cites private reasons

WASHINGTON -- CIA Director George A. Tenet announced his resignation yesterday, becoming the highest-level national security official to step down after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and amid growing evidence of intelligence failures in Iraq.

The embattled Tenet, whose departure had been expected for months, cited personal reasons when he delivered his letter of resignation to President Bush late Wednesday during a private 45-minute meeting in the White House residence. Aides said the president was given no prior notice of Tenet's plans. Tenet's last day on the job will be July 11 and his deputy, John McLaughlin, a career intelligence analyst, will take over as acting CIA director until a permanent replacement is named.

"He told me he was resigning for personal reasons," Bush told reporters at the White House yesterday, announcing Tenet's resignation before leaving on a trip to Europe. "I told him I'm sorry he's leaving. He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people."

The second-longest serving CIA chief, Tenet was first appointed by President Clinton in 1997. He is credited with making significant improvements at the CIA and the other intelligence agencies under his purview, including the National Security Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency.

But his close relationship with the president led to criticism that he let politics interfere with his judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and did not aggressively defend the views of CIA analysts, who were more cautious than their counterparts in the Pentagon about the Iraqi threat when the administration was building the case for war.

Before the war with Iraq, Tenet, 51, reportedly told Bush that finding weapons of mass destruction would be a "slam-dunk." The hunt for such weapons was used by the administration as a justification for the war, but no weapons been found.

An oft-cited example was the assertion by Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq sought nuclear material in Africa, a report that was previously discredited by the CIA.

"This is the most difficult decision I have ever had to make," a tearful Tenet told CIA employees yesterday morning, according to a transcript provided by the CIA. "And 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."

While he has long protested privately that his job was taking a heavy toll on his relationship with his wife and teenage son, his exit was seen by some in Washington as an attempt to step aside before new storm clouds descend on the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va. The national commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is set to release its findings this summer and a forthcoming investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to further criticize the Iraq intelligence.

Others viewed it as a way for the president to silence some of his critics.

"Tenet is a loyal, dedicated, longtime public servant," retired Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former CIA director, said in an interview yesterday. "I can't see him deserting the president in the middle of an election campaign. I think he is being nudged out as a result of the pressures on the president to do something."

The White House denied yesterday that Tenet was forced out.

An agency spokesman said last night that James L. Pavitt, the deputy director of operations since 1999 and a 31-year veteran of the agency, will announce his retirement today. Pavitt had planned to retire before Tenet announced his decision, the spokesman said.

Despite the recent criticism, Tenet, who was the staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee before moving to the CIA, was applauded yesterday by both Democrats and Republicans for tackling one of the hardest jobs in Washington, particularly his central and extremely difficult role in trying to uncover terrorist sleeper cells and plots.

After serving two years as the CIA's deputy director for intelligence, Tenet took over an intelligence community that had suffered budget cuts and worsening morale after the end of the Cold War and quickly took steps to rebuild the CIA's clandestine spy service, hire more intelligence analysts, and invest in new intelligence-gathering technologies.

He warned the American public about the threat of Islamic terrorism before virtually anyone else, saying as early as 1997 in congressional testimony that the Al Qaeda network posed the gravest threat to American security.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III yesterday said that Tenet has made significant strides "at every turn to bridge the gap between the CIA and FBI with one goal in mind: the security of the American public."

"I have had the chance to be part of a massive transformation of our intelligence capabilities," Tenet, a son of Greek immigrants who grew up in Queens, N.Y., told his colleagues yesterday. "That revolution may not make headlines, but it will continue to benefit our country for years to come. This I say with exceptional pride: The Central Intelligence Agency and the American intelligence community are stronger now than they were when I became DCI seven years ago."

Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, who had previously called for Tenet's resignation, said in a statement that "he has worked extremely hard on behalf of our nation, and we are grateful for his effort." Edward M. Kennedy said, another Democratic senator, said, "George Tenet served our country with great dedication, and I wish him well." Tenet's tenure at the CIA was second in duration only to that of Allen Dulles, who served from 1953 to 1961.

For some, Tenet's resignation underscored that the intelligence services have made critical mistakes in recent years and that it is time for new leadership.

"I don't think it is just personal reasons," said AN intelligence official who knows Tenet and asked not to be named. "He wants to exit gracefully. But I think there is also the political angle. The administration needed to get rid of [someone] because no one has been held accountable" for Iraq and 9/11.

The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, added that "the community is somewhat in denial over the full extent . . . of the shortcoming of its work on Iraq and also on 9/11."

"Although I appreciate the fact that Director Tenet served for nearly seven years in one of the most difficult and important positions in our government, I think the intelligence community and our country will benefit from new leadership," said Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota. "I am hopeful that the administration chooses a successor who is committed to fully understanding why mistakes were made in the past and implementing long-overdue reforms of our intelligence community. We need fresh thinking within the community."

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com