CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– INTELLIGENCE
Jan. 6, 2009 – 9:37 p.m.
Transition Team Defends CIA Choice, Reaches Out to Senate Chairwoman
By Matt Korade, CQ Staff
The incoming chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee softened her critique of the choice of Leon Panetta to head the CIA after being contacted by President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Now, says Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif., she is looking “forward to speaking with Mr. Panetta about the critical issues facing the intelligence community and his plans to address them.”
On Jan. 5, Feinstein had expressed annoyance at being left out of the loop on the selection and had reiterated her position that “the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
Biden partially echoed Feinstein’s institutional concern. After being sworn in to serve his last few days as Delaware’s senior senator, he told reporters he thought the transition team’s failure to consult Senate Intelligence Committee members was “a mistake.” But he also called Panetta a “strong figure” for the CIA who would “take it on a new path.”
“I’m still a Senate man and I always think this way,” Biden said. “I think it’s always good to talk to the requisite members of Congress.”
Of the transition team’s failing to consult members, Biden said, “I think it was just a mistake.”
Obama, when asked about Panetta’s selection at a news conference Tuesday, stressed Panetta’s “extraordinary management skills, great political savvy, and impeccable record of integrity” as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, saying the former congressman was “somebody who obviously was fully versed in international affairs, crisis management, and had to evaluate intelligence consistently on a day-to-day basis.”
In the next breath, Obama said he had not made an official announcement about the Panetta pick.
“When we make the announcement, I think what people will see is, is that we are putting together a top-notch intelligence team that is not only going to assure that I get the best possible intelligence unvarnished, that the intelligence community is no longer geared toward telling the president what they think the president wants to hear, but instead are going to be delivering the information that the president needs to make critical decisions to keep the American people safe,” he said.
That intelligence team would be committed to breaking with past practices that had tarnished the image of the intelligence community and U.S. foreign policy, Obama said, but it would do so in a way that would be forward-looking rather than dwelling on the past.
Selling the CIA
Marvin C. Ott, a former CIA official and deputy staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee who now teaches national security policy at the National War College, said Panetta’s selection surprised most of the people he knew.
But, he added, there was enough controversy swirling around the use of intelligence in the war on terrorism, including the rendition of prisoners to other countries, that Panetta’s choice might be justified.
“What the CIA needs right now, more than anything, is a leader who has credibility in political circles on the Hill and can speak to the general public and to the media in a way that people will find persuasive and believable,” Ott said. “And my impression of Leon Panetta is, he can do those things better than most.”
This included some “fairly rarefied skills” in conveying believability, authenticity, and forthrightness, Ott said. “I think I would have the sense, if I were at the agency, that this is a man who will probably look after his own people, will do his best to protect them, will be concerned about their welfare, will care about the institution. And that’s not bad, either.”
James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said judgments about Panetta would depend on what the president wants the job to be.
“If you expect the job to be a hands-on manager, somebody who actually is running the show as an operator, then, yeah, you want somebody with experience, and probably about two-thirds to three-quarters of former heads have come from that kind of background,” Lewis said.
“On the other hand, if you want someone who knows what the president wants, who has some credibility with Democrats and who can shield the agency from the pressure it’s going to feel, on that side Panetta isn’t a bad choice.”
Any inexperience would be mollified by strong cooperation with other seasoned security officials, including a director of national intelligence with a military background in Adm. Dennis Blair, and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates , who is a former CIA director himself, Ott said.
Feinstein said in a news release Tuesday that she intended to move quickly to confirm Blair, after an appropriate review of his record and views during open congressional hearings.
Others focused on Panetta’s management experience and time in Congress and the White House, where he regularly was privy to important intelligence matters: “He values excellence, and when combined with a strong operational deputy and leadership staff, he will be able to continue the CIA’s return to pre-eminence,” said Silvestre Reyes , DTexas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
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