Hail Caesar! Bill Clinton nominates George Tenet to be the director of the CIA, and all of Washington celebrates. Somehow miraculously, a man who was Deputy Director of the Agency since July 1995, and who had served before that as White House NSC senior director for intelligence programs, and before that was as Senate intelligence aide, is portrayed as a breath of fresh air who would reinvigorate the Agency. But Tenet’s trick, in an easily manipulatable Washington, is his relations with the news media. And of course, a stark contrast with Clinton’s two earlier CIA directors – John Deutch and James Woolsey.
The news media then gushes as Tenet installs an all-star team and intelligence “legends” — Jack G. Downing, A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard, John McLaughlin. Of Downing, Tenet say: “His very presence on the team conveyed the notion that we were getting back to the basics of uncovering secrets to protect the nation.” (At the Center of the Storm, p. 18) Back to? He as much guided the CIA before being director. And what did it all produce? 9/11, WMD, misreading of Iraq, and on and on…