In his accommodating, well-lit office Wednesday, Robert Gallucci, Dean of the School of Foreign Service, unpacked CIA Director George Tenet’s (SFS ‘68) Feb. 4 speech. Gallucci praised both the content of the speech and its delivery.
“I think he wanted his audience to understand that there are limits to what you can expect from intelligence,” Gallucci said. “He wanted to say that, yes, we spent a lot of money on intelligence, billions and billions, but even when you do that you’re not going to get it all right, all the time.”
Speaking in a Gaston Hall packed with students and media, Tenet supported the CIA’s Oct. 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, with the caveat that the agency never claimed Iraq posed an ” imminent threat.”
“By definition, intelligence deals with the unclear, the unknown, the deliberately hidden. What the enemies of the United States hope to deny, we work to reveal,” Tenet said. He defended the work of intelligence analysts and said the CIA had worked closely with the U.N. inspectors in Iraq.
Describing the CIA’s understanding of Iraq’s weapons programs and missile deployment systems, Tenet stressed that the intelligence community needed time to reveal more information. “We are nowhere near the end of our work. We need more time,” Tenet said, reminiscient of former U.N. weapon’s inspector Hans Blix.
Gallucci praised Tenet’s attempts to provide the nation with reasonable expectations for the intelligence community. “This was sort of a partial admission of less than perfect performance, having said we should not expect a perfect performance. And I think he said this effectively,” Gallucci said.
Tenet did not address policy issues, sticking to intelligence. “In what he did not say he was also, I think, sending a signal. He did not talk about policy, he, in a way, said we in the intelligence community do not do windows, and we do not do policy,” Gallucci said.
Tenet and Gallucci have known each other for almost 15 years, since Tenet worked as staff director of the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence, where Professor of Security Studies Jennifer Sims, Gallucci’s wife, also worked at the time. “George is a warm, engaging, gregarious Greek-American. I say that as a Southern Italian-American,” Gallucci said. “He’s just a very likeable guy.”
“It’s always great to be back at a place I love, the greatest university in America,” Tenet concluded.”Let’s beat Villanova tonight.” One of Georgetown’s most renowned alumni, Tenet is also one of the most active. A b basketball season ticket holder, Tenet is a regular at the MCI Center. ” He’s a terrific Hoya,” Gallucci said.
