Panetta to Be Named C.I.A. Director

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: New York Times

President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday.

Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been buffeted since the Sept. 11 attacks by leadership changes and morale problems.

Given his background, Mr. Panetta is a somewhat unusual choice to lead the C.I.A., an agency that has been unwelcoming to previous directors perceived as outsiders, such as Stansfield M. Turner and John M. Deutch. But his selection points up the difficulty Mr. Obama had in finding a C.I.A. director with no connection to controversial counterterrorism programs of the Bush era.

Mr. Deutch, now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Mr. Blair and Mr. Panetta were an “absolutely brilliant team,” and called Mr. Panetta a “talented and experienced manager of government and a widely respected person with congress.”

Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/panetta-t... /

[Schema Thing]

1. Well you gotta admit, he looks the part.

[librechik]

2. At least he's not a spook of some sort

Recent appointees have all had that in their background somewhere. Maybe Panetta can just manage the place without having ancient ties and obligations cloud all the issues.

Maybe.

[soleft]

4. OT: I had one of those cars in red

On topic - I get your point, but my first reaction was - huh? really? Don't get it.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. That will be the source of friction as well.

The old boy network that exists amongst the "Christians In Action" is deep and wide. It's kind of like a family business for Republican Episcopalians and Catholics who are from the "right families" and they KNOW how to make those they perceive as outsiders feel unwelcome. The ancient ties and obligations are the glue that binds that place.

[MineralMan]

3. He'll be resisted strongly by the entrenched bureaucracy,

but, if he's willing to begin firing people, he can begin to turn things around. Actually, he doesn't have to actually fire that many...he can just move some of the "players" to fun positions like watching Finland or something.

What he can't do is to walk in and not take charge in a no-nonsense way. If he does that, he'll be completely ineffective. He must shake things up, and do it quickly and massively. There are plenty of junior folks who are the ones doing the work anyhow.

[lebkuchen]

8. as he was during Nixon's presidency when Panetta supported

the Civil Rights Act and Nixon didn't.

Panetta will be a breath of fresh air to the CIA.

[onehandle]

5. Continuing to reach into the Clinton jar. I like it! nt

[WriteDown]

6. Who won the Democratic primary?

No....seriously....

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. Who? A moderate Democratic who shuns partisanship and extreme ideology.

That's who.

[WriteDown]

12. Hillary Clinton?

. My choice for personal reasons.

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. Close...

But I think that Obama is more like Bill Clinton that Hillary is.

[Ichingcarpenter]

25. Bill Clinton picked George Tenet

nuff said

[No Elephants]

29. Bullseye!

[Freddie Stubbs]

32. He also picked John Deutch

[Ichingcarpenter]

33. President Clinton pardoned Deutch on his last day in office

nuff said

[onehandle]

37. I totally agree. nt

[John Q. Citizen]

24. but worships moderate ideology?

That's still an ideologue in my book. one that's bound to fail because it takes no chances at all about anything because it's so wishy washy.

It's ideology at it's very worst.

[NashVegas]

35. "Anyone But Clinton"

I eliminated Obama from my primary preferences when it finally came time to size up the candidates and saw that Obama was a lot more to the right than his speeches. When it came down to the two of them, both looked about equal, so I voted to finally see a woman in the White House - and got called a racist for it, here on DU, more or less.

I'm not silly enough to think Hillary was the anti-Obama; but there are a lot of people on DU who owe sincere apologies to people they insulted in the rush to paint Obama as an anti-Clinton liberal.

[yardwork]

9. An outsider is good for the CIA. Sounds like a good choice.

[lebkuchen]

21. he's a humanitarian

[yardwork]

44. I seriously doubt that, actually. He's a politician, but he seems ok for this job.

[IndianaGreen]

11. Panetta is not tainted by rendition, torture, kidnapping, and other illegal CIA activities

during Bush's GWOT.

[lebkuchen]

14. He fought the oil companies off the coast of CA while I was in college

bagging rays on the clean beaches.

He's an environmentalist. What a great choice for CIA.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. Hayden wanted to stay on and didn't believe in Probable cause for the 4th

You should be glad he's gone there was talk about him staying on.

In May 2006, USA Today reported that, under Hayden's leadership, the NSA created an domestic telephone call database. During his nomination hearings, Hayden defended his actions to Senator Russ Feingold and others, stating that he had relied upon legal advice that the White House order to build the database was supported by Article Two of the United States Constitution executive branch powers (in which the President must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed"), overriding legislative branch statutes forbidding warrantless surveillance of domestic calls, which included the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Previously, this action would have required a warrant from a FISA court. The stated purpose of the database was to eavesdrop on international communications between persons within the U.S. and individuals and groups overseas in order to locate terrorists <9><10><11>

Landay: “…the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to violate an American’s right against unreasonable searches and seizures…”

Hayden: “No, actually - the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure.”

