BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 10:59 a.m. ET June 03, 2004 WASHINGTON -
In a surprise announcement as he left the White House for a trip to Europe, President Bush announced Thursday that CIA Director George Tenet had resigned, adding that it was for "personal reasons."
Tenet went to the White House to inform Bush about his decision Wednesday night. ?He told me he was resigning for personal reasons,? Bush told reporters. ?I told him I?m sorry he?s leaving. He?s done a superb job on behalf of the American people.?
?He?s been a strong and able leader at the agency and I will miss him,? Bush added, without taking questions afterwards. ?I send my blessings to George and his family and look forward to working with him until he leaves the agency.?
A CIA statement said Tenet's last day would be July 11 and that Tenet had said he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Bush said Tenet's deputy, John McLaughlin, will temporarily lead America?s premier spy agency until a successor is found. Among possible successors is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla., a former CIA agent and McLaughlin.
Tenet had been under fire for the way the CIA monitored possible terrorist activity before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as well as intelligence failures related to the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
During his seven years at the CIA, speculation at times has swirled around whether Tenet would retire or be forced out, peaking after the Sept. 11 attacks and surging again after the flawed intelligence estimates about Iraq?s fighting capability.
Even when his political capital appeared to be tanking, Tenet managed to hang on with what some say was a fierce loyalty to Bush and the CIA personnel. A likable, chummy personality, also helped keep him above water.
Conventional wisdom had been that Tenet, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, did not plan to stay on next year, no matter who won the White House. Tenet has been on the job since July 1997, an unusually lengthy tenure in a particularly taxing era for the intelligence community that he heads.
