Panetta To CIA

They told me that if I voted for McCain that Washington insiders with no relevant experience would fill key posts.  And they were right!  Obama taps Leon Panetta to head the CIA.  From the Times:

WASHINGTON — Leon E. Panetta, a former congressman and White House chief of staff, has been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Central Intelligence Agency. The choice, disclosed Monday by Democratic officials, immediately revealed divisions in the party as two senior lawmakers questioned why Mr. Obama would nominate a candidate with limited experience in intelligence matters.

And the WaPo:

President-elect Barack Obama stunned the national intelligence community by selecting Clinton White House chief of staff Leon E. Panetta, a longtime Washington insider with little intelligence experience, to serve as the next head of the CIA.

The decision -- which was also met with wariness on Capitol Hill -- reflects a desire to change the intelligence power structure, officials close to the selection said yesterday. Obama has chosen retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair as the director of national intelligence, a job he intends to reinforce as the "lead horse" on intelligence issues, an official close to the selection process said.

Panetta, 70, is widely regarded as a good manager who knows the government bureaucracy well. Panetta, a former eight-term member of Congress who has run a think tank in California for the past decade, has no significant ties to the agency that Obama has criticized for using harsh interrogation methods. Panetta has openly objected to the use of such methods, writing in an essay last year that the United States "must not use torture under any circumstances." Obama had trouble filling the CIA slot in part because other candidates were perceived as tainted for having supported aspects of the Bush administration's interrogation and intelligence programs.

Yet Panetta, who also served as director of President Bill Clinton's Office of Management and Budget, has no institutional memory of the intelligence agency and no hands-on experience with its thorniest challenges, including the collection of human intelligence overseas. His lack of experience drew immediate questions, most notably from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who said she was not briefed on his selection and learned about it from news accounts.

"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director," Feinstein, who in her new post will oversee his confirmation hearings, said in a statement. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."

Marc Ambinder reprised Panetta's essay opposing torture, which seems to be his key qualification.  And here are some links to the Panetta Institute, a "a nonpartisan center for the study of  public policy" with no overt intelligence ties.  Covertly, of course, it may be the California adjunct to Area 51.  And let's do emphasize an intriguing point made by Loren Cleman - Panetta's think-tank is based at the converted Fort Ord, which was the source of scandal when McCain was involved.

Comments

[kim]

Hmmm. Loren Coleman. Oh, narciso.
===============

[BR]

Hee, is there a Bigfoot connotation?

I remember raising an eyebrow when I read a certain conservative had attended the Panetta Institute early on. It was either a radio personality or someone else I wouldn't have expected there. Buchanan? I remember thinking, dangerous ground, tread carefully. Anyway, in googling, I just discovered Panetta was a Republican until 1971! Look out CIA, he may be a mole :)

[Pagar]

Good Morning to All!
Looks like a week at the beach put me behind about 10,000 comments.
IMO, the Obama group has decided they don't need any intelligence and are taking steps to insure they won't get any.

[peter]

Narciso, the JOM world awaits your weighing in on this appointment.

[narciso]

I think I've made my feelings rather plain, at least a hundred posts, and one thread ago; clear. What started out as a meh appointment is now turning out to be the worse idea since Jimmy proposed TedSorenson,
just slightly worse than Anthony Lake; yes right about now, the collaborator in the toppling of Diem, the man whose temper tantrum likely sealed the fate of Cambodia; the policy chief that led to the abandonment
of Nicaragua and Iran, sounds reasonable, that's how angry I feel about it. If you wanted my two cents.

Another thing, that ticked me off, just another black mark against Sarkozy I guess, going to Syria, home base for Hamas, to provoke a ceasefire. Has everyone lost their minds around here; or is it Carla
Bruni's ahem influence, in this sad affair.

[kim]

Why is narciso being uncharacteristically cryptic about his feelings for Panetta? Must be some Florida mystery.
===============================

[Cambridge]

He's not from Harvard. So, start a university and do some work for CIA, i mean state, with the Iraq study group, say civil society allot and you get an Obama job.

Harvard's pal, Shays, is gone from the intelligence committee after a huge failure(the money was good) with CIA Harvard civil society and Afghanistan. He is like Obama, we take care of our own as far as university. This is sad cause they shot Kennedy over Castro(another Harvard like Georgia and Iran).

I don't think he's involved much with the CIA time travelers from Air Force's new facility out of NASA, so it's probably just keep them quiet since they had their jobs saved when they moved to DoD(no more time travel for you 'cultural specialists'). Torture really isn't a problem. Plame isn't mentioned as a problem for CIA by the MSM, but 9/11 is. What he really should do is shut them down, that's what Congress wants.

The California ngo civil society CIA usaid cash thing is pretty much bought and there won't be a problem. They will get more of the foreign aid budget, this has gone down over the last few years after CIA Afghanistan. The CIA hybrid army coup doing DoD thing is okay too.

Obama is a complete failure. He's relying on college for jobs, not community activists who need the cash. Kennedy went Harvard or something? Donations went up after he was shot. Maybe it'll be a stroke like 24.

