CIA Director Panetta on his way out?
August 24th, 2009 | Intelligence | Posted by Steve Losey
CIA Director Leon Panetta
ABC News today reported that strife is growing between CIA Director Leon Panetta, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, and the White House, and said Panetta might not be at Langley for much longer. The CIA and Obama administration are officially denying any shakeup, but ABC says Panetta let loose a profanity-laced tirade at the White House last month over the Justice Department’s possible investigation into CIA torture of terrorism suspects and threatened to quit. And that’s not all:
In addition to concerns about the CIA’s reputation and its legal exposure, other White House insiders say Panetta has been frustrated by what he perceives to be less of a role than he was promised in the administration’s intelligence structure. Panetta has reportedly chafed at reporting through the director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, according to the senior adviser who said Blair is equally unhappy with Panetta.
“Leon will be leaving,” predicted a former top U.S. intelligence official, citing the conflict with Blair. The former official said Panetta is also “uncomfortable” with some of the operations being carried out by the CIA that he did not know about until he took the job.
[...] Six other current and former senior intelligence officials said they too had been briefed about Panetta’s frustrations in the job, including dealing with his former Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives.
One of the officials said the White House had begun informal discussions with candidates who were runners-up to Panetta in the CIA director selection process last year.
One of the candidates reportedly has begun a series of preparatory briefings.
Tags: CIA, Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, Intelligence, Leon Panetta, White House
Panetta confirmed as CIA director
February 13th, 2009 | Intelligence | Posted by Steve Losey
The Senate last night voted to confirm Leon Panetta as the CIA’s new director. Panetta and new Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair have promised to reduce the size of the intelligence community’s contractor work force, and pledged to bring interrogation positions almost entirely back in house.
Tags: CIA, Leon Panetta, Senate
Blair, Panetta officially tapped to run intelligence
January 9th, 2009 | Intelligence | Posted by Steve Losey
Dennis Blair
Leon Panetta
President-elect Barack Obama just formally named Dennis Blair and Leon Panetta as his picks to be the next Director of National Intelligence and Director of Central Intelligence, respectively.
The choice of Panetta has been especially controversial, since he has no experience inside the intelligence world. In his comments today, Obama said that Panetta, a former White House chief of staff and Office of Management and Budget director, was chosen for his management skills and to restore the CIA’s clout:
He has handled intelligence daily at the very highest levels, and time and again he has demonstrated sound judgment, grace under fire and complete integrity. … He will be a strong manager and a strong advocate for the CIA. He knows how to focus resources where they are needed, and he has a proven track record of building consensus and working on a bipartisan basis with Congress.
Obama also said that the current DNI, Michael McConnell, will advise him as a member of the Foeign Intelligence Advisory Board. Michael Leiter will remain as head of the National Counterterrorism Center. And John Brennan — who was expected to head the CIA until concerns over his attitudes towards torture caused him to take his name out of the running — will be Obama’s homeland security advisor and deputy national secretary adviser for counterterrorism.
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, Intelligence, Leon Panetta
Monday Fun: Wait, Wait…Don't Tell Me!
December 15th, 2008 | Uncategorized | Posted by Elise Castelli
Did anyone catch NPR’s news quiz Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me this weekend? Because it was [bleeping] awesome. And not just because Carl Kasell did the best reading of the Rod Blagojevich tapes I’ve heard to date.
But because CIA Director Michael Hayden was the guest for “Not My Job,” the portion of the show where they ask famous people obscure questions to win a listener the privilege of having Carl Kasell’s smooth voice on the listener’s answering machine.
After telling some funny spy stories, Hayden was tested on his knowledge of obscure breakfast cereal.
So how did the director of central intelligence do? Listen for yourself here. Simply click on “Not My Job.”
Bonus: To hear Kasell’s dramatic reading of the Blagojevich transcripts click on “Who’s Carl This Time?” It’s [bleeping] golden.
Tags: CIA, Friday Fun, Michael Hayden, NPR
Brennan bows out of CIA consideration
November 25th, 2008 | Transition | Posted by Steve Losey
MSNBC is reporting that John Brennan has just taken his name out of the running to be the next Director of Central Intelligence. Speculation that Brennan, a member of president-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, was a leading candidate to run the CIA sparked serious criticism from some who believed Brennan supported torturing terrorism suspects.
In today’s letter to Obama, Brennan firmly denied those accusations:
It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush Administration such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding. The fact that I was not involved in the decisionmaking process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored.
Tags: Barack Obama, CIA, Intelligence, Transition