George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is an American intelligence official and academic who served as the director of central intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a distinguished professor in the practice of diplomacy at Georgetown University.
Tenet held the position as the DCI from July 1997 to July 2004, making him the second-longest-serving director in the agency's history—behind Allen Dulles—as well as one of the few DCIs to serve under two U.S. presidents of opposing political parties. He played a key role in overseeing intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction in advance of the Iraq War. A 2005 Inspector General's report found that Tenet bears "ultimate responsibility" for the United States intelligence community's failure to develop a plan to control al-Qaeda in the lead-up to 9/11. Tenet has been criticized for personally authorizing the CIA's use of brutal and ineffective torture techniques during his tenure, in contravention of international law, something which he has repeatedly denied.
In February 2008, he became a managing director at investment bank Allen & Company.
George John Tenet was born on January 5, 1953, in Flushing, New York City, the son of Greek immigrants Evangelia and John Tenet. His father was from the ethnic Greek community of Chimara, in Albania, and worked in a coal mine in France before arriving in the United States via Ellis Island, just before the Great Depression. His mother was from Epirus, Greece; she had fled from the communist guerillas by stowing away on a Royal Navy submarine.
Tenet was raised in Little Neck, Queens, where, as a teenager, he and his older brother Bill worked as busboys in their family's diner, the Twentieth Century Diner. Despite Bill and George being fraternal twins, they had very different personalities; in his book Ghost Wars, Steve Coll described Bill as "reserved, precise, and studious" (he would later become a cardiologist) and George as "loud, sloppy, and boisterous". Because of his tendency to talk a lot, he was known as "the mouthpiece". He was also interested in the news; the host of a local current affairs host sent him an autograph in response to Tenet's letters, calling him "the future editorial page editor of The New York Times". He played basketball and softball for his Greek Orthodox church, where he was also an altar server.
Tenet attended Public School 94, where he was president of his sixth grade class; Junior High School 67; and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. In high school he played soccer and edited the school newspaper, graduating in 1971. After studying at the State University of New York at Cortland, Tenet graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.F.S.) and received a Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University in 1978.
Tenet's first job after graduating from Columbia University was research director of the American Hellenic Institute from 1978 to 1979. Next, he worked for the Solar Energy Industries Association as Director of International Programs until 1982. He then began working for the Senate, first as a legislative assistant and later as legislative director to then–Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III from 1982 to 1985. He was a staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) from 1985 to 1988, then Staff Director of the SSCI from 1988 to 1993. Tenet joined President-elect Bill Clinton's national security transition team in November 1992. Clinton appointed Tenet Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council, where he served from 1993 to 1995.
Tenet was implicated in an illegal wiretapping case brought by Richard Horn. The CIA invoked the state secrets privilege to force dismissal of the case. It was later reopened and settled out of court, but during the court proceedings, the judge ruled that several people including Tenet committed fraud.
Tenet was appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence in July 1995. After John Deutch's abrupt resignation in December 1996, Tenet served as acting director. This was followed by the reluctant withdrawal of Anthony Lake, after it became apparent to Lake that his nomination had been successfully blocked by Republicans in Congress. Tenet was then officially appointed Director on July 11, 1997, after a unanimous confirmation vote in the Senate.
While the Director of Central Intelligence has been replaced by an incoming administration since Jimmy Carter replaced DCI George H. W. Bush, Tenet served through the end of the Clinton administration and well into the first term of George W. Bush. In 1999, Tenet declined to reveal the overall budget for intelligence operations (including the CIA) which was a departure from his release the previous two years. This later led to criticism from government transparency advocates.
Tenet embarked on a mission to re-energize the CIA, which had experienced a relative loss of status following the end of the Cold War. The number of agents recruited each year had fallen to an all-time low, a 25% decline from the Cold War peak. Tenet appealed to the original mission of the agency, which had been to "prevent another Pearl Harbor", i.e. to predict where danger might come from in the post–Cold War world. Tenet focused on potential problems such as "the transformation of Russia and China", "rogue states" like North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, and terrorism.
1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade
On May 7, 1999, during the Kosovo War, U.S. bombers accidentally struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia with five JDAM precision guided bombs, killing three Chinese reporters and injuring 20 others. In testimony before a congressional committee, Tenet later admitted the strike was the only one in the campaign organized and directed by his agency, though he still claimed it was not deliberate. Later analysis has suggested that a 100-yard (91 m) error in a military targeting database maintained by the Pentagon was not corrected or updated in a timely manner and that other systems intended to prevent such incidents failed to perform as expected. As a result of this and other incidents, systematic changes were made to pre-strike Rules of Engagement for U.S. pilots, including checklists verifying target information and coordinates. China has never accepted the United States' version of events, although Tenet in a published work noted in a bit of black humor that in the prelude to the bombing of Iraq, China had, through unofficial channels, provided the Agency with the exact GPS coordinates of their Embassy in Baghdad so as to ensure the CIA knew the precise location.
In 2001, Tenet brokered a short-lived Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire.
Opposition to release of Pollard
Tenet strongly opposed releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, going so far as threatening to resign if then President Clinton pardoned him.
Al-Qaeda and the war on terror
By 1999, al-Qaeda had emerged as a significant terrorist threat. The 1998 bombings of two U.S. African embassies were the latest in a string of attacks on American interests in the west Indian Ocean region. In 2000, the USS Cole was bombed in Aden in an attempt to sink her, killing 17 naval personnel.