George Tenet

Politician

George Tenet was born in New York City, New York, United States on January 5th, 1953 and is the Politician. At the age of 71, George Tenet biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

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Other Names / Nick Names
George John Tenet
Date of Birth
January 5, 1953
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
New York City, New York, United States
Age
71 years old
Zodiac Sign
Capricorn
Profession
Politician
George Tenet Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 71 years old, George Tenet has this physical status:

Height
Not Available
Weight
Not Available
Hair Color
Salt and Pepper
Eye Color
Not Available
Build
Average
Measurements
Not Available
George Tenet Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Christian
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Georgetown University (BS), Columbia University (MIA)
George Tenet Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Stephanie Glakas
Children
Not Available
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
George Tenet Life

George John Tenet (born January 5, 1953) is a former Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, as well as a Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. Tenet served as the DCI from July 1997 to July 2004, making him the second-longest-serving chief in the department's history, behind Allen Welsh Dulles, as well as one of the few DCIs to serve under two presidential presidents of opposing political parties.

He was instrumental in monitoring intelligence regarding mass destruction weapons in the years ahead of the Iraq War.

According to a 2005 Inspector General's report, Tenet bears "absolute blame" for the US intelligence service's inability to develop a strategy to monitor al Qaeda in the lead-up to 9/11.

Tenet has been chastised for promoting the CIA's use of brutal and ineffective torture techniques during his tenure, in violation of international law.

Early life and education

George John Tenet, a Greek immigrant Evangelia and John Tenet, was born in Flushing, New York, on January 5, 1953. His father, who was from the ethnic Greek community of Hearra, Albania, served in a coal mine in France before arriving in the United States via Ellis Island, well before the Great Depression. His mother was from Epirus, Greece, and had stolen from the communists by stowing away on a Royal Navy submarine.

Tenet was born in Little Neck, Queens, where he and his older brother Bill served as busboys in their family's diner, the Twentieth Century Diner. Despite Bill and George's being fraternal twins, they had different personalities; Steve Collin's book Ghost Wars described Bill as "reserved, specific, and studious" (he'd later become a cardiologist) and George as "loud, sloppy, and boisterous." He was known as "the mouthpiece" because of his ability to talk constantly. Sol Winder, a family friend and later owner of their diner, said he was "the kind of guy who could never keep a mystery." He was also interested in the news; in response to Tenet's letters, the host of a local current affairs show sent him an autograph, naming him "the future editorial page editor of The New York Times." He played basketball and softball for his Greek Orthodox church, where he also served as an altar server.

He attended Public School 94, where he was president of his sixth grade class; Junior High School 67; and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. He played soccer and edited the school newspaper in high school, and graduated in 1971. Tenet graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service after attending classes at Cortland. In 1978, Columbia University's Master of International Affairs degree was granted.

Later life

President George W. Bush, along with Tommy Franks and Paul Bremer, awarded Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom on December 14, 2004. "Tenet was one of the first to recognize and address the growing threat to America from terrorist networks," Bush said. Nonetheless, Bush's decision was met with some skepticism: "I don't think [he] served the president or the country well." "I suspect George Bush was not using the same method when recognizing Tenet and Bremer as was used to previous honorees," John Kerry said through spokesperson David Wade.

Tenet spent three years as Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and Senior Research Associate in the Institute for Diplomacy at his former university, the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. In the fall term, 2005, his formal instruction began.

Tenet joined British defense contractor Qinetiq as an independent non-executive director in October 2006. Tenet's "extraordinary track record and work in the fields of intelligence and security," Chairman John Chisholm said. In October 2007, he stepped down from the board (his old position was taken by retired US Navy Admiral Edmund Giambastiani) as well as the board of forensic software company Guidance Software in November. He served on the board of Quintetiq as well as the managing director of investment bank Allen & Company. Tenet's appointment was not revealed at the time, and it was not revealed until it was leaked in February of the following year. Tenet is also on the boards of directors of L-1 Identity Solutions, a biometric identification software manufacturer, who is also on the board. He is a member of The Next Generation Initiative, a non-profit that aims to teach students public affairs skills. He joins many other prominent Greek Americans.

