taken out of context. He indicated that it was made pursuant to a discussion about how to convince the American people to support invading Iraq.[53] The search following the2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-ledCoalition forces yielded no significant WMDs.[citation needed]
In September 2002, the Senate Intelligence Committee met with Tenet in a closed-door session. SenatorBob Graham requested a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq. Tenet responded by saying "We've never done a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq" and resisted the request to provide one to Congress. Graham insisted "This is the most important decision that we as members of Congress and that the people of America are likely to make in the foreseeable future. We want to have the best understanding of what it is we're about to get involved with." Tenet refused to do a report on the military or occupation phase, but reluctantly agreed to do a NIE on the weapons of mass destruction. Graham described the Senate Intelligence Committee meeting with Tenet as "the turning point in our attitude towards Tenet and our understanding of how the intelligence community has become so submissive to the desires of the administration. The administration wasn't using intelligence to inform their judgment; they were using intelligence as part of a public relations campaign to justify their judgment."[54]
Congress voted to support the Iraq war based on the NIE that Tenet provided in October 2002. However, the bipartisanSenate Intelligence Committee Report on Prewar Intelligence released on July 7, 2004, concluded that the key findings in the 2002 NIE either overstated, or were not supported by, the actual intelligence. The Senate report also found the US Intelligence Community to suffer from a "broken corporate culture and poor management" that resulted in a NIE which was wrong in almost every respect.[55]
Citing "personal reasons," Tenet submitted his resignation to President Bush on June 3, 2004. Tenet said his resignation "was a personal decision and had only one basis—in fact, the well-being of my wonderful family—nothing more and nothing less."[56] He officially left on July 11, exactly seven years after being appointed by Clinton.[57] Former DCIStansfield Turner 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 in Iraq on to somebody else and this was one subtle way to do it."[58] However, Bush voiced support for Tenet's efforts, stating, "I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people."[57]
James Pavitt, Tenet'sDeputy Director for Operations at the CIA, announced his own resignation the following day. That led to speculation that the exit of both senior intelligence officials was related to the controversy over the September 11 attacks, alleged Iraqi WMDs, and the decision to go to war with Iraq.[56] After Tenet left,John E. McLaughlin served as acting director[56] untilPorter Goss was sworn to the position on September 24, two days after the Senate approved him.[59] Tenet's seven-year term as Director of Central Intelligence was the second-longest in US history, afterAllen Dulles.[60]
Human Rights Watch andThe New York Times Editorial board have called for the prosecution of Tenet "for conspiracy to torture as well as other crimes."[61][62]
On December 14, 2004, President George W. Bush awarded Tenet thePresidential Medal of Freedom, along withTommy Franks andPaul Bremer. Bush said that Tenet "was one of the first to recognize and address the growing threat to America from radical terrorist networks."[63] However, Bush's decision was met with some criticism: Democratic SenatorCarl Levin said, "I don't think [he] served the president or the nation well." Democratic SenatorJohn Kerry said through spokesperson David Wade, "My hunch is that George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and Bremer that was applied to previous honorees."[64]
Tenet spent three years as Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and Senior Research Associate in the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at his former university, the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. His official teaching began in the Fall term, 2005.[65]
In October 2006, Tenet joined British defense contractorQinetiq as an independent non-executive director. ChairmanJohn Chisholm noted Tenet's "extraordinary track record and experience in the fields of intelligence and security."[66] He stepped down from the board in October 2007 (his old position was taken by retiredU.S. Navy AdmiralEdmund Giambastiani)[67] as well as the board offorensic software companyGuidance Software in November.[68] He joined Qinetiq's North America board as well as becoming managing director of investment bankAllen & Company. The secretive bank did not announce Tenet's appointment, and it was unknown until it was leaked in February of the following year.[67] Tenet is also on the boards of directors ofL-1 Identity Solutions, abiometric identification software manufacturer.[69] Along with a number of other notableGreek Americans, he is a member of the advisory board of The Next Generation Initiative, a foundation aimed at teaching students public affairs skills.[70]
In April 2007, Tenet released hismemoir titledAt the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA which was written withBill Harlow. He appeared on60 Minutes on April 29, 2007, offering much criticism of the Bush administration. The book was the top-selling book in sales in the first week after publication.
In his bookThe One Percent Doctrine, journalist and authorRon Suskind claims thatAbu Zubaydah, once said to be al-Qaida chief of operations, was a low-level functionary and mentally ill.[71] In his memoirs, Tenet commented as follows:[72]
A published report in 2006 contended that Abu Zubaydah was mentally unstable and that the administration had overstated his importance. Baloney. Abu Zubaydah had been at the crossroads of many al-Qa'ida operations and was in position to—and did—share critical information with his interrogators. Apparently, the source of the rumor that Abu Zubaydah was unbalanced was his personal diary, in which he adopted various personas. From that shaky perch, some junior Freudians leapt to the conclusion that Zubaydah had multiple personalities. In fact, Agency psychiatrists eventually determined that in his diary he was using a sophisticated literary device to express himself. And, boy, did he express himself.
Critics pointed out a factual error in Tenet's book. On the book's first page, Tenet tells of a conversation with then-Pentagon advisorRichard 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 on that day, because Perle was stranded in Paris, France, on September 12 and did not return toWashington until three days later. Perle later stated 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.[73][74]
Tenet is married to A. Stephanie Glakas-Tenet.[a] They have one son, John Michael.[14]
In 1998, Tenet received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[76]
In 2018, Tenet received the Washington Institute's Scholar-Statesman Award.[77]
George John Tenet was born on January 5, 1953, in Flushing, New York, the son of Greek immigrants.
George Tenet—whose father came from Northern Epirus (present-day Albania) and mother from Epirus
... former Director of Central Intelligence, George J. Tenet reports that the subject was raised by the Israeli government in 2006, and he threatened to resign if Pollard was released.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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| Preceded by | Deputy Director of Central Intelligence 1995–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Director of Central Intelligence 1996–2004 Acting: 1996–1997 | Succeeded by |
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