Panetta for DCI

[nerdgirl 0]

What do you think of the choice of former Representative and White House chief of staff Leon Panetta? “Brilliant” or foolish?

Former CIA deputy director Milt Bearden, called it a “brilliant” choice.

“It is not problematic that Panetta lacks experience in intelligence. Intel experience is overrated. Good judgement, common sense, and an understanding of Washington is a far better mix to take to Langley than the presumption of experience in intelligence matters. Having a civilian in the intelligence community mix is, likewise, a useful balance.”

Time Magazine’s Joe Klein leans to the other end of the spectrum (on the Panetta pick):

“This smells a bit of desperation. Leon Panetta is a terrific guy, a fine public servant--one of those people who reek of sanity and good judgment--but he doesn't have much, if any, experience in spook world.

"The problem was trying to find a DCI with intelligence experience who wasn't tainted during the Bush Administration. The CIA had a mixed record during the past eight years--it wasn't very good at penetrating Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network; it was mixed up in some very dirty stuff, like torture and rendition; but its analysts were reluctant participants in the Bush-Cheney Iraq war hysteria and, as a result of their honesty, eventually were subjected to a Cheney-led purge, officiated over by Porter Goss, the worst CIA director in recent memory.”

I think it’s a very interesting choice – trying to read the metaphorical strategic tea leaves. I agree with the argument on the value of experience in the White House and Congress; that enables Panetta to have an understanding that those who have been solely in the IC don’t have. He has the potential to be a more effective advocate and the champion in the White House and Congress. (Of course I would have offered the same argument w/r/t former DCI Goss w/r/t his experience in Congress … & that didn’t work out so well … & GEN Hayden w/r/t military.)

Questions are going to be asked ... and *should* be asked, imo ... regarding Panetta's call for cuts to the CIA budget when he was OMB director. NB: while OMB Director he advocated shifting larger amounts of the IC budget to DoD Title 50 agencies (DIA, NSA, NGIC, etc) as part of nascent efforts to do what was done in a much grander scale with the formation of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[Andy9o8 2]

I guess it's an OK-ish choice. If I were advising Obama, I'd have advised that, politically, he'd do better to appoint someone who gets a few "oohs & aahs" from prior intel- and/or defense-related credentials. Doesn't quite have the same "damn good choice" ring about it that some of Obi-Wan's other appointments have had.

FWIW, I don't think George H.W. Bush had much in the way of intel or defense credentials when HE was appointed to the same position.

[nerdgirl 0]

Quote

... Obi-Wan's other appointments ...

Oooh, "Obi-Wan" - like that!
As an unrepetant Star Wars fan, I'm going to borrow that, with permission, of course?

/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[Belgian_Draft 0]

I think it's a safe pick for Obama. He needed someone in there who could handle the job without rocking the political boat. Obama is going to have enough challenges in the coming months and years without adding to them. Panetta's lack of experience "in the spook world" could very well be a huge plus.

HAMMER:
Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a
kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the
object we are trying to hit.

[lawrocket 3]

I am actually pretty concerned about anonymous leaks regarding the CIA. Perhaps I'm the only one who finds that ironic.

I don't think Panetta is a bad choice. Like it or not, an agency head is a political position. As Clinton's Chief of Staff, I suspect that Panetta has previously gotten sufficient clearances, etc., and his integrity is verified.

Panetta is a guy who has a finger on the whole picture. Chiefs of Staff do. And he's the sort of cat that can help rebuild the CIA's image at home and abroad. Sometimes, it takes an outsider to come in with a fresh set of eyes to make things right. If the outsider is an insider - so much the better.

I am heartened by this choice.

My wife is hotter than your wife.