Head Spy Leon Panetta?

billythrilly7th said:

You can barely get a waitering job without having some experience in food service let alone run the freakin restaurant. And this is the C.I.A.

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The professionals in the CIA have done such a bang up job in the last eight years, what with brilliant accurate information gathering and torture. Hey, George Tenet got the Medal of Freedom for his fine work.



How could an outsider with no preconceptions about the agency possibly measure up to that?

billythrilly7th said:

Yeah, all clear thinking Americans agree with you, Diane. We like to have someone who heads an agency actually have experience in that field.

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Yeah. The "experienced" guys have done so well. Google Tenet, George.

Then, some years back, there were all those "experienced" guys who told Jimmy Carter that the Shah of Iran was in no danger of being overthrown. Glad we caught that one. Yeah, "experience" really helps.

Oh, damn, I forgot. It's an "intelligence" agency.

caw

Perhaps Panetta has been selected to deconstruct the agency?

He is 70, a mere two years younger than McCain. Too old for the job? Oh, wait, Volcker is mid-eighties.

With Panetta and Napolitano in charge of CIA and Homeland Security, one may wonder how safe we will be from another terror attack.

From what I've read, Obama had chosen an insider, only to find that he was involved with the whole torture fiasco. It was hard to find an insider who wasn't. So, in the end, he went with this guy; a former chief-of-staff who was an outspoken opponent of torture.

Wasn't this the McCain/Palin battle cry? Forget experience, get some new blood in there to shake up the old establishment?

Actually, I think that was sort of a rallying point for BOTH sides in the last election, and it paid dividends for both camps. Isn't this what people wanted?

Battle cry is about all it is. Someone, somewhere, right now is in a very bad dark place with no hope spilling his guts to some vivisectionist torture specialist. It won't ever stop no matter what people yell from a stage into your TV camera.
It is the way things are done.

Like it or not, just asking please and being very nice does not get answers.
The most you can do is appreciate the times you don't know about that their methods derailed some attack that would have killed you and those you love.

I'm not a big fan of it either but when you're swimming with sharks you wanna be the biggest meanest shark.
They do it to us, we do it to them. It's gone on forever and campaign slogans change nothing.

I'm not sure this is a terrible pick because panetta is a pretty smart guy, however, I'm not sure this is a wise pick either, because the spy business is a nasty business, that truth be told requires people to use methods of dehumanitization that ultimately keep the rest of us safe. Obama needs to start thinking out of the political box or he's going to start running into problems with these picks.

Well, time will tell, but I think that a wise administrator (which is what the Head of CIA is) will let the guys who know their business run the nuts and bolts end of the operation with him overlooking and pointing the direction he wants the agency to go.

A good leader doesn't have to come up with all the ideas, he just has to be able to find and inspire those with good ideas to follow his direction.

And more important than his knowledge of spycraft (there are careerists there for that) is his ability to not allow an agenda to get in the way of intelligence. To not twist intelligence to suit policy, but to give the President the best intelligence and knowledge possible for him to make the best decisions.

But a good leader has to be informed and know how things work in a particular organization, that could be a proble here, just saying....

billythrilly7th said:

The C.I.A. and all of our intelligence agencies have been amazing.

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Yes they have. It's amazing they couldn't ferret out the 9-11 attacks, even though Al Qaeda planned them over the course of a couple of years.

It's amazing they could call the case for WMD in Iraq a "slam dunk" case, even though their information came mostly from a source that foreign agencies considered an unreliable nut job.

Going back even further, it's truly amazing that they had no clue whatsoever about the immanent breakup of the former Soviet Union. They really had their fingers on the pulse of that one.

What they've been really good at over the years, however, is playing a crucial role in the overthrow of democratically elected governments who leaned too far to the left for the the liking of the US, and helping to install "friendly" dictators in their place.

Perhaps the quality of the CIA and FBI for that matter regarding 9/11 was affected by Dem Congressional restraints? The Gorelick "Wall" for instance?

What will be Panetta's mandate? Do not make a move without first consulting attorneys who will then consult midlevel bureaucrats who will next consult ....?

didn't he work for Clinton?

it's all good...

Monkey said:

Wasn't this the McCain/Palin battle cry? Forget experience, get some new blood in there to shake up the old establishment?

Actually, I think that was sort of a rallying point for BOTH sides in the last election, and it paid dividends for both camps. Isn't this what people wanted?

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It only became the McCain/Palin battle cry after McCain's version of "Stay the Course" became an obvious loser. And, coming from McCain, it was so transparently bogus it got him the biggest electoral beatdown any Republican Pres candidate has suffered since Barry Goldwater.

caw

Monkey said:

Wasn't this the McCain/Palin battle cry? Forget experience, get some new blood in there to shake up the old establishment?

Actually, I think that was sort of a rallying point for BOTH sides in the last election, and it paid dividends for both camps. Isn't this what people wanted?

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New blood? Panetta?!?!?

Come on...

Imo, this was a cowardly selection. It's pretty much a "let's take a guy that was in the Clinton admin because everyone liked Clinton."