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12 Feb 2009

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Senate Intelligence Committee “Ok’s” Panetta; Are got geoint? Readers OK with it?

Added by USGIF Category: Daily Intelligence Brief, General

Panetta’s path to becoming the new CIA director seems to be moving along well. Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to send his nomination to the Senate for full confirmation. We have been covering this development on an ongoing basis, but we do think it is worth re-hashing our heavily commented upon post about his credentials. Many of you provided great commentary (pros and cons) of Panetta being the new CIA chief. Below is that post again, and we welcome more thoughts, dialogue and debate on this topic.

From Feb 5:

Just a reminder to all of our got geoint? readers that today is Panetta’s confirmation hearing. If you can’t make it to the Hill today, or did not hire a “line stander” to hold a spot for you, be sure to check out our coverage of the hearing. But first, here is a primer on Panetta and whether or not he is the right choice. We have listed out the “pros and cons” and want to hear from you about what you think. The person with the most thoughtful response will have the chance to be a guest blogger for got geoint?

So here we have it:

PROS
- Deep ties and Washington DC experience from the Clinton years
- Has a reputation for being a competent manager in Washington DC
- No connections with controversial interrogation tactics (sort of…see the last bullet under the “cons”)
- Strong bipartisanship standing on Capitol Hill
- Wealth of knowledge about government

CONS
- Lack of experience in the intelligence community
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein vehemently opposed him as Obama’s choice in January
- Panetta vowed to keep Steve Kappes, the well-respected deputy director of the CIA,on board — which sparked speculation that Kappes would be running the show
- The lateness of his nomination…leads people to believe that Obama searched deep into his rolodex before choosing Panetta
- Could have played a role in the Clinton administration’s expanded use of renditions — an extra-judicial process of kidnapping a terrorist suspect abroad and taking him into custody

We want to hear from you on this!

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1 Comments »

  1. Kris Wheaton wrote: 15 February 2009

    Panetta may not know too much about intelligence (a point which is debatable); he unquestionably knows what a decisionmaker needs from intelligence, which may prove to be even more important.

    Remember, Obama wants to make the DNI like the Federal Reserve Chairman — apolitical and appointed for a period of time that extends beyond one administration. The first step to doing that it to make the intelligence community authoritative.

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