posted on June 5, 2004 12:25:25 AM new
CIA covert operations chief retiring
Agency says departure unrelated to Tenet's resignation
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The official in charge of the CIA's covert operations announced he was retiring Friday, a day after agency Director George Tenet said he was leaving for personal reasons.
James Pavitt, a 31-year CIA veteran who has been deputy director of operations for five years, decided to retire a month ago, according to a statement, which said his departure is unrelated to Tenet's.
"I could not be prouder of the men and women of America's clandestine service," Pavitt said in the statement. "The creativity, resourcefulness and courage they display each and every day to acquire the information our country needs has saved many lives."
Pavitt, 58, appeared before the 9/11 commission in mid-April, the first time in the agency's history that an official in his position testified publicly.
Pavitt told the panel that the United States is "in the midst of inflicting irreversible damage on the al Qaeda organization" but admitted that the fight continues "with no clear end in sight."
Stephen Kappes, an assistant deputy director of operations for two years, will succeed Pavitt. Kappes, 52, joined the CIA in 1981 after five years as a Marine.
President Bush announced Tenet's resignation before leaving Thursday on a trip to Europe to attend ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in World War II.
Tenet had faced sharp criticism over the September 11, 2001, attacks and the war in Iraq, where pre-invasion U.S. estimates that Iraq was amassing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction now appear to have been incorrect.
A White House official said Bush would have liked Tenet to stay on, denying that his departure was "worked out beforehand" or "engineered."
"While Washington and the media will put many different faces on the decision, it was a personal decision and had only one basis -- in fact, the well-being of my wonderful family -- nothing more and nothing less," Tenet said in a speech Thursday to employees at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. (Transcript; Tenet has enjoyed lifetime of public work)
But former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said the timing of Tenet's resignation -- five months before the presidential election -- cast doubt on the explanation that it was a personal decision.
"I think he's being pushed out or made a scapegoat," said Turner, who led the CIA during the Carter administration.
"That is that the president feels he's got to have somebody to blame, and he's doing it indirectly by asking Tenet to leave. ... I don't think he would pull the plug on President Bush in the middle of an election cycle without having been asked by the president to do that."
Tenet said his resignation will be effective July 11 -- the seventh anniversary of his 1997 appointment by President Clinton.
Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin will become the agency's acting chief once Tenet steps down.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