He also received a shout out in Kanye West's song "Clique" where he said to have once met Tenet and had a chat about their identical Maybach cars, but West speculated that Tenet rented it rather than purchasing it outright. The meeting was held, according to Tenet's spokesman, but Maybachs was not the focus of the discussion.

Tenet's memoir At the Heart of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, which was written with Bill Harlow in April 2007, was published in April 2007. On April 29, 2007, he appeared on 60 Minutes, expressing skepticism of the Bush administration. In the first week after publication, the book became the top-selling book in terms of sales in the first week.

Abu Zubaydah, once thought to be al-Qaida chief of operations, was a low-level administrator and physically sick, according to Ron Suskind's article "deep Inside America's Pursuit of its Enemies since 9/11 (2006). Tenet wrote the following in his memoirs: "Italian people had a very high esteem in him."

Critics also pointed to a factual mistake in Tenet's book. Tenet tells of a chat with then-Pentagon advisor Richard Perle on September 12, 2001, in which Tenet informs Perle that "Iraq had to pay for the attack." But the conversation may not have taken place on the day because Perle was stranded in Paris, France, on September 12 and did not return to Washington until three days later. Perle later said that the two men did cross each other one morning, as Tenet had predicted, but that they did not cross each other this week, not on September 12. In that encounter, Perle maintained that he and Tenet exchanged no words.

Personal life

Tenet is married to A. Stephanie Glakas-Tenet. They have one son, John Michael.

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George Tenet Career

Early career

Tenet became the first American Hellenic Institute's research director from 1978 to 1979, then-director of International Programs at the Solar Energy Industries Association from 1978 to 1982, his first job after graduation. He began working for the Senate, first as an administrative assistant and then as legislative director, before transitioning to then-Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III, who served from 1982 to 1985. He served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) from 1985 to 1988, then Staff Director of the SSCI from 1988 to 1993. Tenet served with President-elect Bill Clinton's national security transition staff in November 1992. Tenet Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council, where he served from 1993 to 1995.

Tenet was implicated in Richard Horn's unlawful wiretapping lawsuit. To force the dismissal of the lawsuit, the State secrets privilege was invoked by the CIA. Later opened and negotiated out of court, but the court found that many people, including Tenet, committed fraud on the court.

CIA career

In July 1995, Tenet was appointed Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. Tenet was acting director after John Deutch's unexpected resignation in December 1996. After it became apparent to Lake that his nomination had been successfully blocked by Republicans in Congress, Anthony Lake's reluctant resignation followed him. After a unanimous confirmation vote in the Senate, Tenet was officially elected Director on July 11, 1997. Although Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence under new control by Jimmy Carter since Jimmy Carter replaced DCI George H. W. Bush, the Clinton administration's senior intelligence chief, served through the Clinton administration and George W. Bush's tenure was well into George W. Bush's tenure. In 1999, the Director refused to reveal the total budget for intelligence agencies (including the CIA), marking a departure from his earlier releases of two years. Government transparency campaigners reacted angrily to this.

Tenet began a quest to resurrect the CIA, which had been suffering from hard times since the Cold War's outbreak. The number of agents recruited each year had hit an all-time low, down 25% from the Cold War peak. Tenet argued with the agency's original mission, which had been to "prevent another Pearl Harbor." The trick was to find out where danger would come from in the post-Cold War period. Tenet focusing on potential issues such as "the change of Russia and China," "rogue states" like North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, and terrorism.

During the Kosovo War, the United States bombers attacked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring 20 others. The attack was accidental, according to the US. Tenet later confirmed that the strike was the only one in the campaign planned and directed by his department, but that it was not deliberate. According to a later report, a 100-yard (91 m) mistake in a Pentagon targeting database was not fixed or updated in a timely manner, and that other measures designed to detect such incidents did not function as expected. As a result of this and other incidents, systemic changes were made to pre-strike Rules of Engagement (ROE) for pilots in the United States, including checklists confirming target details and coordinates. China has never accepted the US version of events, though Tenet in a published work said in a bit of black humor that ahead of the bombing of Iraq, China had provided the Agency with the exact GPS coordinates of their Embassy in Baghdad so as to ensure the CIA knew the exact location.

