QinetiQ pulls in ex-CIA boss

QinetiQ has burnished its intelligence credentials, boosting its board with the man who told Bush “yes, there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”.

The one time MoD research arm, which controversially floated earlier this year, has recruited former CIA director George Tenet as a non-executive director.

QinetiQ’s chairman Sir John Chisholm, said in a statement that Tenet’s “extraordinary track record and experience in the fields of intelligence and security are particularly relevant as we continue to focus on the US defence and security market.”

Tenet’s canned quote tells us he is “especially interested in the capacity of the company’s technologies to meet a number of the challenges faced by our nations’ military and intelligence personnel.”

We’re sure you’ll agree the placement of the apostrophe there is a nice, transatlantic touch.

Tenet, QinetiQ tells us, was “one of the longest serving directors” in the CIA’s history, being in place from 1997 to 2004.

And what a term – the African embassy bombings, the hunt for bin Laden, the USS Cole attack in Yemen, the hunt for bin Laden , the 911 attacks, the hunt for WMD in Iraq, which was of course even more successful than the hunt for bin Laden.

In fairness though, Tenet’s major client for much of that time was the Bush White House, whose interpretation of “intelligence” is quite different to most of the rest of us.®