19 January 2001
The New York Times, January 19, 2001
Editorial
President-elect George W. Bush wisely broke with tradition this week by keeping the nation's spy chief on the job, at least temporarily, as one party prepares to pass control of the White House to the other. The last time that happened was 1969, when Richard Nixon succeeded Lyndon Johnson as president and retained the services of Richard Helms as director of central intelligence. Mr. Bush's decision to extend the tenure of George Tenet can establish a bipartisan principle of the need for continuity in i managing the nation's intelligence agencies, especially at a time of formidable challenges.
Rapid turnover in the job during the last decade has been damaging. Mr. Tenet, who took command in 1997, is the fifth director since1991. That period coincides with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unfolding of a new era in international affairs that presents the intelligence services with a multitude of new threats to monitor. These include the spread of nuclear weapons and the growth of sophisticated terrorist organizations determined to destroy American targets abroad. The cavalcade of leaders has left several of the most sensitive intelligence organizations floundering.
Mr. Tenet, a Democrat who handled intelligence issues as a senior Congressional and White House aide before moving to the C.I.A., has begun the hard work of redesigning agencies that were constructed over the course of the cold war to concentrate on a single enemy, the Soviet Union. The ability of the National Security Agency to intercept and decode the airborne communications of foreign governments has been crippled by the spread of advanced encryption techniques and the use of fiber-optic lines. The National Imagery and Mapping Agency cannot keep up with the flood of pictures pouring in from high-powered reconnaissance satellites. The C.I.A. itself is swamped by information that is now available from open sources on the Internet.
The director of central intelligence manages just one organization, the C.I.A. But he plays a leading role in setting the direction and budgets of a host of other spy agencies, most of which are part of the Defense Department. Mr. Tenet has done an effective job of working with Congress to get the money needed to start modernizing the N.S.A. and to attract a new generation of analysts and agents to the C.I.A. Unlike some of his predecessors, Mr. Tenet is not known for bending intelligence reports to support administration policies.
Mr. Bush and his top advisers will have to judge for themselves whether Mr. Tenet is providing timely and accurate intelligence information. Presidents are best served when they get unvarnished assessments about foreign threats. The spy services would benefit from an extended period of stable leadership.