Tenet's short-lived Israeli-Palestinian truce ended in 2001.

Al-Qaeda had emerged as a significant terrorist threat by 1999. The 1998 bombings of two American embassies in the west Indian-Ocean zone were the latest in a string of threats to American interests in the west Indian-Ocean zone. In 2000, the USS Cole was bombed in Aden in an attempt to drown her, killing 17 naval personnel.

Tenet developed a grand "Plan" for dealing with al-Qaeda in 1999. He selected new leaders for the Counterterrorist Center of the CIA (CTC). Cofer Black was sent in charge of the CTC, and Richard Blee (a "top-flight executive" from Tenet's own suite) was sent in charge of the CTC's Bin Laden unit. Tenet has been given the CTC to implement the Plan. The plans, which were released in September, sought to penetrate Qaeda's "Afghan sanctuary" in order to gather information and launch operations against Bin Laden's network. Officers from the Bin Laden unit visited northern Afghanistan in October. Once the CTC's Bin Laden unit's roles were complete, the Agency developed a "Qaeda cell" (whose tasks aligned with those of the Bin Laden unit) to provide operational direction to the initiative.

The CIA concentrated its insufficient financial resources on the Plan, ensuring that at least some of its more modest aspirations were fulfilled. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda intelligence gathering efforts have soared sharply since 1999. "By 9/11," Tenet said, "a map would show that these collection services and human [reporting] networks were operating in such numbers as to virtually cover Afghanistan." (But Bin Laden's inner circle was not included in the above.)

Contrary to the 2005 Inspector General's report, George Tenet had correctly reported the possibility of then national security advisor Condoleezza Rice during an urgent meeting on July 10, 2001, in which his team informed her that "There will be significant terrorist attacks against the US in the coming weeks or months."

Bin Laden was also found in Afghanistan by a small remote-controlled reconnaissance plane called the Predator. A sequence of flights in autumn 2000, led by CTC officials and flown by USAF drone pilots from a control room at the CIA's Langley headquarters, produced probable sightings of the al-leader.

Black and others became proponents of arming the Predator with modified Hellfire anti-tank missiles to kill Bin Laden and other Qaeda leaders in targeted attacks. However, there were both legal and scientific questions. Tenet, in particular, was concerned that the CIA would return to targeted killings. In addition, a series of live-fire experiments in the Great Basin Desert in Nevada in summer 2001 yielded mixed results.

At a meeting of the Cabinet-level Principals Committee on September 4, 2001, Tenet listened cautiously on the subject. "They should do so with their eyes wide open, fully aware of the possibility of loss if there were a contentious or mistaken attack," Tenet said. Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor, said that the armed Predator was required but not yet ready. It was agreed that reconnaissance flights would be resumed by the CIA. The Agency was then ordered to do so by the "previously reticent" Tenet. The CIA had been given permission to "deplode the system with a weapons-capable aircraft."

Many commentators chastised the Intelligence Service for numerous "intelligence mistakes" as one of the key reasons why the attacks were not prevented following the September 11 attacks.

Tenet testified before a public hearing of the 9/11 Commission that was investigating 9/11 that he did not meet Bush in August 2001, the month before the September 11 attacks. A CIA spokesman corrected Tenet's testimony the night after the hearings, claiming that Tenet did indeed speak with Bush twice in August. Tenet's memoir recounts his unforgettable visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in August 2001.

A study by the CIA inspector general in August 2007 was released (originally published in 2005 but then kept classified). According to the 19-page summary, Tenet knew the dangers of Al Qaeda well before September 2001, but that the CIA did not do enough to prevent any attacks from happening, and that Tenet's leadership "bears sole responsibility" for the intelligence community's inability to implement a strategy to combat al Qaeda. Tenet reacted to the release of this report by calling it "flat wrong," quoting in particular the previous two years' planning efforts.

