Biden Stresses Break From Bush At Panetta CIA Swearing-In

[babylonsister]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/blunt-words-from-biden-panetta-at-cia/

Blunt Words from Biden, Panetta at C.I.A.
By Scott Shane


Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of the C.I.A., Dennis Blair, director of National Intelligence, Leon E. Panetta, C.I.A. director, Sylvia Panetta and Vice President Biden at C.I.A. Headquarters in Langley, Va.



Visiting the Central Intelligence Agency to swear in Leon E. Panetta as the agency’s 19th director, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said the Bush administration’s intelligence policies “gave Al Qaeda a powerful recruiting tool.”

He noted that President Obama had ended harsh interrogation methods, requiring the C.I.A. to follow the same standards as the military and directing that all detainees be reported to the Red Cross. Mr. Obama’s executive order closed the C.I.A.’s secret overseas detention program for captured Qaeda operatives.

Considering the setting – the C.I.A. lobby where several hundred agency employees greeted him with loud cheers – Mr. Biden’s remarks implied a tough judgment on the agency’s record under the Bush administration. He stood in front of a marble memorial wall, where the 89 stars represented the C.I.A. employees who died in the line of duty.

Mr. Panetta, a former congressman and White House chief of staff, but not an experienced old hand at intelligence, also made glancing references to the recent history of the agency, which was blamed for mistaken assessments of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs.

Mr. Panetta said the agency would “provide the very best intelligence, not influenced by the politics of the moment, but real objective information.” He also said he wanted to “reestablish a relationship” with Congress, which often complained in the Bush years about not being consulted on intelligence matters.

[Jennicut]

1. I hope Leon shakes some things up there, iThe CIA desperately needs help

the average workers there today seemed very happy about Panetta.

[rvablue]

3. Panetta has a rep at untangling bureaucracies and budgets....I have high

hopes for what he can do at the Agency.

[Cha]

2. Yeah, corporatemediawhores..

take that!

Remember at Gibbs first presser when the cmwhores were all whining about closing Gitmo?

[xenussister]

4. What an upside down world!

...we live in that an old leftist like me can actually feel sorry for and then cheer at the fortunes of the CIA! Out of the thousands of things I hated Bush for, one of them was that he made me feel so sorry for the CIA during the Plame/Goss era. How fucked up is that? I used to hate the CIA with a passion, then when Plame happened, I started to feel sorry for them! When Goss was appointed, I REALLY felt sorry for them. Now Panetta's appointed, and I'm cheering at the thought that the CIA can actually be turned around and do good things, intelligence with intelligence. My heart and my mind are having a raging battle.

It's frickin' WEIRD!