Landay: “But the –”

Hayden: “That’s what it says.”

Landay: “The legal measure is probable cause, it says.”

Hayden: “The Amendment says: unreasonable search and seizure.”

Landay: “But does it not say ‘probable cause’?”

Hayden: “No! The Amendment says unreasonable search and seizure.”

Landay: “The legal standard is probable cause, General — “

[No Elephants]

15. I read that as "Pancetta." Dang these New Year Resolution diets anyway.

[grace0418]

36. I did too. I wish I had some for the pasta sauce I'm making right now.

[No Elephants]

40. Bon appetit! (Make me some, too.)

[grace0418]

47. Thanks! No pancetta but it ended up quite good. Artichoke hearts, capers, mushrooms and

spinach with turkey italian sausage in red sauce over sprouted wheat papardelle. There's some leftover if you'd like a taste!

[bananas]

16. Should've been Valerie Plame.

[cali]

28. Plame and Wilson were virulently anti-Obama during the primaries

sucks for them. And no, I see no reason to think that she has the requisite skills in any case. She has zero experience in running a large organization- and that's far more necessary than her experience as an operative.

[Baby Snooks]

31. Why the hell not as Molly would say...

At least Valerie Plame would have known who was who and who was doing what and who will try to circumvent the administration by just bypassing the director. This is still a Bush CIA. Don't fool yourself.

[yardwork]

45. I think that she's a Republican.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Weird choice. Has he served on an intelligence committee or had any

intelligence experience? You'd think that would be a major requirement.

[lebkuchen]

20. Those in Bush's CIA had, and look at where we are now

to include his own father.

No WMD, no dot-connecting prior to 9-11...a complete intelligence disaster.

[TwilightGardener]

23. I don't know, if I'm being operated on, I'd like someone who knew a little

about medicine. If I'm seeking financial advice, I'd like someone who has experience in finance and investments. How about you?

[Alexander]

26. The problem here is that most people connected to the CIA are already corrupt.

I would agree with you *if* the CIA didn't have a reputation for corruption, torture, assassinations, subverting democracy and nepotism.

Given how the CIA actually works, I think Panetta is an excellent choice.

[No Elephants]

27. Analogy is off. He will not be giving the financial advice. He's be running

the company for which those with financial expertise and experience work. Or running the hospital for which the surgeons work. I don't know if Iococca knew how to solder a car together either. Similarly, we are not hiring him to be a spook, but to administer and lead the agency where the spooks work. Big corporations hire executives from one industry to another all the time.

That said, it might be nice if he knew a little more about how a spook agency functions.

[TwilightGardener]

30. I don't think a CIA official has to have been a prior intelligence analyst or spy--

but usually it helps to have worked in the "industry" before you take the reins, so to speak. You wouldn't put in a Secretary of Defense who has no prior knowledge of military/defense issues, for example, regardless of having served as a soldier or not. That said, I don't know how much experience Panetta actually has with intelligence issues, so I guess I'll have to hear Obama's rationale--maybe he's got more connection to the intelligence community than I know.

[No Elephants]

39. Did you read the part of my post that came after "That said....?"

[TwilightGardener]

42. Yes, I did.

[No Elephants]

43. Granted, my post was informal, to say the least, but it said about the same thing.

[hunter]

48. airforce.gif

[Piewhacket]

18. hummm... how interesting. Leon Panetta.

Low key, not big drama, still this development might call for
an enhanced requisition of popcorn.

[EFerrari]

22. I've never heard a bad word about Leon Panetta. This is a really good choice, imho. n/t

[Paladin]

46. Agreed. (n/t)

[Riverman]

34. Nice- Instead of BUSH III were are getting CLINTON III

I did not support Hilary, but I guess she should have been the nominee, if we knew Obama was simply going to be their puppet! Change You Can Believe In! WTF!

[Ichingcarpenter]

38. Panetta dealt with the CIA as COS

Its not like he's totally out of the intelligence loop.


Here's a Panetta quote:

"If torture can stop the next terrorist attack, the next suicide bomber, then what's wrong with a little waterboarding or electric shock?

The simple answer is the rule of law."

[hunter]

41. Oh my goodness. This is interesting.

That huge toilet flushing sound you hear is documents, data, and staff going down the CIA's crappers. Put on your wading boots and hold your noses, the neocon "think tanks" will soon be bubbling over with raw untreated sewage.

[pjt7]

49. I hear a lot of neo-con's

crying about this pick.

I can only assume it's therefore, a wise choice.