[narciso]

I know this is an unrelated part of the thread, but why does Mike Duncan, still have a job; just to prove Vanderleun's observation about "Republicans they thirst for death", and his update, "Better dead than led by Sarah". I just read a snippet,from the RNC chair debate where he basically condemned 'the prosecution of the Iraq War', next for an encore, he'll condemn
Israel in Gaza. If he can't figure out what to say to a friendly audience; what hope can he have with leaners. Who am I kidding he's probably as popular as George Lucas at a scifi convention, with the original fans.

Not that I'm any barometer of anything, well I'm in the 22% in those favoring Sarah, so I guess that counts forsomething. It would probably be a toss up between Steele and Blackwell, with a slight edge to Blackwell, just to see Olbermann's head explode; ala Scanners. So that's a thumbs down for those with the home game

[Pofarmer]

I just read a snippet,from the RNC chair debate where he basically condemned 'the prosecution of the Iraq War', next for an encore, he'll condemn
Israel in Gaza.

Surely there is somebody with common sense left in the Republican party? Somewhere? Buehler?

[Pofarmer]

Ya know, I'm starting to think that Obama/Rahm is setting this thing up so Hillary can run it from State and Obama can run around and play King Barack. If he had a stronger VP then the conspiracies about Cheney/Bush wouldn't look so far fetched in a Barack Hussein administration. But Biden running the show????? I kinda doubt that he has the brainpower.

[Sue]

Via Hot Air, I followed a link to http://www.redstate.com/brianfaughnan/2009/01/05/obamas-cia-designee-sought-cia-cuts-threatened-director/>Red State (I'm never sure of the protocol here, does Hot Air get the traffic for linking Red State or is it okay to link directly to Red State?). Go read it. Very interesting stuff on Panetta and his cuts and threats to the CIA director when he was Clinton's CoS.

[Uncle BigBad]

Isn't it possible that Panetta is meant to be a figurehead, with the top tier CIA bureaucrats being the real directors?

That would still provide professional management at the top, as O intended with the appointment of Brennan.

[Sue]

Isn't it possible that Panetta is meant to be a figurehead, with the top tier CIA bureaucrats being the real directors?

Maybe Obama is going to do away with the CIA. What better way than to appoint a man who tried to diminish the CIA in the 90s?

[Pofarmer]

Well, shit man, It's POSSIBLE that Obama can give 300 Billion dollars to the poor and lower middle class and it will actually accomplish something, but it's not very likely.

[Pofarmer]

The problem with doing away with the CIA-Isn't it the MOST accountable of our intelligence agencies right now? Well, compared to, well, you know what I mean. Everything else is pretty well wrapped up in the military.

[narciso]

The trolls are getting more creative, I'll grant you that, more of the feel of that multipart science fiction epic, that L. Ron Hubbard wrote in the 80s. Shays wasalright, yes he was a Rhino, but he was for GSE regulation when it counted; and he stuck up for Sarah, something the New Republic made sure its readership remembered. They replaced him with a white shoe spawn from Goldman, who knows not to knock on the Augean stables too loudly.
Kennedy was clearly killed by actions directed by Cuban DGI agents, it's in Gus Russo's new book on the subject. It was the CIA's work with the mafia plots and the assasinations, along with Soviet
disinformation efforts, that created this strange miasma, which the History Channel
among others have submerged themselves.
Saakashvilli was Columbia trained, not to get all the conspiracies confused or anything. Kennedy had his faults, which Jed Mercurio will fillete open, but he's probably the best the Democratic party has produced in a half century. He was anti-tax, pro American intervention. pro civil rights on occasion, heck we can't get our own party to commit to that on occasion.
Whizzer White was better than anything you're likely to see in the next four years. Yes McNamara was a fool and a scoundrel, the order's unclear, Bundy was too clever for his own good. They screwed up the Cuba operations, so they enlargened
it in Vietnam, with predictable results

[Jane]

Maybe Obama is going to do away with the CIA.

Actually it seems to me that the entire point of the Panetta nomination is for O, and the entire democrat party, to drive home the idea that Bush was a torturer (sans definition) and O won't be - again (sans definition). It's all about assuaging the left and signaling "change" to the world. And what O is hoping is that there will be no consequences to his decision - that he will still get the kind of intelligence he needs to keep us safe. He's just gambling with our lives, and we will see if it pans out. So no biggie.

[Neo]

limited experience in intelligence .. matters

I guess this is Part II of the "NewD irection"

[Porter]

Narciso-

I disagree. It was "Milwaukee" Phil.

[clarice]

Jane, I said this above and repeat:All the Dems who know most about intel--Rockefeller and Feinstein and Harman--knew about the Bush programs, approved them , asked that they be continued and are none too happy with this appointment. It's easy to see that they were willing to let the slander continue for the benefit of their party and their own skins but when it somes to the crunch they don't believe this "torture" B.S. at all.

