The CIA spy chief in charge of clandestine operations overseas announced his resignation Friday, the news coming a day after the agency's director announced he would leave next month.
James Pavitt, a 31-year veteran of the leading U.S. spy agency, has served as Deputy Director for Operations (DDO) of the CIA for nearly five years, longer than anyone in a generation.
The DDO is responsible for the collection of foreign intelligence. The role will now be filled by Mr. Pavitt's assistant, Stephen Kappes.
The changing of the guard at the top level of the CIA comes as the agency braces for a congressional report that will touch on the U.S. intelligence community's inability to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Under the watch of George Tenet, the outgoing director, the agency has also been widely criticized as the source for apparently erroneous information about the threat posed by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose purported weapons of mass destruction have not been found.
The two resignations are not linked, though, the CIA insists. In a statement, the agency says that Mr. Pavitt decided last month to retire and that his decision is unrelated to Mr. Tenet's decision.
The second resignation is likely to extend the furor provoked by Mr. Tenet's announcement. Washington insiders, unwilling to accept Mr. Tenet's insistence that he was leaving to spend more time with his family, debated Thursday whether it was actually a sign that the Bush administration will try to sweep aside political liabilities before November's presidential election.
Although U.S. President George W. Bush is famously loyal, “this is, after all, an election year,” an analyst at the conservative Cato Institute told The Globe and Mail after Mr. Tenet quit.
“The wonder is not that Tenet is gone, the wonder is that he managed to hang on for so long,” said Ted Galen Carpenter, the Institute's senior defence and intelligence analyst. He said he would be watching to see if other emblematic figures “suddenly decide to pursue other interests.”
A day later Mr. Tenet was back in the public eye, praising his retiring deputy's “enormous” and “tireless” dedication to the CIA.
“He has led our country's clandestine service with verve and creativity, rebuilding the infrastructure to recruit, train, and sustain officers who collect the human intelligence that is so vital to protecting our nation and American interests,” the outgoing CIA director said.
In his own statement, Mr. Pavitt lauded the clandestine operatives under his charge as “a national treasure.”
“I am so proud of the risks they have taken and the extraordinary work they do, often under the most difficult and dangerous circumstances imaginable, to keep our nation safe,” he said. “The creativity, resourcefulness, and courage they display each and every day to acquire the information our country needs has saved many lives.”
Mr. Pavitt joined the CIA in 1973 and has served in Europe, Asia and at the agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He joined the National Security Council as the Director for Intelligence Programs in 1990 and was appointed Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in 1992. He learned both Farsi and Russian during his career at the CIA.
It was not immediately know what Mr. Pavitt will do next.
With files from The Globe and Mail's Paul Koring in Washington
