The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> BREAKING AWAY br> CIA head George Tenet 's surprise resignation was in fact motivated by family reasons, but the political realities of the past six months and the next month and a half helped make his decision a little bit easier. /p>

Tenet started getting calls last week from several Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee who had been reading the committee's report on intelligence failures leading up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to a Senate Intelligence staffer, the Democrats told Tenet that their support of him probably could not be sustained given what the draft report had to say about the CIA's performance a little over a year ago.

That report, which is currently being vetted by the CIA and by intelligence committee staff, and which may be declassified before the end of the month, was one reason why Tenet may have accelerated his retirement plans.

Beyond the Senate report and another intelligence committee report in the House, there is also the upcoming 9/11 Commission final report, which will be handed in to the White House sometime in July and which will also have to be vetted for classified material by the intelligence community. The fact that Tenet's people may be called upon to vet reports critical of their own performance and his as well might have been too embarrassing for the agency and its long-time director.

p> BOSTON MASSACRE br> The Democratic National Committee is being squeezed so tightly for cash for its convention in Boston, that it is penalizing the very people who will be there to make them look good: the press. /p>

On Thursday, most newspapers and TV outlets learned that their offices will not be quartered within the security compound of the Fleet Center, where the Democratic Convention will be held.

Instead, for budget reasons, the DNC was giving up its 54,000-square-foot space originally intended for the media center, and placing the journalists in a 42,000-square-foot facility about a block from the Fleet Center.

topics:
Iraq