On the CIA

Just a month ago, when George Tenet unexpectedly resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, some pundits said he was getting out because he had to -- that is, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued a scathing report on the CIA's failure to get it right about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Those pundits have were proved right. It's difficult to see how Mr. Tenet could have remained on the job in the face of what amounts to an indictment of his leadership.

The report is sure to heighten the debate over President Bush's decision to go to war against Iraq, and might be used to provide some cover for it.

It's little wonder that Mr. Tenet refuses to confirm whether he ever told Mr. Bush that the case for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction was a "slam dunk" -- a quote attributed to him in a book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. Regardless, the committee has performed a slam dunk of its own -- on Mr. Tenet's failed leadership. -- The Times Union, Albany, New York