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Questions, Speculation Over Sudden Resignation of Tenet

Aired June 03, 2004 - 11:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we go back to our developing story, The news out of Washington that CIA Director George Tenet has offered his resignation. It has been accepted by President Bush.
He'll be leaving after serving seven years, two presidents, one Democratic, one Republican. And his deputy, John McLaughlin, will serve out -- at least will run the agency, run the CIA until a successor is found.

Any successor, of course, will have to get approval from Capitol Hill. And that's where we find our Joe Johns standing by with reaction to today's news -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, CNN talked just a little while ago with Congressman Porter Goss, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He says he was on the phone as, essentially, as the announcement was made with George Tenet. He said he takes him at his word as to why is resigning.

He also said stands behind the man. He says, "I don't think I can find fault in him. I stand by him."

Meanwhile, Goss and his counterpart in the Senate, that's Pat Roberts of Kansas, met this morning with a group of Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club. They talked at length about the Intelligence Committee.

And there were some fairly harsh remarks regarding the intelligence committee, though no attacks on George Tenet. Let's listen now to what Pat Roberts said, in part, at that meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), CHMN., INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: I think that the community is in somewhat denial over the full extent -- and I emphasize full extent -- of the shortcoming of its work on Iraq and also 9/11.

We need fresh thinking within the community, especially within the Congress, to enable the intelligence community to change and adapt to the dangerous world in which we live. And for, all of us to look in the mirror and honestly examine our collective performance over the last decade.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JOHNS: Among the other things Roberts said at that meeting, "I don't expect the intelligence community to be omniscient, tell me what you know, tell me what you don't know, and make sure I know the difference."

Goss, at that very same meeting, also spoke. Said, "The United States under invested in intelligence in the 1990s, leading to a diminished capacity."

As you said at the top, Daryn, the big question is who will succeed George Tenet at the CIA? Obviously, a number of names out there. We're told here on Capitol Hill that at this time there is no short list.

Porter Goss himself, of course, was a CIA employee for some time before coming to Capitol Hill. CNN asked him if he'd be interested in the job. He said that would be up to the president.

Sources here on Capitol Hill say they would not be surprised, quite frankly, if no one is named, this being an election year. Back to you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, and to take that a step further and explain why, because what those confirmation hearings might be like that would have to take place before the election, Joe.

JOHNS: Certainly it would be a very highly, potentially contentious set of hearings. A number of senators obviously very interested in what has happened with intelligence in the United States, particularly relate to September 11 as well as Iraq.

Also, have to point out the Senate Intelligence Committee is putting together a report which we are told will be release in the next few weeks, if possible, if they can get all of that information declassified.

We're told parts of that report are going to be critical, again, of the intelligence community -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And those were some scathing remarks there from Pat Roberts, the chairman of that Intelligence Committee.

Joe Johns on Capitol Hill, thank you. We'll be back to you as the day moves on.

Let's go ahead and bring back in David Ensor. David, if you could pick up where Senator Roberts' comments were picking up -- were commenting, to hear a Republican senator say that the Intelligence Committee -- that the intelligence community is in denial, those are some pretty strong comments in light of what happened today with the resignation of George Tenet.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's true. And, you know, you had Admiral Turner say earlier that he thinks that -- he doesn't believe it when he hears George Tenet saying he is resigning for personal reasons. He believes there may have been something more behind it.

In fairness, I think you can safely say that in one sense Admiral Turner's definitely right. And that is this is a very loyal public servant. He would not have tendered his resignation and surprised the president.

The president and he would have -- and they talk every day, just about -- would have had a discussion. This would have been developing over time. It would be something that President Bush is comfortable with at this time or George Tenet wouldn't be doing it. I think that's safe to say.

Now, George Tenet has personal reasons for wanting to resign. He's tired. He's done one of these high-pressure Washington jobs, second longest man serve in the job. It's very, very hard work.

And especially post-9/11 for the top intelligence man in the United States. That's very, very hard work. He has been looking forward to getting out of the job, but didn't want to go out on a negative note looking like he was pushed.