[narciso]

That's probably at the root of my objection, Jane, it's a very cynical game he's playing,
'aggresive interrogation' saved the Library Tower from being blown up after 9/11, Any bets about the TransAmerica tower, or a dozen other targets; that Dan Simmons's so ruefully speculated upon in "His Letter from the Future" They really are living up to every stereotype, Cheney, Rove, Coulter, Sarah, has ever projected about them. I foresee more prosecutions of the kind we saw, under Carter for the TSP; re Felt and Miller. probably section chiefs and higher for the rendition effort, the detention facilities burned by Alison Lundy er Mary
McCarthy. When an attack does come, we'll have a much better understanding of his application of 'negative rights' like the the First Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms; they do tend to get in the way, don't they. Ask Barbara West about that.

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

Zero wears a 'What would Hugo do?' bracelet. Panetta is a fig leaf. The CIA has been a mole farm since the Church Commission and Panetta provides a good cover, as Jane notes, for the moles to keep burrowing - and applying Gramscian hiring techniques to ensure the continuation of the rot. Same with State and Justice.

Pofarmer,

You have a problem with the '40 acres and a mule' payoff? I'm not sure I would agree, considering that Zero has Air Taxes planned which will bring some of the money back every time the 'targets' breathe. Beyond that, dumping money on the nonproductive is a sure way to get it circulating quickly. Prog slumlords are planning rent increases right this minute, while brewers, distillers, snack food makers, fast food outlets and quick stop market chains are breathing a sigh of relief.

Zero math is kind of humorous when matched with reality. $300B comes to $1K for just about every breathing American. If it was just $500 for tax payers filing single and $1K for those filing married the total would be less than $100B. Either he's lying through his teeth (my pick) or this is a multiple tranche payoff.

[Ce]

Narcs let 9/11 happen. CIA knew the guy and let him run around to 'run' him, so he did the terror. The British followed the same model for the London bombings.

Joe announced he had 3 billion for Georgia when village ash sacker killed his own people. Then, Obama announced he had 3 billion too and then joe got to be VP, Obama's foreign aid cash. Obama gave 3 billion to a guy who slaughtered his won people.

Colombia was Obama. He got into the computer the day before they shot the guy. So, why was he there?

CIA is going to be shut down and Annetta was right about the CIA and DoD. They moved there when Congress tried to close them down. All those federal jobs gone and it makes sense. So, why is are the narcs upset?

As far as time travel, it's bad 'cause it's lucifer. So, it should be stopped until it is done properly and that isn't allowed 'cause we all use now and are reflections of lucifer. So, like, when the luciferian aliens show up and say we're the same as them and will be monitored by Satan like they are 'cause we've become luciferian aliens; don't blame me. It was the CIA.

[Pofarmer]

It's easy to see that they were willing to let the slander continue for the benefit of their party and their own skins but when it somes to the crunch they don't believe this "torture" B.S. at all

Clarice I know you are right, and that's why the Tactic is so vile. It's like Edwards said, "It's not the truth, but it's great politics."

Unfortunately, a good chunk of the great unwashed can't figure it out.

that he will still get the kind of intelligence he needs to keep us safe. He's just gambling with our lives, and we will see if it pans out.

Jane, I really don't think he cares as long as the rest of the world loves us in the mind of the left.

[Pofarmer]

Either he's lying through his teeth (my pick) or this is a multiple tranche payoff.

I dunno Rick. I think it's kind of like the 750 billion TARP deal. They want to make the numbers big enough to show they are serious, or something.

[Jane]

Clarice,

AS O's decisions start to stack up, his vision seems pretty clear - ignore national security and concentrate on implementing huge government. And that's pretty much what he ran on.

You gotta admire his style tho. No one will know what hit them.

[Jane]

Ce,

How did you find us?

[clarice]

Jane--today I'd make much of the Feinstein and Rockefeller deceit were i you.They were briefed on all these programs, were clear they wanted them to continue. Rockefeller went so far as YEARS LATER to write a memo to the file complaining but that was pure obvious CYA and the fact that they object to Panetts shows how much the entire "torture" carp was pure (disgustingly selfish) partisan deceit.

[Pofarmer]

ignore national security and concentrate on implementing huge government

Senator Govt. At least McCain got that right.

[Ididntgotoharvardwhere'smycash?]

Gram's Civil Society is what Harvard uses to get foreign aid cash. Much like Obama's dad, he was a 'low-level official.' Afghanistan is good money. NATO countries don't want the war.

'CIA is where the spies are.' Plame's dad was NSA and Plame went there to do her domestic political intelligence and complained. So, the CIA Air Force Directors moved all CIA analysts to DoD NSA. The OOs are still fighting over DIA domestic powers like CIA. So, a mole might put a plan like this together to get into DoD.

Plame's domestic torture would be something she uses, not does. Like the dead OOs in Iraq and Spain. If she did the torture, she's be wearing leather and acting sexy like 'The Man With one Red Shoe.' Not like any of that shit ever happens.

[clarice]

Jane--Here's your ammo:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123120464870255997.html?mod=djemEditorialPage>Get outta my head WSJ

[Jane]

Clarice,

I agree. If I could just get my co-hort to stop interrupting.

