Vest: Spy vs. Spy

[salin]

Jsaon Vest has spent a number of years writing about middle east/military and intelligence issues.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=7811

Spy Versus Spy
Now that Tenet's out, Langley is buzzing about future staff changes.
By Jason Vest
Web Exclusive: 06.04.04


On Thursday morning, feelings of anticipatory glee that had been rising all week at the CIA's Langley, Virginia, headquarters briefly ebbed. This was not out of sorrow at George Tenet's resignation announcement. Rather, it was about what Tenet's departure might mean in terms of another long-awaited staffing change.

A notice had been sent round earlier in the week that on Friday morning, Jim Pavitt, the deputy director of operations -- the man who oversees the agency's spies and covert operators -- would be addressing the Directorate of Operations staff in "the Bubble," Langley's auditorium. The unofficial but reliable word was that Pavitt was going to announce his retirement, an event old and new hands alike have eagerly anticipated for some time. But upon Tenet's announcement, Directorate of Operations veterans in and out of the building shuddered: Would Tenet's resignation perhaps cause Pavitt to reconsider and stay?

By the end of the afternoon, sighs of relief could be heard in the halls and over fiber-optic networks as news organizations began to report that Pavitt would, in fact, be announcing his plans to retire as scheduled.

The next few days will undoubtedly be full of the usual Washington postmortems on Tenet. There will be questions: Was he pushed or did he jump? Were the forthcoming September 11 and Iraq reports going to be too much to weather? What will his legacy be? Will people remember his gregarious style with the CIA's rank and file, and his deftness in navigating the perilous political shoals of Washington? I doubt we'll hear much about how he ran the agency, whom he staffed its top slots with, and what some of those people have done.

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