It may be, though, that there's a factor, a political factor here, that the Bush administration feels that it's time now to take some steps, to reorganize the intelligence community, that it's time to put a little more blame on the intelligence community for some of the problems and failures that have occurred over the last couple of years, and that it may be easier to do so if George Tenet leaves the job. So there may be a political element to this, although certainly, publicly, you're not going to hear that from the White House, or from George Tenet.

Just reviewing the bidding with George Tenet. We're thinking -- my colleague, Pam Benson, and I were thinking through what the plus and minus ledgers might be, what the legacy would be of this man. On the negative side, you have to have the failure to stop 9/11. It happened on his watch. He may not have been entirely responsible, but he has to -- that will be on the ledger.

The Iraqi WMD, the fact that nothing seems -- nothing major has been found thus far, suggesting the intelligence really wasn't good enough that was given to Colin Powell, the secretary of state, when he went to the United Nations.

Within that framework, the Niger uranium story, where it turned out the president, in a State of the Union message, said something that some people in the intelligence community knew wasn't true, said that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger, and George Tenet had to sort of take the fall on that.

The failure to forewarn policy makers that India and Pakistan were on the verge to testing nuclear weapon. That's on his watch.

The failure to catch Osama bin Laden. You can't necessarily blame one man for that. But he, more than anyone else, has been responsible for the effort to find Osama bin Laden, and it hasn't happened yet. On the plus sides, you really do have to say that in his tenure, George Tenet has rebuilt the intelligence community very strongly. He's obviously had some real help on Capitol Hill, where the budgets are back up, but he has fought for the kinds of things that the intelligence community is going to need in the 21st century, more people, better people, better technology. He's really been a strong leader for the intelligence community in that area, and he put a painting of Richard Helms, the old CIA director, up in his office, by way of sending a message to people in the intelligence community that he wanted to be that kind of a director, one who would be loyal to his people, and one who would build the capabilities of the country.

Other pluses, the Afghan war. Most professionals credit the intelligence community with making that war shorter and faster, with less bloodshed, less American bloodshed. The CIA went in there. They had the contacts in Afghanistan. They used them. They also used money. And they used it very effectively, and saved a lot of American lives and a lot of Afghan lives and collapsed the Taliban much more quickly than many had predicted, and that's a plus for George Tenet.

Also the millennium plot. Remember, back during the Clinton administration, at the turn of the century, or the turn of the numbers, there was that plot, Ahmad Rassan (ph), the man who was caught at the border by a Customs officer, that tipped them off, but the intelligence community was all over that one. And with the Clinton administration very much agreeing, they brought -- they wrapped that one up. There was no millennium explosions. That happened on Tenet's watch. He gets credit for that one, too -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Interesting scorecard. We'll hear more from you ahead on that. David Ensor in Washington, thank you for that.

Much more on George Tenet. Right now, a break here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's get back to our developing story. George Tenet offering his resignation as head of the CIA. President Bush announcing before he left for Europe that he is accepting that resignation.

On the phone with us right now, representative Matt Collins of Georgia. He is on the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Congressman, good morning. Thank you for being with us.

REP. MATT COLLINS (R), GEORGIA: Good morning.

KAGAN: Can you tell us about getting this news? Some of the people we've heard from in Washington today saying this really had to be in the making, you just don't just wake up one morning and decide to resign as head of the CIA.

COLLINS: Well, I think it's been in the making. I was surprised by it. Earlier on in the year (AUDIO GAP) made the same suggestion, that (AUDIO GAP) I felt like he should (AUDIO GAP) retire from the job. He was a carryover from the previous administration. And oftentimes, when you have carryovers like that , sometimes it work, sometimes it don't work as well. And I just did not think this one was working well.

KAGAN: So are you saying George Tenet didn't work because he was left over from a Democratic administration?

COLLINS: No, I did not say that. I said sometimes things like that work well, and sometimes they don't work as well. Once you have been in an administration, in my opinion, for four years, and then you switch over to another administration, you have a tendency to follow the same lines until such time as you can get a real feel for the new administration, and I just don't think that occurred soon enough in this current administration, and I just think there were some shortfalls because of that.

KAGAN: So do you see him as a scapegoat, or being pushed out, or do you believe what he says when he says he's resigning for personal reasons?