[narciso]

Rick, this does bring up that line from a Chevy Chase film "I was under the impression, that no math would be involved" Right he's not going to give a 1500.00 check is he, no it's going to be the same anemic thing we saw this spring, which was swallowed by the gas price bubble. Maybe dismantling the thing, and taking it private, ala McCarry's Foreign Intelligence Service, but the green badges already have that corner of the business; not for long I bet. Di Fi is pretty sensible, more sensible than Arnold just about now, so I was probably being unduly alarmist, as usual. So's Jane Harman, who by all rights should be chairing that committee, if not DCI herself. We'll probably end up with Tony Lake, just to spite me.

Will somebody tell Ce, this is not a Scientology bulletin board. Yes I'm sure the Time Enforcement Commission and Senator McComb is involved somehow (TimeCop reference and a reference to one of Ron Silver's scenery chewing villains ,before he turned to the right.) He hasn't posted on Pajamas since that essay on Fear last year; any news on that Clarice.

By the way, CNN dropped the slam on Sarah, down their memory hole, without apology or explanation. Giving it just enough time for the lies and the misrepresentations to sink in. Just the AD News, forcing Levi out of that apprenticeship just to settle a score
with the Governor

This is characteristically of a piece with everything else proposed; one might consider the tax cut a sop to Christina Moran; try that first, if it doesn't work
try the other part of the plan,which is infrastructure and government jobs. But know you have throw everything together probably freaking out the bond holders in the process

[clarice]

Narciso, I have no idea why Silver hasn't written for PM since then.

[Sue]

This torture meme is so disingenuous. The CIA was sending prisoners to countries that practiced real torture under Clinton. Couldn't dirty Clinton's hands with actually owning the program you supported. Bush, on the other hand, took ownership and as a result, the real torture being inflicted on our prisoners in "friendly" countries ceased. Yes, there have been incidences that crossed the line but those have been dealt with. Democrats were aware of the rendition program under Clinton. I'm not sure if the media was aware and kept silent or if the media only reports what the democrats tell them to report, but however it came about that the outraged weren't outraged by Clinton's rendition program and have turned Bush into Hitler garner nothing but contempt from me. And peace at any cost is not an option, as Clinton found out. Too bad those around him didn't learn their lesson too.

[MayBee]

Actually it seems to me that the entire point of the Panetta nomination is for O, and the entire democrat party, to drive home the idea that Bush was a torturer (sans definition) and O won't be - again (sans definition).

I don't know. He already had to withdraw one guy because that guy had written something favorable about enhanced interrogation. I really think - politically only- Obama is boxed into a corner here. I don't believe for one minute that he would refuse to water board KSM. Remember, Obama voted for the FISA program when it looked like he might be taking over this thing.
So I think the Panetta appointment is just window dressing for the left.

DiFi is pretty good on all of this. She's never backed down and never apologized. I've sent her love letters for that.

[MayBee]

Also, Panetta would have been at Clinton's side when they decided extraordinary rendition was the way to go.

[Neo]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for regulating greenhouse gas emissions proposes to levy a global warming tax on livestock. According to calculations by the New York Farm Bureau, a global warming tax will be oppressive.

“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would [be] upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said. “Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”

Why don't they just levy a tax on the "first born child" and put to death those children for which the tax isn't paid ? They could claim that it was "for the children".

[MayBee]

This is the guy Obama originally wanted to head the CIA. Glenn Greenwald led a charge against him because of rendition:

John Brennan, a longtime intelligence official and key adviser to Obama, formally withdrew from consideration Nov. 25 after Salon’s Glenn Greenwald posted Brennan quotes expressing support for the practice of rendition, in which terrorism suspects are sent to foreign countries for interrogation, many of which employ torture. When the Bush administration ordered the CIA to engage in torture after 9/11, Brennan — then a deputy to CIA Director George Tenet — was considered, for the most part, an opponent of torture, according to several intelligence officials. “I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush Administration, such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding,” he wrote in a letter to Obama. Yet a New Yorker 2007 story by Jane Mayer identified Brennan as a “supporter” of coercive interrogation methods.

[Cecil Turner]

. . . Democrats were aware of the rendition program . . .

The outrage is hard to credit, anyway. In every case I'm aware of, the rendition program resulted in sending the person in question to the [or a] country from whence his passport [or one of them] was issued. That's the moral equivalent to deporting them, in my opinion, and mere suspicion is plenty of justification for that.

As to "torture," I'll allow they have a point on that one when they start insisting we don't treat our own servicemen that way for training. Until then, the only thing "tortured" is the definition of the word.

As to Panetta running CIA, it desperately needs to be cleaned up (especially of all the partisan Democrats who can't keep a secret). And if he carries through with cost-cutting, I suspect he'll get a bunch of 'em, even if by accident. Having to work for another (Democrat) incompetent? Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

[Soylent Red]

I am ecstatic about Panetta.

Screwing up the civilian side of intelligence only strengthens the position of the military side. And that means, eventually, more goodies for me.

Someone once told me that if I wanted to do real intelligence work I should stay military, the civilian side was not where it was at. That they were so wrapped up in turf wars and CYA that the work was substandard. Panetta sounds perfect for that world.

