Tenet leaves behind crisis of confidence in intelligence

A farewell tribute by his staff on Friday, a day ahead of his formal resignation, coincides with the unveiling of a Senate Intelligence Committee report unsparingly critical of CIA failures from the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States to its pre-war estimates of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that so far have failed to pan out.

Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee for their part warned last month that the agency for too long has been ignoring "its core mission activities," notably clandestine operations to recruit spies and penetrate organisations like al-Qaeda.

CIA, it said, "continues down a road leading over a proverbial cliff."

It has been a brusque turnabout for Tenet who for seven years rode out past crises with swagger and charm and timely support from the two presidents he served, Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George W. Bush.