COLLINS: I think he's resigning for his own personal reasons. Now what those personal reasons are, I don't know, and I'm not going to, you know, have the opportunity -- I would not ask anyway.

KAGAN: All right, but what you do have the opportunity as a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence is to talk about and think about where these intelligence agency goes from here. And do you think it's appropriate before you talk about who would get this job to talk about what the job would be and perhaps how those would be restructured?

COLLINS: Well, in all credit to Mr. Tenet, there has been a turnaround in the last few months in the agency, as far as, I think, improvements, or people on (AUDIO GAP) places that we needed people. And so I think we are actually on a better road -- better intelligence than we have been. I feel like there were some times we had some shortfall in the interim that might could have been avoided, but they weren't. What we have to deal with now is what the actual facts are, and the facts are that we were short human intelligence there for a while. We're now kicking it back up.

But I just -- someone coming out of the previous administration, we had the shortfall then. I was not on the Intelligence Committee at that time, But I -- all evidence shows that we had some shortfall, and that was not addressed as soon as I think it should have been addressed in the administration.

KAGAN: Well, one of the facts now is that George Tenet has now indeed resigned. Representative Matt Collins, congressman, thank you for your time on the phone this morning. We appreciate that. This no doubt will garner some debate and discussion on campaign trail.

Our Kelly Wallace has been following John Kerry, and she has reaction from that campaign -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. Well, we are expecting a statement, a written statement, from the Kerry campaign, shortly. Nothing yet. At this hour, in fact, the Democratic nominee is expecting to be addressing an audience of Independence, Missouri, home of course of President Harry Truman. Kerry is planning a speech talking about modernizing the military, talking about ways to handle an overextended, what he calls an overextended National Guard.

The word we're getting from Kerry campaign sources is he will not address the resignation of George Tenet in these remarks, but in a written statement.

Of course, some background here, though. Kerry has talked about George Tenet, and had called for him to resign months ago.

Here's what he said on the campaign trail back in January.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I called for George Tenet to resign several months ago. That is not a new call for me. I did call for that. I think there's been a lack of accountability at the CIA. I regret it. I know him personally, but that's the nature of responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And one of the things John Kerry has been talking about during this two-week focus on national security, he says, if he were president, what he would do was make the director of central intelligence a cabinet-level position, and also create a new post, the director of national intelligence, a position that would oversee all budget, all personnel matters, and improve coordination.

So no doubt, Daryn, we will hear more on the campaign trail. The latest word, a written statement expected to come shortly many from the Kerry campaign -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And doing it in that form instead of making it part of the speech. One of the criticisms of the Kerry campaign has been that it hasn't taken advantage of new developments as they happen, of commenting on them, rather staying in the background, and letting them just ride out as they have.

WALLACE: You raise an interesting point. We'll have to see what the sort of strategic decision is, to not have John Kerry make mention of this. But in part, they don't want the candidate to step on his own message. This is big focus for him today, modernizing the military, talking about the National Guard, talking about the Reserves, one of his pillars he's been talking about on the campaign trail.

And what you see, Daryn, when you travel with him, you have local reporters, print and television reporters, covering the speech. They will be focusing on his message during that speech, whereas the national press might be focusing on George Tenet's resignation; his message that he's delivering today will get out to the local press. That's also why it's a strategic move here to not have him talk about it on camera, but to do this written statement at some point today.

KAGAN: Kelly Wallace with the latest from the Kerry campaign. Thank you for that.

Much more on George Tenet, on his resignation and what is next for the CIA. That is ahead. Right now, we fit in a break here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Once again, our breaking story, our developing story throughout the morning, CIA Director George Tenet has offered his resignation. President Bush has accepted that resignation. Tenet saying he is leaving for personal reason.

It has been a very long and interesting run for this CIA director. Seven years, that make him the second longest serving CIA director. He served both under President Clinton and under President Bush.

In the meantime, his deputy will take over. A successor has yet to be named. Much more on George Tenet, on what is next for the intelligence agencies, of the U.S. That is ahead with Wolf Blitzer.