[narciso]

One can rarely do wrong by the Journal, their Saturday shoe, is picking up a McGlaughlinny flavor that I don't care for, It's probably the only editorial page, that doesn't make my head explode. You can kind of see the influence in my writing don't you, the news pages are still full of the same flawed premises McClatchy/Herald extra tape required.Well it had that effect on Lewis Lapham and Gore Vidal, so what's to complain about.

By contrast, even though Murdoch keeps a strict tiller on the Post's editorialpages, their feature section is often suffused with leftist snark; a recent piece on the execrable Che film, a summary of Magazine issues,which touches all the left talking points, from Time, Newsweek, et al.

On the whole in house, vs. rendition effort, I read Al Aswani the Yacoubian institution in translation; it's set in 1990, on the eve of the gulf war, revolving around a series of characters who live in this old building, somewhat akin to Armistead Maupin's work, how this thing survived the censor's scissor I'll never know. well there's a part about the Central Police and what they do to Islamist dissidents, which really does make Gitmo look like Club Med, as Rush would say. It highlights the corrupt oligarchy that Mubarak has put in place, that many prefer to the chaos of Iraq. That ordered society gave us Atta, Zawahiri, Seif al Adel, Ayub
al Masri, and a host of others. I'd rather we handle the job, than outsource it to Damascus or Cairo or Amman. The same applies for the Cercle Sportif, which the plaintiffs in Boumedienne, have booked them selves a return flight for.

[Cecil Turner]

Why don't they just levy a tax on the "first born child" . . .

Too Jewish.

[clarice]

Soylent, a friend and I have decided the only way to do real intel work is thru a newspaper cover. You get access to everyone and everything and no one can compel you to reveal what you know or how you got it.

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

Zero is using "payroll tax" to add to the confusion as to his intent. I don't think he's talking about withholding, he's going to raid the Social Security levy and then make a benefit change, probably a change in age at retirement, under the rubric of "everyone must make a sacrifice for the good of the whole". In the same vein, the 600K 'government jobs' will be going to ACORN bums so that 'community organizing' becomes institutionalized - and paid for with a Treasury check.

As I said - everyone needs to think 'What would Hugo do?' when assessing the commie's moves and plans.

[Appalled]

The CIA did a fair job of sabotaging Bush's goals and aims during the middle portion of his term. (See Wilson, fifteen minutes of fame of) Obama probably noticed that, and determined he needed someone who would have his back.

Panetta is a good choice -- he is a good manager, is a pragmatist who knows his way around Washington, and has written against torture in a way that keeps the left happy. In the meantime, Feinstein will undoubtedly be placated by goodies from the stimulus package.

[Pagar]

HillBuzz says this is the crisis Obama enters office with:

"After Putin pulled this same stunt in 2006, Europe started storing gas in reserves — that will only last 3 weeks, tops.

"Let’s do that math: 3 weeks = 21 days."

"21 days after January 1st is roughly a day or two after Obama takes office."

"When people like Leon Panetta, who has no intelligence experience, are nominated by Obama to lead the CIA and other experience-requiring arms of our geopolitical team…and when people like Samantha Power, the most naively dangerous woman in the world, lurk somewhere in the shadows encouraging the “let’s hug it out” approach to dealing with Russia that Obama displayed in August when Russia invaded Georgia (don’t worry, the World of Coke is fine).

"Putin wants to take back the Crimea so the Russian naval base there is secured once and for all. Blackmailing Europe in the dead of winter with halted energy supplies in the opening days of what Putin perceives to be the weakest American administration ever installed is classic KGB gamesmanship.

LUN

Anyone want to guess the outcome?

[Pofarmer]

In the same vein, the 600K 'government jobs' will be going to ACORN bums so that 'community organizing' becomes institutionalized - and paid for with a Treasury check.

Rick, it's not noon here yet, and you're about to drive me to drink with stuff like that.

[MayBee]

Did you all know that Cass Susstein married Samantha Power this summer?

[clarice]

Which one of us will offer PUK a room first?

[Pofarmer]

Pagar, you ain't helping.

[Danube of Thought]

If Panetta is a "good" choice, it is hard to imagine what a bad one might look like.

I think this is an instance of extreme short-term thinking on O's part. He'll get kudos from all the predictable sources on this pick, and then the first time there's a major intelligence failure--and they come like clockwork in every administration--he'll be as naked as that skier in the Ski Vacation post.

[Pofarmer]

he is a good manager, is a pragmatist who knows his way around Washington

Once again, because Obama hasn't been around long enough to know anybody to put there.

Well, Hillary should already have most of these folks on speed dial.

[Pofarmer]

he'll be as naked as that skier in the Ski Vacation post.

At least he's very toned.

[narciso]

See, Rick this why I try to avoid listening to you, you awaken all my suspicions I've been voicing based on what I've come across
and the communal memory of the Cuban, Nicaraguan and now Venezuelan diaspora communities. I desperately don't want to go there if possible, I've already drunk deep from that well, this weekend. It's like when Clarice has to reference the whole thing about diamonds,any more tips from Deezer or Last fm.

