Gee Pro....all these guys with real knowledge of the CIA and what it needs seem to have little trouble. Oh, did you oppose the fact that George Herbert Walker Bush was named head of the CIA back when he had no, none, experience in the area? Panetta is not the first non spook named to the role, you know. Many people, republican and democrat, seem to realize the Agency has some real problems....
Or, as noted, we could bring back an intelligence pro like Portor Goss and see how that works...
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Bob Graham backs Panetta pick
After a hostile reception from top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee of both parties yesterday, Barack Obama's choice to head the CIA, Leon Panetta, is finding more allies today.
Former Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts and Senator Evan Bayh both signaled they'd support the pick.And in an interview with Politico just now, former Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham, the former Florida senator and Iraq war foe, joined that chorus, saying he was "happily surprised" by the pick.
"I think it’s a very creative and very solid choice," he said. "Leon’s background is as a user of intelligence...and as the president’s chief of staff, Leon had access to and ability to shape a large amount of intelligence. I think that skill that he has had and experience will be very useful."
Graham also downplayed the criticism from incoming Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and her immediate predecessor, Senator Jay Rockefeller.
"I don’t think it’s a policy disagreement – I think it’s a matter of comity," he said of Feinstein's reaction, noting that she and Panetta hail from the same state, and that she learned of the planned appointment in a leak. "It was a matter of how the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee and a fellow Californian should be informed."
He also downplayed concerns that Panetta, an outsider, would be unable to manage the notoriously closed CIA bureaucracy.
"Leon is a very strong person," Graham said. "I don’t think anybody is going to eat Leon for lunch." |
