A Powerful Panetta Could Be the Cure for CIA's Ills
-- CQ Politics/Spytalk
-- CQ Politics/Spytalk
Many CIA veterans and their friends in Congress are generally groaning over the choice of Leon Panetta over an "intelligence professional" to run the nation's premier spy agency.
"The message is, 'I don't want to hear anything out of the CIA. Make it go away. No scandals. Keep it quiet,'" a former senior CIA manager told Laura Rozen for her new Foreign Policy.com blog.
"They put over there a guy who is a political loyalist, who will keep everything nice and quiet, but who won't know a good piece of intelligence from a shi**y piece of intelligence, and wouldn't know a good intelligence officer" from a bad one."
Lamented another former top CIA officer, one who was hoping to get Obama's nod: "So much for a professional at the top."
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Obama CIA Designate Panetta Gets Cool Response From Key Senators -- Yahoo News/CQ Politics
The incoming and outgoing chairs of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee signaled concerns about President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Leon E. Panetta to head the CIA, primarily because of Panetta's thin intelligence resume.
"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta. . . . I know nothing about this, other than what I've read," said Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who will chair the committee in the 111th Congress, in an e-mailed statement. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."
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Spooks Scratch Their Heads Over Obama CIA Pick (Updated) -- The Danger Room
The incoming Obama administration has named Leon Panetta, of all people, as its nominee for the Director of Central Intelligence. Some observers are confused, to put it mildly, about the pick. The guy -- a former White House chief of staff and House Budget Committee chairman -- has a reputation for being a tough, competent manager, they say. But can he really be an effective CIA chief, with experience in the cloak-and-dagger world? What about those pledges, to keep the intelligence community out of politics?
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Panetta Choice as CIA Chief Draws Democrats’ Concerns -- Bloomberg
Leon Panetta’s selection by President- elect Barack Obama to become CIA chief surprised two top Democrats on the Senate intelligence panel, who expressed reservations about his lack of background in the spy world.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who will head the Select Committee on Intelligence during confirmation hearings for the CIA job, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, the current chairman, said they weren’t informed about the choice. Panetta is a former U.S. representative from California and chief of staff and budget director in President Bill Clinton’s White House.
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Obama's Intel Picks Short On Direct Experience -- Yahoo News/AP
WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama's decision to fill the nation's top intelligence jobs with two men short on direct experience in intelligence gathering surprised the spy community and signaled the Democrat's intention for a clean break from Bush administration policies.
Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, an eight-term congressional veteran and administrative expert, is being tapped to head the CIA. Retired Adm. Dennis Blair is Obama's choice to be director of national intelligence, a selection expected for weeks, according to two Democrats who spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not officially announced the choices.
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Source: Obama Chose Panetta for his Washington Experience -- FOX News
President-elect Barack Obama chose Leon Panetta to head the CIA because "he brings decades of experience in government in both the legislative and executive branches," a former CIA official told FOX News.
This person described Panetta as a "very competent leader and manager..." who has "tremendous integrity and gravitas." He is "what the agency needs," this former official said." He will be a force to be reckoned with inside and outside the agency."
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Panetta Gets Mixed Reaction From CIA Officials -- ABC News
Leon Panetta, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the CIA, could be "a fabulous choice" to lead the agency or a nominee who is inexperienced with intelligence matters and will have a chilling effect on the agency, according to top former CIA officials.
Panetta, a former congressman and chief of staff in the White House under President Clinton, was chosen after an extended search by the Obama transition team for a nominee who would not be tainted by support for the CIA's secret detention program for terror suspects and the use of controversial interrogation techniques, including waterboarding.
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