Pagar, I hasten to really credit much of HillBuzz, because it seemed in retrospect, too much of a scam outfit, in the case of Pennsylvania and Ohio, but they're probably
sadly right on that score, This
reincarnation of Czar Paul, the one who swiped Georgia, wants to seize Sevastopol, cut out the Ukraine from the picture, end the Rose Revolution. Any objections, will come like Trudeau's mock slam at Lithuanian independence; what you want to die for
Tiblisi or Kiev.

Pofarmer, I second the motion, Danube, LMAO and LOL.

[Barney Frank]

The CIA is 0-16. Who heads it matters about as much as who is named the new Detroit Lions coach.

[narciso]

OK, now you've moved from the sublime to the ridiculous, Barney; We're talking about things we can actually do something about

[Fithian]

narciso:

"Another thing, that ticked me off, just another black mark against Sarkozy I guess, going to Syria, home base for Hamas, to provoke a ceasefire."

Per the Timesonline, Sarkozy is clearly no paragon of hope and change on the other side of the pond either:

Paris may have handed the EU’s six-monthly chair to Prague yesterday, but President Sarkozy made clear that he intends to keep the job of Europe’s commander-in-chief.

Shades of Putin and Medvdev, a la française!

Four hours before ending France’s turn in the EU presidency, Mr Sarkozy announced that he was flying next week to Israel and the West Bank to mediate over the Gaza conflict. He prepared the ground at talks in Paris yesterday with Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister.

In his new year address, Mr Sarkozy made clear that he had no intention of taking a back seat after what he regarded as the most dynamic turn by any leader in the Union’s rotating presidency. In 2008, he boasted, he had not just shaped the destiny of France, but of the whole world.

The next 6 months is going to be Good Times for EU watchers. The day Sarkozy relinquished his world changing presidency, the office turned into a ceremonial position like Cinderella's coach turning back into a pumpkin. The controversial Vaclav Klaus is now a mere figurehead at the EU helm. For a taste of what's to come:

Tensions recently erupted between Mr Klaus and Brussels when a private meeting with senior MEPs descended into a slanging match after they presented him with an EU flag and said that they were not interested in his Eurosceptic views.

It is to laugh! But read the whole thing, because the culture shock is not something you want to miss, Even the reporter seems to be having a difficult time sorting out the players.

[narciso]

It's a shame, on the Georgia issue, the financial crisis and now the situation in Gaza, Sarkozy's just turned out to be the typical Enarque. Now Klaus has a bigger ego than Sarkozy, so he'll be able to work around this. I speculated that Carla Bruni, might be a larger influence in the matter; somewhat akin to Maria Shriver on Arnold.

I kid about the Detroit Lions, we have the Dolphins, the Marlin, the Panthers and the Heat; they never fail to dissappoint.

[MayBee]

Ambinder's also trying to float the idea that the naming of Panetta was leaked. It's not Team Obama's fault they didn't tell Feinstein and Rockefeller, you see. Someone leaked it.

Ambinder's been nominated to head the CYA.

[ycash?]

Harvard pals like Powers(yes, he's from harvrd and those don't hate men) and Chayes make their money by being stupid. Afghanistan was planned and funded so they could make money. CIA and the intelligence committee,like Shays, gave them money through the intelligence committee going around the director of USAID to fund the war with Green Berets and PC. The hug them approach means more money for their NGOs and keeping them there. So, the NATO war in Afghanistan is extended by Obama and his pals at ngos should see the money start up again. The problem with all the dead military people should go away too. The CIA has a thing about Pakistan and they are getting in the way of the cash, so Rice wants to bomb them some more and do a coup or something with Gates' new CIA/DoD hybird military.

Russia invaded after Georgia started slaughtering their own people. The gas is money. They want their money like anyone else. Putin is needed because of the attempt by the 'stupid people' to trap Medeved(he did some time at Harvard, but there's no reference anymore) into weird Cuban crap. This was classic for Obama's stupid people and avoided like the gas is cash.

Obama is more worried about his sovereign birth and informant history than anything else. He needs someone to make sure there are no leaks.

EPA is selling off it's global carbon tax. The foreign aid bills are tied to US farming and this is why they are for the global tax. Once the US does something, it usually follows into foreign aid. Allot of bills that are domestic are there for foreign aid follow up or old domestic bills are used.

The first born tax won't work because of Obama's sovereign birth. It just doesn't look good. Congress wants procreation for the tax money. Birth's increase the tax income over the life of the birth and numbers of births.

FBI is hiring. More narcs. 'Real Men' He was hanging there for 15 minutes because he couldn't figure out how to put the seat down before getting on.

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

Israel and now India have already taken the measure of the punk and are moving on to "by other means". Uribe has had a casus belli in his hands ever since Reyes kept his appointment with Mr. Hellfire. Turnabout being fair play and all, there is no reason why Uribe shouldn't join with Venezuelan expats and the middle class who are being crushed by Hugo and give them a hand in finding the 9mm answer to that cheap thug's tenure.

I find the thought of Hairplugs dashing off to 'ease tensions' in Asia to be wildly amusing. With a bit of luck, India should declare war on Pakistan prior to inauguration, just on the basis of meeting with Joe. If the Dems don't pass the trade pact with Colombia then Uribe might as well rid himself of a meddlesome neighbor.

