CIA Director Panetta



(image via observer)

And now for something completely different. The NYTimes is reporting that Obama is appointing Leon Panetta to become Director of the CIA. Panetta is a highly unusual choice -- the NYT went with "somewhat unusual" -- in that Panetta, though a hugely competent manager, has no actual intelligence experience (although he was a member of the Iraq Study Group) and may be seen as an outsider within the famously insular agency. George Herbert Walker Bush, who served as CIA Director from January 1976 - January 1977 and also lacked intelligence experience appears to be the most similar director to Panetta. We cannot fail to note, though, that Bush's appointment -- at a time, similarly, when the CIA was suffering from low public opinion -- was regarded as, according to Evans and Novak, "another grave morale deflator." Will Panetta's pick also suffer from those barbs? From The New York Times:

"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.'

"He said that given global environment, there are indeed good reasons for Mr. Obama to select a C.I.A. veteran to lead the C.I.A. But he said that two of the agency’s most successful directors, John McCone and George H.W. Bush, had little or no intelligence intelligence experience when they took over at C.I.A.

"Aides have said Mr. Obama had originally hoped to select a C.I.A. head with extensive field experience, especially in combating terrorist networks. But his first choice for the job, John O. Brennan, had to withdraw his name amidst criticism over his role in the formation of the C.I.A’s detention and interrogation program after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Panetta served eight terms in the House, then was Budget Director and Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. This pick -- at CIA -- has been particularly difficult for the President-elect, lasting far longer than his other national security picks. Apparently the difficulty lay in the fact that people who had experience were tainted by their complicity with Bush, 43's policies (NSA spying, torture).