Bush Expresses Support for CIA, Director Tenet

Bush Expresses Support for CIA, Director Tenet

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US President George W. Bush visited the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Virginia Wednesday to show his support for the embattled intelligence community and CIA Director George John Tenet.

"I've got a lot of confidence in him and I've got a lot of confidence in the CIA. And so should America," Bush said in a speech to about 500 CIA employees.

"There is no better institute to be working with than the Central Intelligence Agency which serves as our ears and our eyes all around the world," he said.

"This is a war that is unlike any other war that our nation is used to," he said. "And in order to make sure that we're able to conduct a winning victory, we've got to have the best intelligence we can possibly have."

The intelligence community has come under fire in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Earlier Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby questioned Tenet's competence, saying that the top spying job was "getting away" from him.

Shelby told NBC's "Today" show that he could not talk about why and how U.S. intelligence had failed as information was classified, but intelligence methods set up during the Cold War were insufficient to prevent attacks such as those on September 11.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee passed a bill funding the U.S. intelligence community including the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) for fiscal 2002.

The total amount of the bill is not disclosed, but experts said it was around 30 billion dollars annually.

Committee Chairman Porter J. Goss said the bill addresses shortfalls in the "recruitment of human assets," domestic counter- terrorism in the CIA, FBI and NSA, and foreign language abilities in the intelligence community.