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On Obama’s CIA Pick:Political considerations will trump competence and experience

By: Pam On: Jan/6/09 - 9 Comments

yes-we-cantLeon Panetta for Director of CIA

President-elect Barack Obama stunned the national intelligence community by selecting Clinton White House chief of staff Leon E. Panetta, a longtime Washington insider with little intelligence experience, to serve as the next head of the CIA.

The decision — which was also met with wariness on Capitol Hill — reflects a desire to change the intelligence power structure, officials close to the selection said yesterday. Obama has chosen retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair as the director of national intelligence, a job he intends to reinforce as the “lead horse” on intelligence issues, an official close to the selection process said.

Panetta, 70, is widely regarded as a good manager who knows the government bureaucracy well. Panetta, a former eight-term member of Congress who has run a think tank in California for the past decade, has no significant ties to the agency that Obama has criticized for using harsh interrogation methods. Panetta has openly objected to the use of such methods, writing in an essay last year that the United States “must not use torture under any circumstances.” Obama had trouble filling the CIA slot in part because other candidates were perceived as tainted for having supported aspects of the Bush administration’s interrogation and intelligence programs.

Yet Panetta, who also served as director of President Bill Clinton’s Office of Management and Budget, has no institutional memory of the intelligence agency and no hands-on experience with its thorniest challenges, including the collection of human intelligence overseas. His lack of experience drew immediate questions, most notably from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who said she was not briefed on his selection and learned about it from news accounts.

Feinstein rips Obama on CIA-Panetta pick: 'I was not informed'...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week begins her tenure as the first female head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it.

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” Feinstein said. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

Rockefeller concerned...

Intel picks short on direct experience...

Ed:

Even the notion of “change” doesn’t apply here.  Obama has no executive experience in government, and neither does Panetta, but Panetta hardly represents a breath of fresh air in Washington.  He’s another Clinton-era retread, only in this case, put in charge of an organization about which he knows nothing.  He’s there to exercise Obama’s political will and nothing more.

Cuffy asks “why not” to this choice:

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I am a bit concerned about all of this for the simple fact that Obama’s team was “misled” by Richardson..

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Posted on: January 6, 2009 |

Posted in: CIA, Elections, General Politics, National News, National News

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9 Responses to “On Obama’s CIA Pick:Political considerations will trump competence and experience”

  1. BonBon
    January 6, 2009 - 03:04 PM on January 6th, 2009

    Just what we need in a world where terrorists reign and we need knowledge, skills, and most of all guts to succeed in wiping them out.  But oh wait!  That’s not what NObama wants – he wants 7 day restrictions on wiretaps, the closure of Guantanamo and treating prisoners with kid gloves while making sure american tax payers send them through our courts. 

    In this case, of course, Leon Panetta is a great choice for he knows nothing and will be the designated fall guy when we are attacked again. 

  2. Peter
    January 6, 2009 - 03:47 PM on January 6th, 2009

    You no nothing about the intelligence community and overlook the last 8 years of the failed Bush administration. George Tenet and Porter Goss were both CIA veterans and totally screwed up. Porter Goss alienated most of the CIA by bringing outside bueracrats who thought they could act as they please. Leon Panetta will not do that.

    Leon Panetta has experience in managing large departments effectively. Those that say he doesn’t are ignorant of his resume. Probably listening to too much Sean Hannity!

    Many veteran CIA personnel think this is a great choice and will help them get back to focusing on the problem at had – remember he is not an asset he is a manager who listens to experienced CIA hands and makes decisions. This guys is the real deal not some washed up, power hungry flak from the Daddy Bush’s adminstration.

  3. Pam
    January 6, 2009 - 04:49 PM on January 6th, 2009

    What does this mean: “will help them get back to focusing on the problem at had”?

    You mean business as usual where attack after attack was reacted to rather than stopped preemptively? I am curious, because we haven’t been attacked on our soil since 9/11/01. Maybe the best thing for the CIA is to shake things up and piss a few agents off..Maybe it is time to clean house!