Tenet's special operations unit, which is headquartered in the Special Operations Group of the Special Activities Division, grew in size and capability immediately. During the early Clinton administration, the army had been allowed to diminish. These paramilitary troops were the first to enter both Afghanistan and Iraq. These officers also led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Kurdish against Ansar Al-Islam and Saddam's forces in Iraq once they were in these countries. These elite commandos' rebuilding and successful employment are considered one of Tenet's most significant accomplishments in the Global War on Terror. Officers in their ranks were killed as a result of increased use of paramilitary officers. Johnny Micheal Spann, a former Marine Corps officer injured during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi on November 25, 2001, was the first of these. Tenet told CIA workers of Spann's death by phone.

After the September 11 attacks, Tenet believed that his Al-Qaeda initiative had put the CIA in a better position to respond.

As he put it,

On September 15, 2001, this was at a meeting of the restricted National Security Councilor "war council." Tenet unveiled the Worldwide Attack Matrix, a blueprint for what became known as the War on Terror. He suggested firstly sending CIA teams into Afghanistan to gather intelligence on, as well as mount covert operations against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The teams will collaborate with military Special Operations units. "President Bush later lauded this plan, saying that it had been a turning point in his thinking."

During Tenet's reign, President Bush ordered the CIA to use waterboarding and other aspects of torture (euphemistically referred to as "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques) during interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Abd al-Nashiri, all suspect Al Qaida members.

Tenet privately lent his personal authority to the intelligence reports on weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, according to a study by veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward in his book Plan of Attack. (MDs) in Iraq. Bush told Bush that the evidence that Iraq had WMDs amounted to a "slam dunk situation" in a meeting on December 12, 2002. Tenet said that it was taken out of context after several months of refusing to announce this fact. It was announced that it was initiated as a result of a discussion over how to convince the American people to support invading Iraq. There were no notable WMDs discovered after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US-led Coalition forces, which resulted in no major WMDs.

In September 2002, the Senate Intelligence Committee met with Tenet in a closed-door session. Sen. Bob Graham (NIE) on Iraq requested a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). Tenet responded with, "We've never done a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq" and had refused to bring one to Congress. "This is the most significant vote we as representatives of Congress and that the people of the United States are likely to make in the foreseeable future," Graham said. We want to have the clearest idea of what it is we're about to get involved with." Tenet was unable to complete a study on the military or occupation phase, but they reluctantly agreed to do a NIE on mass destruction weapons. Graham referred to the Senate Intelligence Committee's meeting with Tenet as "the turning point in our approach to Tenet and our knowledge of how the intelligence community has stepped closer to the administration's needs." The government wasn't using intelligence to inform their decision; they were using intelligence as part of a public relations movement to support their decision."

Based on the NIE Tenet, Congress approved the Iraq war in October 2002. However, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee on Prewar Intelligence released on July 7, 2004, finding that the main conclusions in the 2002 NIE were either inaccurate or incompatible with the true intelligence. In addition, the Senate report found that the US Intelligence Community was suffering from "broken corporate culture and poor leadership" that culminated in a NIE that was fundamentally wrong in nearly every respect.

Tenet resigned from President Bush on June 3, 2004, citing "personal reasons." Tenet said his resignation "was a personal decision and had no basis," in fact, my wonderful family's wellbeing was only a factor; nothing more nor less." He officially resigned on July 11, just seven years after being proclaimed by Clinton. "I think the president thinks he's in enough trouble that he's going to start to lay some of the blame for the morass in Iraq on to someone else," former DCI Stansfield Turner said. However, Bush expressed support for Tenet's efforts, saying, "I'm sorry he's leaving." He's done a superb job for the American people.

The following day, James Pavitt, his Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA, resigned. Both senior intelligence officers' departures, assassinated in rumors over the September 11 attacks, alleged Iraqi WMDs, and the decision to go to war with Iraq led to rumors that the decision to go back to war with Iraq. After Tenet's resignation, John E. McLaughlin served as acting director until Porter Goss was sworn to the position on September 24, two days after the Senate had approved him. After Allen Dulles' seven-year tenure as Director of Central Intelligence, Tenet's second-longest term in US history.

Human Rights Watch and The New York Times Editorial board have called for Tenet's indictment "for plotting to torture as well as other criminal offences."

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