I'm Daryn Kagan. I'll be back here in the seat tomorrow morning. A break now. And Wolf comes up at the top of the hour.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired June 3, 2004 - 11:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we go back to our developing story, The news out of Washington that CIA Director George Tenet has offered his resignation. It has been accepted by President Bush.
He'll be leaving after serving seven years, two presidents, one Democratic, one Republican. And his deputy, John McLaughlin, will serve out -- at least will run the agency, run the CIA until a successor is found.

Any successor, of course, will have to get approval from Capitol Hill. And that's where we find our Joe Johns standing by with reaction to today's news -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, CNN talked just a little while ago with Congressman Porter Goss, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He says he was on the phone as, essentially, as the announcement was made with George Tenet. He said he takes him at his word as to why is resigning.

He also said stands behind the man. He says, "I don't think I can find fault in him. I stand by him."

Meanwhile, Goss and his counterpart in the Senate, that's Pat Roberts of Kansas, met this morning with a group of Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club. They talked at length about the Intelligence Committee.

And there were some fairly harsh remarks regarding the intelligence committee, though no attacks on George Tenet. Let's listen now to what Pat Roberts said, in part, at that meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PAT ROBERTS (R-KS), CHMN., INTELLIGENCE CMTE.: I think that the community is in somewhat denial over the full extent -- and I emphasize full extent -- of the shortcoming of its work on Iraq and also 9/11.

We need fresh thinking within the community, especially within the Congress, to enable the intelligence community to change and adapt to the dangerous world in which we live. And for, all of us to look in the mirror and honestly examine our collective performance over the last decade.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JOHNS: Among the other things Roberts said at that meeting, "I don't expect the intelligence community to be omniscient, tell me what you know, tell me what you don't know, and make sure I know the difference."

Goss, at that very same meeting, also spoke. Said, "The United States under invested in intelligence in the 1990s, leading to a diminished capacity."

As you said at the top, Daryn, the big question is who will succeed George Tenet at the CIA? Obviously, a number of names out there. We're told here on Capitol Hill that at this time there is no short list.

Porter Goss himself, of course, was a CIA employee for some time before coming to Capitol Hill. CNN asked him if he'd be interested in the job. He said that would be up to the president.

Sources here on Capitol Hill say they would not be surprised, quite frankly, if no one is named, this being an election year. Back to you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, and to take that a step further and explain why, because what those confirmation hearings might be like that would have to take place before the election, Joe.

JOHNS: Certainly it would be a very highly, potentially contentious set of hearings. A number of senators obviously very interested in what has happened with intelligence in the United States, particularly relate to September 11 as well as Iraq.

Also, have to point out the Senate Intelligence Committee is putting together a report which we are told will be release in the next few weeks, if possible, if they can get all of that information declassified.

We're told parts of that report are going to be critical, again, of the intelligence community -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And those were some scathing remarks there from Pat Roberts, the chairman of that Intelligence Committee.

Joe Johns on Capitol Hill, thank you. We'll be back to you as the day moves on.

Let's go ahead and bring back in David Ensor. David, if you could pick up where Senator Roberts' comments were picking up -- were commenting, to hear a Republican senator say that the Intelligence Committee -- that the intelligence community is in denial, those are some pretty strong comments in light of what happened today with the resignation of George Tenet.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's true. And, you know, you had Admiral Turner say earlier that he thinks that -- he doesn't believe it when he hears George Tenet saying he is resigning for personal reasons. He believes there may have been something more behind it.

In fairness, I think you can safely say that in one sense Admiral Turner's definitely right. And that is this is a very loyal public servant. He would not have tendered his resignation and surprised the president.

The president and he would have -- and they talk every day, just about -- would have had a discussion. This would have been developing over time. It would be something that President Bush is comfortable with at this time or George Tenet wouldn't be doing it. I think that's safe to say.

Now, George Tenet has personal reasons for wanting to resign. He's tired. He's done one of these high-pressure Washington jobs, second longest man serve in the job. It's very, very hard work.

And especially post-9/11 for the top intelligence man in the United States. That's very, very hard work. He has been looking forward to getting out of the job, but didn't want to go out on a negative note looking like he was pushed.

