Word: panetta
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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...
...Cheney's interest,] I don't know why the program was not on the new director's desk within his first two weeks on the job." Both former officials asked not to be named. The second official also questioned the argument that the program was not important enough for Panetta's immediate attention. "The speed of Panetta's actions when he was informed tells me that the program was pretty important," he says. (See the top 10 Secret Service code names...
...director takes charge, it falls to senior officials to figure out what he needs to know and when. "You have officials one or two rungs down who have to decide what the boss needs to see first and what can wait," he says. Though not shocked that Panetta wasn't told until June 23, Pillar adds, "In retrospect, the [Cheney] angle ought to be sufficient grounds for someone to think, This does deserve the boss's attention...
...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...