  4. BonBon
    January 6, 2009 - 05:05 PM on January 6th, 2009

    Peter…you must have been young during the Clinton years.  Billieboy changed the face of the CIA during his administration and we were attacked.  If you look at the record we were attacked many times long before 9/11.  It was one of his major failures as president – to protect the US in time of war.  Make no mistake we were at war – we just didn’t acknowledge it yet. 

    There have been plenty of thwarted attacks on our soil SINCE 9/11 but the msm won’t tell you much of that.  E.D. Hill of Fox has had a couple of specials that put it all together.  With Leon P. at the head of the organization I’m sure paperwork will be filed on time and he will get to his meetings on schedule – that’s what he’s known for.  I just pray the next attack isn’t in Washington DC.  That would really be cleaning house.

  5. david welch
    January 6, 2009 - 06:10 PM on January 6th, 2009

    I wrote Leon an email,,, he was my rep.   I first met him at the county fair when he first ran for congress.  I thought the evidence of Alan Miller Phd. former head of fire science at the National Institute of Science and Standards and the over 550 building professionals at scholars for 9/11 truth would influence him to push for an  independent investigation.  I was wrong.   I have lost all respect for him.  
    If you read Millers letter regarding the report on the collapse of wtc7 you  will understand  why I fell so disappointed with Leon. 

  6. Bikerken
    January 6, 2009 - 11:29 PM on January 6th, 2009

    Obama didn’t pick Panetta to do the job of leading the CIA. He picked him NOT to do it. He purposely is trying to behead the organization. Oops! I didn’t even realize the wording there, but it is appropriate. Let me tell you something, crooked politicians fear the CIA. They realize the power of the organization and fear that they may be caught up in the agencies surveillance connected to something that doesn’t look too good. The CIA is a big eye and people with things to hide don’t like big eyes. This is the most ominous thing that I have heard out of Pres-o-dent Hussein so far. This is even worse than his Civilian National Security Force.
    The thing that most people who have never worked with the intel agencies don’t understand is this, there is a whole language to that world. If you are not intimately familiar with it, you wont even be able to read your daily briefing because it may as well be greek to you. And this is going to be the head of the agency?? And it is a heck of a lot to learn.  Have you ever worked for a boss who had no idea what he or she was soing?  Have you ever had to explain in laymans terms everything that your trying to say to someone who is supposed to be in charge??  How much confidence and respect do you that that earns?  People are going to be highly suspect of the capability of someone who isn’t even going to be able to speak knowingly to them, again, because he DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THE LANGUAGE. This is not a situation for on the job training! This is like appointing someone the head of a major hospitals Cardiac Surgery unit and saying it’s justified because he got a first aid merit badge as a boy scout. I really doubt this will fly. I can just see the confirmation hearings when the senate starts questioning this old Clintonista hack and they ask him, “Mr. Panetta, what does CIA mean to you?” Thirty seconds later, “Excuse me sir, I said ‘CIA’, not ‘CYA’.

  7. BonBon
    January 7, 2009 - 07:46 AM on January 7th, 2009

    Your point of choosing Panetta NOT to do the job is right on.  I believe the problem lies in the fact that the left doesn’t really see a problem with terrorism.  Therefore to do something about it is absurd.  As with Clinton this is playing a dangerous political game with the safety of Americans. 

    Michael Scheuer (sp?), former CIA Terrorism Analyst spoke on Fox yesterday.  He has criticized Bush on many fronts so he is NOT a partisan.  His opinion with this appointment, as well as the lefts insistence there is no problem with terrorism, is that it will take another 9/11 before our politicians (and many americans) wake up to the reality of the dangers we face.

    I believe that when this happens the democrats will find a way to blame Bush of course but hopefully this will also make NObama a one term president.

  8. libbie basher
    January 7, 2009 - 12:28 PM on January 7th, 2009

    Our once proud nation, going down the sewer fast. When terrorist strike after 1/20/09, the libbies will hiss, roll their eyes, stamp their little feet and blame everyone but their retched selves.

  9. snowy egret
    January 9, 2009 - 04:51 PM on January 9th, 2009

    Frankly i think MADS spoff of OBAMA looking like ALFRED E. NEIMAN was fitting

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