CIA Vets Line up For and Against Tenet

After a group of former CIA officials blasted the new book written by retired CIA Director George Tenet in an open letter, another group of more senior CIA veterans just penned its own open letter in Tenet's defense.

The signatories include:

• John McLaughlin, Tenet's immediate deputy
• John Brennan, who ran the National Counterterrorism Center
• Robert Richer, who headed the clandestine side of the CIA
• Two former directors of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center

The letter calls Tenet a leader in the fight against terrorism and praises him for his efforts to modernize the CIA.

"On Iraq, we saw a director who did not shrink from conveying bad news to policymakers when the war began going badly, and who now has the courage to acknowledge errors that were made and accept the responsibility that belongs to him and the intelligence community he led," they wrote. The letter is a response to accusations by a more junior group of former officials that Tenet had abrogated his responsibilities to the CIA and the nation by not more forcefully rebutting the Bush administration's case for the war in Iraq.

The first group, which includes former career CIA analysts and operations officers, wrote to Tenet, saying, "You were a willing participant in a poorly considered policy to start an unnecessary war, and you share culpability with Dick Cheney and George Bush for the debacle in Iraq."

--Kevin Whitelaw