See - there's always a silver lining if you look for it.

PS - Hiroshima and Nagasaki are both thriving today. Don't overdo concern about a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. It will just be a passing period of unpleasantness - hopefully centered in Pakistan.

[narciso]

What is with the Atlantic, that seems to drive everyone associated with; either insane or mawkishly servile or both. Yglesias,Sullivan, Douthat, Ambinder & most recently even Megan McArdle most recently on moral equivalency in the Arab/Israeli conflict. Yes it was leaked, what was he doing in the queue in the first place; I know the other choices were Hagel and Tim Roemer, who has Mark Levin's voice, but none of the insight.

Rick, that image almost fits the Bidenesque foil in Chris Buckley's latest, when he was still kind of funny, before he ran across Sarah. He plays the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, who ends up on an JAG/West Wing type show, and then deludes himself into running for President against the Ohio McCain manque who's kind of the antihero. Unfortunately, fallout is never funny. Even in the Federated Administrative
Tribal Areas, well maybe a little there.

[Topsecretk9]

KLO talks with “Ishmael Jones” about Penetta and more about CIA - pretty interesting read.

[Topsecretk9]

hint = Ishmael makes good points on why Penetta is a good pick

[Danube of Thought]

"Ambinder's also trying to float the idea that the naming of Panetta was leaked."

Suppose it was, in fact, leaked. Is that supposed to inspire our confidence in the incoming administration?

And whether it was leaked or not, the decision to nominate him (which has not been revoked) was clearly made without a word to Feinstein, Rockefeller et al. All I can say is Wow.

[Danube of Thought]

I must say, I'm unpersuaded by Ishmael Jones's line of argument. First, "he’s an excellent choice because he will be loyal to the president first, not to the CIA." Loyalty up begets loyalty down, and vice versa. If Jones is correct, to whom will the CIA bureaucracy be loyal?

As for Panetta's "ability to bring the power of the presidency to bear," upon whom will it be brought to bear?

I think Porter Goss, who brought both of these attributes to the job, would have much to say about how those attributes work out in the long run.

[Danube of Thought]

Meanwhile, "Funds Tie Obama To Richardson Probe Figure." LUN

[Danube of Thought]

And meanwhile, "Key Figure in Richardson Probe Tied to Rendell." LUN

[Porter]

DOT-

Ishmael does amke aninteresting case, and does reinforce my own beliefs about the lack of support my namesake got from Admin.

As far as accusing someone from Illinois as being tainted in a pay-to-play scheme out of state, puh-lease. Besides, Memeorandom has a piece that Judicial Watch has proof Obama lied about his contacts with Blagojevich (cue: jaundiced eye roll here)

You don't "visit", for over 4 hours, with Federal prosecutors in Illinois for telling the truth. Last I checked that is...

[MayBee]

"he’s an excellent choice because he will be loyal to the president first, not to the CIA."

I suppose that means if Obama wants to make a case for war somewhere, the CIA will make that case. Eh?

[Appalled]

DOT:

I think you'd agree that the press is going to give Obama more of a break than they would give to Bush. Which makes the death by a thousand leaks strategy a lot less effective. Also, by all accounts, Panetta is a pretty tough guy.

Personally, I believe the CIA has been allowed to become disfunctional.

[presidential professors]

USIP is Congress's toy. New office on the mall between war memorials. It's a place for retired US government employees to hang out and talk bout all the money they made from our taxes. Panetta wrote a book, like Obama; 'Bring Us Together' and was an editor of the Law Review, like Obama. USIP is also full of spies studying long term things like the CIA can't.

He's also Californian and should understand all that harvard money that created the planning and funding of the Afghanistan war. 'Stupid poeple just do what CIA does, but don't work for them(sure). California wants some of that money that harvard is getting and they shouldn't have to get involved in war planning to do it. They should lead the foreign aid funding again.

Ishmael has a good point about spying on foreigners. State, I mean CIA, doesn't want to get into dangerous situations like Iraq. The Directors are loyal to their paycheck and keeping CIA paying federal employees. The limo thing was a joke, but might have explained where CIA went wrong and what he didn't take care of; not important 'cause blonds in leather with whips isn't a bad thing(Dianne, the intelligence professionals have been in charge). 9/11 was time to end the CIA, instead they sold off Plame and America proceeded to do everything Plame did over again; the issues that came up were what she did wrong, not what was done to her.

Pillar has a good point about Emergency five year budgets and food emergencies. Soon the US government will be on five year budgets like the agencies and they can even vote on the five year budgets just before the Presidential elections, like Obama and his Congress' foreign aid cash. How they get around getting funds before their own funding can't be solved.

Why Mr. Devine wasn't chosen is just too confusing. Obama can learn from Ishmael 'defending Americans by resigning.'

[Appalled]

And, since the CIA is disfunctional, getting an outside manager not at all invested in that culture is not a bad approach.

[MayBee]

And, since the CIA is disfunctional, getting an outside manager not at all invested in that culture is not a bad approach.

