WASHINGTON — CIA Director George J. Tenet, who presided over a string of intelligence failures that included the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, announced Thursday that he would resign the post he has held for seven years.
Tenet submitted his letter of resignation -- effective next month -- to President Bush, who said he had accepted it reluctantly.
"I met with George last night in the White House," Bush said in brief remarks before departing on a trip to Europe. "He told me he was resigning for personal reasons. I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people."
Tenet's departure was welcomed by Democrats in Congress who have been increasingly critical of his leadership, Republicans who saw him as a potential political liability for Bush and members of both parties who believed his resignation was necessary to make way for reforms in the intelligence community.
While Tenet cited personal reasons for his decision, his exit comes at a time when the CIA is confronting an avalanche of fresh criticism.
The Senate Intelligence Committee recently delivered to the agency a still-classified draft report that sources said offered a scathing assessment of the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq. The agency's belief that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons provided the basis for the Bush administration's case for war.
An investigation by the committee has uncovered deep problems with the intelligence on Iraq, including evidence that the CIA and other agencies were duped by defectors, had misinterpreted intercepts and satellite photographs, and had disregarded dissenting voices.
A congressional official familiar with the inquiry described it as "extremely critical across the board." Asked whether Tenet was singled out in the committee's report, the official said: "He's in charge."
When Tenet formally steps down July 11, it will be just weeks before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is scheduled to deliver its final report. The panel has found deep faults with the CIA's counterterrorism efforts, and singled out Tenet for serious criticism.
The timing of the Tenet announcement, coming when the CIA is being stretched to its limits by the war on terrorism and the Iraq insurgency, caught many in Washington off-guard. Even those close to the 51-year-old director had expected him to stay until this fall's presidential election.
