Editorial
A record not without flaws

AP CIA Director George Tenet gestures as he testifies before the 9-11 commission.

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George Tenet, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is the first big name to fall as a variety of intelligence failures come home to roost.

Official Washington was shocked yesterday at the news of Tenet's resignation, and the off-hand way President Bush announced the departure of a close adviser before his own departure on a European trip.

Tenet and the president said the resignation was for personal reasons, but there is not sufficient urgency for him to leave immediately. He will stay until July 11, the seventh anniversary of his appointment by President Clinton.

Tenet has been tagged with the delivery of bad intelligence. This includes failures prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and about the presence of weapons of mass destruction, a primary justification for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

Tenet is leaving ahead of a growing posse. The 9-11 commission was deeply upset with the CIA's performance. A blistering report on pre-war intelligence is due out of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee is steamed about the origins of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

Yet to be determined, and the second piece of the equation official Washington is watching closely, is how the information from Tenet was handled by the rest of the administration. How much scrutiny and skepticism was applied to the information? Were they being told what they wanted to hear?

This boils down to the judgment applied to the findings, and how the information was used to shape policy. In that matter, Tenet does not stand alone. Others in the Pentagon, White House and the broader intelligence community should be accountable for bad intelligence and its uncritical embrace.

Tenet was at the helm through the war in Kosovo, the 9-11 tragedy and the Iraq war. He has enjoyed necessarily private successes and very public failures.

Tenet is leaving. Others should join him.