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CIA Chief Tenet Not Forced Out, sources say
By Richard Sale

Amid a massive and mounting scandal in U.S. intelligence, CIA Director George Tenet resigned this past May, citing “personal reasons,” according to administration officials.
            Former and serving U.S. intelligence officials denied reports by former CIA Chief Admiral Stansfield Turner and others that Tenet had been asked to leave by senior administration officials. “That is simply not true,” a U.S. serving intelligence official told United Press International. “In fact, this is hardly a time when (President) Bush wants to see anyone leave his administration.”
A former very senior U.S. intelligence official said that Tenet resigned “mainly because of his health,” and that his stepping down was “at a time of his own choosing.” “He was not forced out,” this source said. The former senior official explained that Tenet “has heart problems, plus he has been under a tremendous amount of stress. He’s been a lightning rod for every possible kind of criticism” in recent months.
            An administration official confirmed that Tenet had tendered his resignation Wednesday evening. President Bush commented: “I told him I was sorry he was leaving. He’s done a superb job on behalf of the American people.” Tenet’s deputy, John McLaughlin, takes over the agency in mid-July, when Tenet’s term comes to an end.
            Tenet, 51, who grew up in Queens, New York, is the son of a Greek immigrant and very much admired by current and serving CIA colleagues. “He had a keen mind and was a supple and quick-witted analyst,” a former colleague said. “He’s done a terrific job,” said former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vince Cannistraro, adding that seven years ago, when Tenet took over the agency from then director John Deutsch, Tenet “inherited a broken organization. Morale was terrible, and George had to rebuild from the ground up.”
            Tenet had been buffeted for several months because of intelligence failures related to the war in Iraq, especially over agency claims that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. To date, none have been found. Another setback occurred last month when a panel probing intelligence failures prior to the September 11 attacks harshly slammed the CIA for not properly interpreting the threat posed to the continental United States by al-Qaida.
             But several sources interviewed by UPI said that Tenet was profoundly frustrated by the latest scandal involving Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former favorite of senior Pentagon leaders. Chalabi is alleged to have disclosed to Iranian intelligence officials that the National Security Agency had broken the code of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, a major technological breakthrough that had cost the United States billions of dollars.
Milt Bearden, former chief of CIA Afghanistan operations, described the breach as “a huge disaster, incalculable.” As to the cost, he said: “Add nine zeroes to any figure you want to name.”
Former CIA analyst Stan Bedlington said that Iran’s intelligence service “are bad guys, with known ties to Hezbollah,” the terrorist organization based in Lebanon, adding, “We are likely to see more dead Americans as a result of this.”
A serving U.S. intelligence operative said that the CIA “recognized the threat of Chalabi” and his ties to Iran “from the beginning.” “Chalabi was a notorious fabricator and was known as totally unreliable,” he said. Cannistraro agreed, saying, “Tenet went to battle stations over Chalabi two years ago, when he gave a detailed briefing to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.” “Wolfowitz blew it off,” Cannistraro said. Wolfowitz could not be reached for comment.
Chalabi’s office in Baghdad denies all allegations.
            The FBI is currently conducting an investigation of a handful of senior civilians in the Pentagon to determine who leaked the information to Chalabi that the U.S. had broken one of Iran’s most sensitive codes, thereby
compromising an invaluable source of information on Iran’s intentions and activities, especially in Iraq and the Middle East, according to administration officials. “Disclosure of classified information is a crime and we take such allegations very seriously,” a Department of Defense spokesman told UPI. “While our policy is not to comment on any investigation, with respect to this matter, we are not aware of any investigations involving senior DoD officials.”
            The FBI has already begun to administer polygraph tests to people it believes could be suspects, a federal law enforcement official said. A former senior CIA official with knowledge of signals intelligence told UPI: “The knowledge of the codes was betrayed by someone senior in the U.S. government, someone in the inner circle of that (Signals Intelligence) compartment. It had to be someone who was read (cleared) into that particular compartment.” He explained: “With information this sensitive, no person could see it unless they had code-word clearance.” He added: “That person, using God knows how many cut-outs, got the information to Chalabi that the United States was reading Iran’s communications.”
            An administration official said this account was “essentially correct.”
He corroborated that Chalabi had verbally alerted the Baghdad station chief of Iran’s secret intelligence service that Tehran’s most sensitive code had been compromised. But Iranian officials continued to use the code, which a joint National Security Agency/CIA listening post in a Middle Eastern country intercepted, according to this official. The cable “clearly implicated Chalabi,” this official said.
            U.S. intelligence officials told UPI that Chalabi’s handlers in the CIA in Baghdad as well as Pentagon officials in the United States became the immediate focus of the leak. “This is a major, major breach, it’s much larger than you think,” said Bearden. A former NSA official said: “It sort of breaks your heart. It costs billions and billions and billions of dollars to gain any sort of an edge over an enemy when it comes to signals intelligence.” Chalabi has strongly denied the allegations.

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