Word: panetta
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...some CIA veterans, the haste was unseemly, and may have precipitated the controversy. "It was a moment for [Panetta] to take a deep breath," says a retired official who hears regularly from colleagues still in the agency. The director should have anticipated the reaction of the Democrats and come up with a smart way to communicate that this was "not a big deal," says the former official. Instead, by rushing to Congress, "he set off their alarm bells, and gave them the impression that it was a big deal." After all, says the official, the CIA has "God knows...
When Leon Panetta earlier this year was nominated as director of the CIA, the strongest argument in his favor was his long experience in dealing with Capitol Hill. With Democrats in Congress already sharpening their knives over the CIA's Bush-era policies and practices, the Agency would need protection - and Panetta, a veteran pol with contacts on both sides of the aisle but no real intel background, seemed the best possible shield...
Four months on, the CIA is indeed under siege from bellicose Democrats, but Panetta's vaunted skills seem to have done little to soften the blow. Some at agency headquarters in Langley, Va., now say he hasn't done enough to defend the CIA - and may have actually given its enemies some ammunition. (See the top 10 Secret Service code names...
...current uproar concerns Panetta's controversial decision to immediately alert the congressional intelligence oversight committees about the secret terrorist-assassination program the CIA reportedly began developing (but never put into action) after Sept. 11, 2001. Informed of the program on June 23, Panetta told the committees the very next...
...Panetta's lack of intelligence experience may well have been a factor, since he did not know to look for potential grenades like the secret program. "One of the concerns when he was appointed was that he would be the weak link inside the agency," says Amy Zegart, a national-security expert and professor of public policy at UCLA. But Zegart points out that Panetta isn't alone in his ignorance. "There are two big 'so whats' to the latest news," she says. "One is: What's going on in the Executive Branch that the CIA director doesn't even...