Leon Panetta for CIA Director

[TotallyOz]

This was a surprise move and it is OK with me. I guess he needs to really clean house and get rid of anyone who conspired with the illegal actions of the past 8 years of Bush. I am sure he trusts Panetta to get the job done and be loyal. I just wonder if he has the savvy to handle this job.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/us/polit...07cia.html?_r=1

[caeron]

I think the problems with CIA are management problems, not intelligence problems. So putting in a strong manager while leaving the strong intelligence folks in place seems like a reasonable course to me.

Frankly, I think just a change of administrations will be a big improvement so that all the agencies can move past the "who fucked up Iraq" blame game.

[Guest Conway]

History tells us that political appointees from outside the intelligence community to this position have been either very successful or a complete disaster. George HW Bush was considered quite successful while someone like George Tenet service will be clearly marked by the communication disaster that led to 9/11.

The intelligence community seems torn by it. Obviously, some career employees of the CIA take offense to the Obama Administrations position that they are criminals.

It will be interesting to see how the rank and file reacts. Will they hold their personal opinions to themselves and do their jobs as asked by the Administration or will they pull a Valerie Plame and put their personal opinions above service to country?

I hope its the former. Plame and her husband has opened a Pandora's box where career agency employees now feel emboldened top pursue their personal beliefs over the agenda of the agnecy and the government that employ them.

[Guest StuCotts]

Frankly, I think just a change of administrations will be a big improvement so that all the agencies can move past the "who fucked up Iraq" blame game.

The expression "blame game" has been virtually copyrighted by the GOPers who throw it around in the desire to trivialize legitimate questions about their crimes and malfeasances. For a while it appeared in in every second sentence uttered by Scott McClellan during his tenure as the Bush gang's most visible stooge, before his riotously funny apostasy.

As it happens, I think "who fucked up Iraq" is an important question to ask and get answers to. The fuckers-up are still as hard at work as ever. Shining a light on them wouldn't be a bad thing.

[Guest StuCotts]

History tells us that political appointees from outside the intelligence community to this position have been either very successful or a complete disaster. George HW Bush was considered quite successful while someone like George Tenet service will be clearly marked by the communication disaster that led to 9/11.

The intelligence community seems torn by it. Obviously, some career employees of the CIA take offense to the Obama Administrations position that they are criminals.

It will be interesting to see how the rank and file reacts. Will they hold their personal opinions to themselves and do their jobs as asked by the Administration or will they pull a Valerie Plame and put their personal opinions above service to country?

I hope its the former. Plame and her husband has opened a Pandora's box where career agency employees now feel emboldened top pursue their personal beliefs over the agenda of the agnecy and the government that employ them.

It wasn't a communication disaster. It was willful disortion.

Nobody in Obama's circle has made a charge of criminality against CIA operatives. They have even refrained from attributing criminal intent to Tenet, who did everything to deserve it. Public opinion, on the other hand, is really unfavorable to the CIA, thanks to Tenet.

What is your problem with Plame? She was a respected secret CIA agent, content to operate in obscurity. But in his zeal to get back at her husband who was telling the truth about the lies that got us into Iraq, Cheney decided she should be outed, which is a criminal act. In this case it was also a stupid one that could have resulted in criminal charges for him but for the willingness of Scooter Libby to be the scapegoat. It all goes to reinforce the thesis that criminal insanity has a clouding effect on the judgment.