CIA Director Tenet Resigns

The director also has been grilled on U.S. intelligence failures before the 2001 terrorist attacks by members of Congress and the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission. Some of his inquisitors have charged that clues to the plot could have, if acted upon, led to the disruption of the terrorist plan.

Last month, the Sept. 11 commission sharply criticized the CIA's assessments of the threat posed by al Qaeda, the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden that carried out the attacks. Tenet testified that it would take five years to correct the agency's shortcomings in intelligence gathering, a statement that alarmed some panel members.

In testimony before the commission on April 14, Tenet acknowledged that CIA "made mistakes" in failing to detect the terror plot that left 3,000 people dead. But he denied that the agency did not take the al Qaeda threat seriously.

"We all understood bin Laden's intent to strike the homeland but were unable to translate this knowledge into an effective defense of the country," Tenet testified.

In his remarks to employees today, Tenet also spoke of flaws, but he stressed that the CIA has undergone a major overhaul since the end of the Cold War, and he praised the agency's operatives for averting threats in anonymity. He also thanked Bush, calling him "a great champion for the men and women of U.S. intelligence."

Tenet said he has presided over "a massive transformation of our intelligence capabilities," including a rebuilding of the agency's clandestine service.

Praising the CIA's battle against terrorism, he said, "What you have achieved in this fight against a clever, fanatical enemy around the world -- the cells destroyed, the conspiracies defeated, the innocent lives saved -- will for most Americans be forever unknown and uncounted. But for those privileged to observe these often hidden successes, they will be an unforgettable testament to your dedication and your valor."

Tenet declared: "The Central Intelligence Agency and the American intelligence community are stronger now than they were when I became DCI seven years ago, and they will be stronger tomorrow than they are today. That is not my legacy. It is yours."

He added, "Our record is not without flaws. The world of intelligence is a uniquely human endeavor, and as in all human endeavors we all understand the need to always do better. We are not perfect, but one of our best kept secrets is that we are very, very, very good."

The timing of Tenet's resignation came as a surprise in Washington, and its rationale was greeted with a measure of skepticism.

Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, who served as CIA director during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, said on CNN that he believes Tenet was "pushed out and made a scapegoat." Turner said, "I don't think he [Tenet] would have pulled the plug on President Bush in an election cycle without having been told to do that."

Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to run against Bush in November, said Tenet "has worked extremely hard on behalf of our nation, and we are grateful for his effort."

In a statement, Kerry added: "There is no question, however, that there have been significant intelligence failures, and the administration has to accept responsibility for those failures. Sometimes with change comes opportunity. This is an opportunity for the president to lead. As I've said for some time, we must reshape our intelligence community for the 21st century and create a new position of 'Director of National Intelligence' with real control of all intelligence personnel and budgets."

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called Tenet "an honorable and decent man who has served his country well in difficult times, and no one should make him a fall guy for anything," the Associated Press reported.