It may be, though, that there's a factor, a political factor here, that the Bush administration feels that it's time now to take some steps, to reorganize the intelligence community, that it's time to put a little more blame on the intelligence community for some of the problems and failures that have occurred over the last couple of years, and that it may be easier to do so if George Tenet leaves the job. So there may be a political element to this, although certainly, publicly, you're not going to hear that from the White House, or from George Tenet.

Just reviewing the bidding with George Tenet. We're thinking -- my colleague, Pam Benson, and I were thinking through what the plus and minus ledgers might be, what the legacy would be of this man. On the negative side, you have to have the failure to stop 9/11. It happened on his watch. He may not have been entirely responsible, but he has to -- that will be on the ledger.

The Iraqi WMD, the fact that nothing seems -- nothing major has been found thus far, suggesting the intelligence really wasn't good enough that was given to Colin Powell, the secretary of state, when he went to the United Nations.

Within that framework, the Niger uranium story, where it turned out the president, in a State of the Union message, said something that some people in the intelligence community knew wasn't true, said that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger, and George Tenet had to sort of take the fall on that.

The failure to forewarn policy makers that India and Pakistan were on the verge to testing nuclear weapon. That's on his watch.

The failure to catch Osama bin Laden. You can't necessarily blame one man for that. But he, more than anyone else, has been responsible for the effort to find Osama bin Laden, and it hasn't happened yet. On the plus sides, you really do have to say that in his tenure, George Tenet has rebuilt the intelligence community very strongly. He's obviously had some real help on Capitol Hill, where the budgets are back up, but he has fought for the kinds of things that the intelligence community is going to need in the 21st century, more people, better people, better technology. He's really been a strong leader for the intelligence community in that area, and he put a painting of Richard Helms, the old CIA director, up in his office, by way of sending a message to people in the intelligence community that he wanted to be that kind of a director, one who would be loyal to his people, and one who would build the capabilities of the country.

Other pluses, the Afghan war. Most professionals credit the intelligence community with making that war shorter and faster, with less bloodshed, less American bloodshed. The CIA went in there. They had the contacts in Afghanistan. They used them. They also used money. And they used it very effectively, and saved a lot of American lives and a lot of Afghan lives and collapsed the Taliban much more quickly than many had predicted, and that's a plus for George Tenet.

Also the millennium plot. Remember, back during the Clinton administration, at the turn of the century, or the turn of the numbers, there was that plot, Ahmad Rassan (ph), the man who was caught at the border by a Customs officer, that tipped them off, but the intelligence community was all over that one. And with the Clinton administration very much agreeing, they brought -- they wrapped that one up. There was no millennium explosions. That happened on Tenet's watch. He gets credit for that one, too -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Interesting scorecard. We'll hear more from you ahead on that. David Ensor in Washington, thank you for that.

Much more on George Tenet. Right now, a break here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's get back to our developing story. George Tenet offering his resignation as head of the CIA. President Bush announcing before he left for Europe that he is accepting that resignation.

On the phone with us right now, representative Matt Collins of Georgia. He is on the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Congressman, good morning. Thank you for being with us.

REP. MATT COLLINS (R), GEORGIA: Good morning.

KAGAN: Can you tell us about getting this news? Some of the people we've heard from in Washington today saying this really had to be in the making, you just don't just wake up one morning and decide to resign as head of the CIA.

COLLINS: Well, I think it's been in the making. I was surprised by it. Earlier on in the year (AUDIO GAP) made the same suggestion, that (AUDIO GAP) I felt like he should (AUDIO GAP) retire from the job. He was a carryover from the previous administration. And oftentimes, when you have carryovers like that , sometimes it work, sometimes it don't work as well. And I just did not think this one was working well.

KAGAN: So are you saying George Tenet didn't work because he was left over from a Democratic administration?

COLLINS: No, I did not say that. I said sometimes things like that work well, and sometimes they don't work as well. Once you have been in an administration, in my opinion, for four years, and then you switch over to another administration, you have a tendency to follow the same lines until such time as you can get a real feel for the new administration, and I just don't think that occurred soon enough in this current administration, and I just think there were some shortfalls because of that.

KAGAN: So do you see him as a scapegoat, or being pushed out, or do you believe what he says when he says he's resigning for personal reasons?

