The Panetta CIA pick

NR’s Kathryn Jean Lopez has found a former CIA agent who likes the idea:

“Partisan political conflict during the Bush years allowed CIA dysfunction to thrive and grow.  The CIA may have difficulty running basic espionage operations, but when its way of life is at stake, it fights like a retrovirus regardless of the commander-in-chief’s political party.  The CIA’s sophisticated system of press leaks has been a textbook covert-action operation...

“Obama’s choice of a loyalist shows he understands the threat he faces from a dysfunctional CIA.”

Ed Morrissey, not so much:

Leon Panetta only has indirect experience with intelligence...  There must be thousands of people more qualified to run the CIA from an experience and competence standpoint, including several members of Congress...

but (Ed again)

The US is currently fighting an asymmetrical war on two hot fronts...

Actually, a review of the Plame affair, the WMD bungle, and the waterboarding controversy, leaves me believing there have actually been three fronts, the third being the one separating the CIA and the Bush administration.

It’s past time we got everybody on the same page.  Bush didn’t do it.  If Panetta can rein in the agency’s rogue elements and achieve that, more power to him.

At that point we can argue over whether it’s the right one.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:14:42 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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