Cia

The CIA's spokesman came down out of his tree to let us know the CIA is not happy that everyone thinks it's an agency that could use some fixing by the likes of Leon Panetta.

I conducted a poll about what spies thought of the Panetta choice. The results: "Obama was wise" to choose someone out of the torture loop to run the CIA. But there's a problem.

It is perhaps not widely known that there has been a major change in the intelligence agencies' personnel since 9/11. Some 50% of intel community staffers have joined since 9/11.

Cleaning out our stable of intelligence officials is a Herculean task. We are lucky to have men like Dennis Blair and Leon Panetta willing to sacrifice for the good of the nation.

This Saturday the Navy will commission the aircraft carrier CVN-77, to be named the USS George H.W. Bush. They seem in a hurry to burnish the reputation of the elder Bush while his son is still in office.

Leon Panetta is a patriot, a veteran, and a consensus builder, and he will lead the CIA forthrightly and in full respect for the law and the Constitution. I frankly cannot think of a better choice.

Despite a nearly flawless transition period of astute, substantive and widely praised cabinet appointments, the Obama administration has unintentionally provoked its first controversy.

If the Obama administration is serious about fixing US intelligence, there is a compelling logic to putting Panetta in charge at CIA.

The next time you find yourself getting pissed off at Obama, say these words out loud,"George Bush."

To say Panetta is a Clinton retread is to ignore his actual background. He comes out of a tradition which is almost forgotten today, that of the liberal Republican.

Placing an inexperienced person like Leon Panetta at CIA for his clean hands and "managerial expertise" will cost lives on the day of the next domestic terrorist attack.

Panetta opponents warn us that insiders will run circles around him. They're forgetting about the man to whom Mr. Panetta will report.

Leon Panetta is an "unconventional" choice for CIA Director, a word Caroline Kennedy used to describe herself, but consider the corruption inherent in the more conventional options.

Having frozen Panetta out of the California governor's race in 1998 by not deciding whether to run until he had no chance of lining up financial backing, now would be a good time to stand aside and let him rise to the occasion.

I don't quite understand why Feinstein and Rockefeller are objecting to Obama's pick, Leon Panetta. As objections go, theirs are weak. There is no reason that the CIA director has to be an intelligence expert.

Leon Panetta certainly understands intelligence. But, most importantly, he understands the importance of our intelligence apparatus operating on the moral, ethical, and legal high ground.

Obama comes into office with a clear election mandate, and the last thing he needs is the public view of a bunch of squabbling Democrats (see: Burris, Roland) doing the GOP's work for it.

I've always found it a bit amusing that he serves on the Board of Directors of the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute which hosts the Leon Panetta Lecture Series and which also is home to the Leon E. Panetta Archive.

UPDATE 1/06: Marc Ambinder reports that President-elect Obama is confident that Leon Panetta won't face serious opposition, despite Democratic Senator...

At the CIA I knew, the consequences for taking a day of sick leave adjacent to a weekend were far greater than the consequences of say, leaving classified documents in the back of a rental car.

The woman was Sara Jane Moore. There were two significant Secret-Service-related reasons that she was free to stand on that sidewalk that afternoon, gun in hand.

The line between punishment and reward can be confusing in any culture. Particularly when it comes to sex.

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and h...

Notorious security company Blackwater is back in the news, just in time to remind us (again) how over-reliance on contractors for sensitive security missions is hurting American effectiveness abroad.