It's just incredibly galling to see the Democrats *live* by those leaks and use that culture against Bush, then come and clean it up for themselves. Without ever acknowledging what they did to Bush.

[Danube of Thought]

I don't think anyone is accusing Obama of being involved in the pay-for-play in NMex. I think he's only being accused of receiving $30K from a guy who's corrupt.

[Rick Ballard]

I don't know about that "loyalty" argument. Panetta left the White Trash White House prior to the cabinet level knee pad proclamation of "I believe in One Bubba". He doesn't owe Zero the time of day. He fits "caretaker/figurehead" better than any other description.

I hope DiFi gets in a little payback when Holder comes up.

[clarice]

We took Ishmael to dinner a few weeks ago. He doesn't like Kappes (see his book where he tells why without revealing his name) and is a bit naive about bureaucracies, but he seems a nice enough fellow.

[boris]

getting an outside manager not at all invested in that culture is not a bad approach

Okay Apollyanna

[clarice]

Appalled, an outside manager will be duped 24/7 about what's going on..Why do you suppose DiFi insists we need someone with intel background?

[Danube of Thought]

"Personally, I believe the CIA has been allowed to become disfunctional."

I think it's been disfunctional since the Bay of Pigs, and has withstood the efforts of numerous DCI's and presidents to restore order. Just exactly what is the evidence of Panetta's "mamagment" skill escapes me; as a sixteen-year ceongressman he managed nothing but a tiny congressional staff, and not much more during his White House tenure. At CIA he will encounter a thoroughly entrenched and pathologically secretive and deceitful bureaucracy that will start distrusting him the day he assumes the office. So far as I can tell he is utterly unprepared for what he will encounter, and he'll soon discover that any efforts to "bring the power of the presidency to bear" will be ineffectual and probably counterproductive.

And I don't much care about the press's procilivity for giving breaks to Obama. They game them to JFK, too, but that didn't make the Bay of Pigs any less of a disaster.

[Pofarmer]

Also, by all accounts, Panetta is a pretty tough guy.

C,mon, the guys a 70 year old beauracrat with no experience with the CIA other than trying to kill it's funding. Yeah, this is gonna go over great.

[boris]

but that didn't make the Bay of Pigs any less of a disaster

Of course now any similar FUBARs will easily be attributed to Republicans undermining, resisting, ripping, cheating, lying, and hate radio.

[Jane]

So is anyone talking about the fact that judicial watch found a letter from O to Blago confirming they had a meeting? LUN to the letter.

Hot Air has the story.

[clarice]

Remember--after insisting that DoJ investigate and prosecute the Plame leak, the CIA is still unable to say whther she even came within the meaning of the only applicable statute--although they briefly surried favor with Waxman by sloughing around in a statement that made it look otherwise.
Snakes..

[Appalled]

In the bureaucratic wars, the money spigot is a pretty good tool for getting people to behave. Problem Panetta might face is people going direct to Congress with demands their little fiefdom be funded. This is tough, because, unlike in other areas, a lot of that byplay would remain classified.

[clarice]

Jane--(1) B;ag's office sure got out that letter fast compared to any FOIA request responses I've ever seen
(2) Looks like it was a standard transition meeting and not about O's successor.
(3) They probably held it in a locked freezer where wiretapes don't work.

[Appalled]

Jane:

Those read like form letters...

[MayBee]

clarice- I thought Ishmael's info at NRO was interesting. He said too many of the clandestine spies are hanging around at Langley rather that out spying.
I think Plame was probably in that category.

[Rick Ballard]

In re Uribe - casus belli. Tomorrow should be an interesting day for Hugo. My bet is that Zero will give him a big hug for "renouncing" his support of FARC.

[clarice]

"I thought Ishmael's info at NRO was interesting. He said too many of the clandestine spies are hanging around at Langley rather that out spying.
I think Plame was probably in that category"

He says in his book that she was in that category.

[MayBee]

Well. How brilliant am I?

[Jane]

Form letter or not, that is certainly more evidence that Obama lied than Fitz had against Scooter.

Of course he wasn't under oath.

[Jane]

You are very brilliant Maybee. Why do you ask?

[Soylent Red]

He said too many of the clandestine spies are hanging around at Langley rather that out spying.

I've heard this from several places now.

As for your earlier comment about plugging up leaks, Panetta's outsider status will probably work against that. If he get's too gung-ho about cutting spending, demanding people work, etc. the line level will draw from their perfected trick bag of how to make the boss look bad.

DoT: Good to have you back, in case I haven't told you. You are one of JOMs long list of contributors who expand my horizon for self-directed study.

[clarice]

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, MayBee..Very brilliant.

[Topsecretk9]

He said too many of the clandestine spies are hanging around at Langley rather that out spying.

You can thank Jimmy Carter fot r this...

[Soylent Red]

Mmmmm....Another compelling reason for Obama's Hugs for Thugs program.

/sarc

[clarice]

Well, he explains that many bright young agents are put in this position when they are outed or the agency thinks they might be. Rather than work out some severance and let them go, they are kept on in positions that go nowhere with predictable results.

[clarice]

Interesting, Soylent.