COLLINS: I think he's resigning for his own personal reasons. Now what those personal reasons are, I don't know, and I'm not going to, you know, have the opportunity -- I would not ask anyway.

KAGAN: All right, but what you do have the opportunity as a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence is to talk about and think about where these intelligence agency goes from here. And do you think it's appropriate before you talk about who would get this job to talk about what the job would be and perhaps how those would be restructured?

COLLINS: Well, in all credit to Mr. Tenet, there has been a turnaround in the last few months in the agency, as far as, I think, improvements, or people on (AUDIO GAP) places that we needed people. And so I think we are actually on a better road -- better intelligence than we have been. I feel like there were some times we had some shortfall in the interim that might could have been avoided, but they weren't. What we have to deal with now is what the actual facts are, and the facts are that we were short human intelligence there for a while. We're now kicking it back up.

But I just -- someone coming out of the previous administration, we had the shortfall then. I was not on the Intelligence Committee at that time, But I -- all evidence shows that we had some shortfall, and that was not addressed as soon as I think it should have been addressed in the administration.

KAGAN: Well, one of the facts now is that George Tenet has now indeed resigned. Representative Matt Collins, congressman, thank you for your time on the phone this morning. We appreciate that. This no doubt will garner some debate and discussion on campaign trail.

Our Kelly Wallace has been following John Kerry, and she has reaction from that campaign -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. Well, we are expecting a statement, a written statement, from the Kerry campaign, shortly. Nothing yet. At this hour, in fact, the Democratic nominee is expecting to be addressing an audience of Independence, Missouri, home of course of President Harry Truman. Kerry is planning a speech talking about modernizing the military, talking about ways to handle an overextended, what he calls an overextended National Guard.

The word we're getting from Kerry campaign sources is he will not address the resignation of George Tenet in these remarks, but in a written statement.

Of course, some background here, though. Kerry has talked about George Tenet, and had called for him to resign months ago.

Here's what he said on the campaign trail back in January.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I called for George Tenet to resign several months ago. That is not a new call for me. I did call for that. I think there's been a lack of accountability at the CIA. I regret it. I know him personally, but that's the nature of responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And one of the things John Kerry has been talking about during this two-week focus on national security, he says, if he were president, what he would do was make the director of central intelligence a cabinet-level position, and also create a new post, the director of national intelligence, a position that would oversee all budget, all personnel matters, and improve coordination.

So no doubt, Daryn, we will hear more on the campaign trail. The latest word, a written statement expected to come shortly many from the Kerry campaign -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And doing it in that form instead of making it part of the speech. One of the criticisms of the Kerry campaign has been that it hasn't taken advantage of new developments as they happen, of commenting on them, rather staying in the background, and letting them just ride out as they have.

WALLACE: You raise an interesting point. We'll have to see what the sort of strategic decision is, to not have John Kerry make mention of this. But in part, they don't want the candidate to step on his own message. This is big focus for him today, modernizing the military, talking about the National Guard, talking about the Reserves, one of his pillars he's been talking about on the campaign trail.

And what you see, Daryn, when you travel with him, you have local reporters, print and television reporters, covering the speech. They will be focusing on his message during that speech, whereas the national press might be focusing on George Tenet's resignation; his message that he's delivering today will get out to the local press. That's also why it's a strategic move here to not have him talk about it on camera, but to do this written statement at some point today.

KAGAN: Kelly Wallace with the latest from the Kerry campaign. Thank you for that.

Much more on George Tenet, on his resignation and what is next for the CIA. That is ahead. Right now, we fit in a break here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Once again, our breaking story, our developing story throughout the morning, CIA Director George Tenet has offered his resignation. President Bush has accepted that resignation. Tenet saying he is leaving for personal reason.

It has been a very long and interesting run for this CIA director. Seven years, that make him the second longest serving CIA director. He served both under President Clinton and under President Bush.

In the meantime, his deputy will take over. A successor has yet to be named. Much more on George Tenet, on what is next for the intelligence agencies, of the U.S. That is ahead with Wolf Blitzer.

I'm Daryn Kagan. I'll be back here in the seat tomorrow morning. A break now. And Wolf comes up at the top of the hour.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com