Leon Panetta at CIA

[Christopher Hall]

What does everyone thing of Leon Panetta's appointment to head the CIA?

I thought that he did a great job for WJC (I wish that he, and not his boss, had been POTUS).

I have also always found him to be very bright and a genuinely likeable fellow.

This is an interesting pick, because I would have expected someone from the CIA or military to fill this position.

[David G. Healy]

What does everyone thing of Leon Panetta's appointment to head the CIA?

I thought that he did a great job for WJC (I wish that he, and not his boss, had been POTUS).

I have also always found him to be very bright and a genuinely likeable fellow.

This is an interesting pick, because I would have expected someone from the CIA or military to fill this position.

Leon Panetta is from Silicon Valley (San Jose, Ca.) He's probably more hep concerning technology (defense and commercial) of the day than anyone in Washington DC. A great choice in my estimation. A nice guy too boot!

[Evan Burton]

Any recommended links on him? Never heard of him, myself.

What are opinions on his pros and cons?

[Ron Ecker]

Obama, the agent of "change," is putting together an administration of Clinton leftovers. I guess Panetta is probably a better pick for CIA than Paul Begala or Lanny Davis.

[John Simkin]

The important thing about Leon Panetta is that he is an outsider. His appointment compares to the choice of James Schlesinger (Nixon) and Stansfield Turner (Carter). George Bush was also considered to be an outsider but we now know that was not the case. It is interesting that Panetta has been one of the leading critics of the CIA's interrogation practices.

However, I believe the appointment of Schlesinger and Turner was at least partly responsible for the CIA being involved in the removal of Nixon (Watergate) and Carter (October Surprise).

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKschlesingerJ.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKturnerStan.htm

[Charles Drago]

Jimmy Carter's first choice for DCI was Ted Sorenson.

[Christopher Hall]

The media response (as well as the response of Dianne Feinstein and Jay Rockefeller) is that Panetta lacks intelligence experience for the job, which may or may not be true.

That is rather ironic, though, because I believe that GHWB testified in around 1975 by denying that he had any intelligence background when he was being considered for the same job, notwithstanding the JEH Memo from around 11/24/63 in which JEH acknowledges that George Bush, of the CIA, has been briefed on these matters. That, couple with the fact that the Bay of Pigs was nicknamed Operation Zapata (like Zapata Oil Co.) and the 2 retired Navy ships used in the amphibious oberation were named the Barbara and the Houston.

I think that I am correct on the above facts, but I welcome correction from any of you.

But, Judge William H. Webster was picked by Gerald Ford to be FBI Director while serving as an Associate Judge on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

President Reagan picked him to serve as CAI director in around 1987.

[Ron Ecker]

the Bay of Pigs was nicknamed Operation Zapata (like Zapata Oil Co.) and the 2 retired Navy ships used in the amphibious oberation were named the Barbara and the Houston.

The Bay of Pigs is located on the Zapata Peninsula.

There was no boat named "Barbara." That was a story put out by Prouty and repeated by Mark Lane. One of the boats was the "Barbara J." Bush's wife's name is Barbara Pierce Bush.

[John Simkin]

the Bay of Pigs was nicknamed Operation Zapata (like Zapata Oil Co.) and the 2 retired Navy ships used in the amphibious oberation were named the Barbara and the Houston.

The Bay of Pigs is located on the Zapata Peninsula.

There was no boat named "Barbara." That was a story put out by Prouty and repeated by Mark Lane. One of the boats was the "Barbara J." Bush's wife's name is Barbara Pierce Bush.

That is true but see Russ Baker's Family of Secrets for the true story of Bush's connections to the attempted overthrow of Fidel Castro and possible links to the assassination of JFK.

[John Simkin]

The start of an interesting article on Leon Panetta's appointment:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/PANETTA-T...090106-923.html

For the third time in three decades, the appointment of a Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) has presented a scylla and charybdis dilemma to a Democratic President.

In 1977, President Carter nominated former Kennedy speech-writer and intellectual alter ego Theodore Sorensen for the post; the nomination was withdrawn before a Senate vote that would have ended in defeat; many Senators felt Sorensen wasn't qualified for the job, and some conservatives undoubtedly believed he was too "liberal".

Twenty years later, President Clinton nominated his National Security Advisor (and former Carter State Department policy planner) Anthony Lake to be DCI. Again, the nomination had to be withdrawn. Again there were rumors of strong opposition from Republican Senators, allegedly because Lake had opposed a covert operation to overthrow Saddam Hussein by CIA-engineered coup d'etat. Lake was also the target of a scurrilous neo-conservative whispering campaign that smacked of Cold War McCarthyism.

This week, President-elect Obama has let it be known that he will appoint former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta to head the CIA. This after Democratic "progressives" were up in arms over the earlier rumor that Obama might select the CIA veteran who had founded the National Counterterrorism Center during the Bush Administration.

Panetta is not likely to arouse the opposition that met Sorensen and Lake. Well-respected on Capitol Hill, he will probably win Senate confirmation.

But will he then ultimately suffer the fate of many of the eighteen DCIs who came before him, ending his career in strident political controversy? Or will he prove to be what one admirer called a "brilliant selection" by the incoming President?