This really isn't anything new, everyone new that the Clinton cutbacks in the CIA were the real problem in the 9/11 tragedy, but I thought I would remind everyone.
Tenet in Slap at Clinton CIA Cutbacks
CIA Director George Tenet delivered an unexpected slap to ex-president Clinton on Thursday, suggesting during a speech defending his agency that CIA cutbacks during Clinton's tenure were responsible for the agency's failures in the war on terror.
"When I came to the CIA in the mid-1990s, our graduating class of case officers was unbelievably low," Tenet told an audience at Georgetown University.
He said it had taken "years of rebuilding" for the agency to recover from the Clinton-era cutbacks, contending that the agency was now moving in the right direction.
"Our training programs are putting our best efforts into recruiting the most talented men and women," he explained, saying that now "we are graduating more clandestine officers than at any time in the history of the Central intelligence Agency."
Tenet said it would take "an additional five years of rebuilding our clandestine service" before the U.S. has the kind of on-the-ground human intelligence necessary to effectively fight the war on terrorism.
In the early 1990s, the Clinton administration drastically cutback "Humint"; efforts by the CIA to recruit indigenous on-the-ground assets regardless of their backgrounds - after Democrats like then-Sen. Robert Torricelli complained that the agency was relying on too many people involved in criminal activity and human rights abuses.
Tenet in Slap at Clinton CIA Cutbacks
CIA Director George Tenet delivered an unexpected slap to ex-president Clinton on Thursday, suggesting during a speech defending his agency that CIA cutbacks during Clinton's tenure were responsible for the agency's failures in the war on terror.
"When I came to the CIA in the mid-1990s, our graduating class of case officers was unbelievably low," Tenet told an audience at Georgetown University.
He said it had taken "years of rebuilding" for the agency to recover from the Clinton-era cutbacks, contending that the agency was now moving in the right direction.
"Our training programs are putting our best efforts into recruiting the most talented men and women," he explained, saying that now "we are graduating more clandestine officers than at any time in the history of the Central intelligence Agency."
Tenet said it would take "an additional five years of rebuilding our clandestine service" before the U.S. has the kind of on-the-ground human intelligence necessary to effectively fight the war on terrorism.
In the early 1990s, the Clinton administration drastically cutback "Humint"; efforts by the CIA to recruit indigenous on-the-ground assets regardless of their backgrounds - after Democrats like then-Sen. Robert Torricelli complained that the agency was relying on too many people involved in criminal activity and human rights abuses.
