Tenet was a director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1997 to 2005, who shared the blame for the intelligence failures that led to the September 11 terrorist attacks and subsequently oversaw reforms in the CIA as part of the broader reorganization of the U.S. intelligence community. George John Tenet was born to Greek immigrant parents in Flushing, Queens, in New York City. He earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in 1976 and a master's degree from Columbia University two years later.

Tenet worked briefly for a Greek-American lobbying firm and then served as an aid to Republican senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania. He subsequently held positions as a staffer for various Democratic senators until 1993. That year he was appointed to the presidential transition team of William J. Clinton. Clinton then appointed Tenet to the staff of the National Security Council. In 1995, Tenet became the deputy director of the CIA, and the following year, he was made acting CIA chief after the resignation of John M. Deutch.

Clinton nominated Tenet to replace Deutch, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He formally became director on 11 July 1997. Throughout his years in the Clinton administration, Tenet warned of the growing dangers of terrorism. When George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, he asked Tenet to remain in office. He became the first CIA director in 28 years to stay in office following the election of a new president.

As CIA director, Tenet sought to refocus intelligence resources on groups such as Al Qaeda, especially after the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. His efforts to establish reliable intelligence networks among terrorist groups were constrained by restrictions on human intelligence put in place in 1995. These restrictions were designed to prevent the United States from cooperating with individuals who may have been involved in human rights violations (and thereby end the long-standing practice whereby Washington had used the CIA to support totalitarian regimes in countries such as Guatemala or El Salvador). However, they prevented intelligence units from developing contacts within terrorist groups. In addition, there was a series of restrictions that prevented the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from sharing intelligence. These prohibitions dated from the 1970s and had been put in place in response to CIA domestic operations at the time. The CIA was the country's lead counterterrorism agency for external threats, while the FBI was the agency charged with domestic counterterrorism. The inability of the two bodies to work with each other contributed to the intelligence failures surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Following these attacks, Tenet oversaw a series of reforms and new initiatives within the CIA. The restrictions on human intelligence were lifted, and the CIA devoted new resources to building networks around the world. In addition, new imperatives on intelligence sharing were put in place. CIA operatives played an important role in the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom. They also undertook a range of operations around the world to disrupt Al Qaeda and its allies.

Prior to the 2003 Iraq War, Tenet marshaled significant evidence that the regime of Saddam Hussein was actively pursuing weapons of mass destruction, and Bush used the material to try to convince both domestic and international audiences of the need for military action. After the fall of the Iraqi regime, no evidence was found to corroborate the CIA intelligence, and Tenet subsequently publicly apologized for the agency's failures. Tenet opposed the broad intelligence reforms that culminated in the creation of the director of national intelligence to oversee the country's intelligence community. He announced his resignation on 3 June 2004 and left office in July 2004.

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