Obama Nominates Leon Panetta, A Man With No Intelligence Background, To Head The CIA

Barack Obama has nominated Leon E. Panetta to be the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta is a former California congressman and chief of staff to President Clinton. What he is not, however, is an intelligence professional. He has no experience in intelligence or anything to indicate he understands the world of espionage. Panetta has had no experience at any of the nation's spy services.

This move by Obama is an indication that the next president is more motivated by politics than national security. Even the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Obama appears to have concluded that a spy chief who understands politics may be better equipped to carry out the incoming administration's national security agenda than one who understands espionage." I would agree that this is certainly how it appears, and I would add that this is not how it should appear. The fight against Islamism relies heavily on intelligence capabilities and now, with the continued threat of Islamoterror attacks against America and Iran ticking toward a nuclear bomb, is no time for an intelligence novice to lead the CIA. In fact, the Associated Press reports that "veterans of the CIA were caught off guard by the selection. 'I'm at a loss,' said Robert Grenier, a former director of the CIA's counterterrorism center and 27-year veteran of the agency who now is managing director of Kroll, a security consulting company. The lack of intelligence experience puts Panetta at 'a tremendous disadvantage,' Grenier told The Associated Press in an interview. 'Intelligence by its very nature is an esoteric world. And right now the agency is confronted with numerous pressing challenges overseas, and to have no background is a serious deficit. I don't say that he can't succeed. It may that he can compensate for the obvious deficit.'"

Even top Democrats of the Senate Intelligence Committee have begun to voice concern over the selection. The L.A. Times reports that Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who will become the "first female head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it. 'I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,' Feinstein said. 'My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.' A senior aide to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the senator 'would have concerns' about a Panetta nomination. Rockefeller 'thinks very highly of Panetta,' the aide said. 'But he's puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience and someone outside the political realm.'"

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