By GottaLaff
Erick Erickson posted that he was hearing “a very credible rumor” that CIA Director Leon Panetta has “dispatched a resignation letter to Barack Obama on vacation.” [....] “This report is false, wrong and bogus,” said CIA spokesman George Little.That was today's Quickie. Was it good for you?
By GottaLaff
A "profanity-laced screaming match" at the White House involving CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the expected release today of another damning internal investigation, has administration officials worrying about the direction of its newly-appoint intelligence team, current and former senior intelligence officials tell ABC News.com.
Amid reports that Panetta had threatened to quit just seven months after taking over at the spy agency, other insiders tell ABCNews.com that senior White House staff members are already discussing a possible shake-up of top national security officials.
"You can expect a larger than normal turnover in the next year," a senior adviser to Obama on intelligence matters told ABCNews.com.
The White House calls reports of a possible replacement "inaccurate".
According to intelligence officials, Panetta erupted in a tirade last month during a meeting with a senior White House staff member. Panetta was reportedly upset over plans by Attorney General Eric Holder to open a criminal investigation of allegations that CIA officers broke the law in carrying out certain interrogation techniques that President Obama has termed "torture."
A CIA spokesman quoted Panetta as saying "it is absolutely untrue" that he has any plans to leave the CIA. As to the reported White House tirade, the spokesman said Panetta is known to use "salty language." CIA spokesman George Little said the report was "wrong, inaccurate, bogus and false."
They said, they said. That said, I'm on the side of whoever uses salty language, but that's just me.
One CIA official said colleagues involved in the interrogation program were preparing for a far-reaching criminal investigation.As you know, I've written about that extensively. Stay tuned... and I'm guessing it might be time to buy a few packages of Jiffy Pop.
By GottaLaff
CIA director and Democratic appointee Leon Panetta, in an article published Sunday, said Democrats must recognize the “reality” of 9/11 is what drove the conduct of George W. Bush administration in the months following September 11, 2001, which somehow justifies not looking into suspected crimes.He added, in an apparent warning to the House Intelligence Committee, that that “focusing on the past” could hurt the CIA’s core mission amid a climate of recriminations over its practices.
“I’ve become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action,” Panetta opined in the online edition of The Washington Post.
Tomorrow I am posting a piece on one of the recipients of torture, and in that post I make reference to BushCo's "panic". That would be the same "panic" that Panetta describes this way:
The question is not the sincerity or the patriotism of those who were dealing with the aftermath of Sept. 11. The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong. But that should not taint those public servants who did their duty pursuant to the legal guidance provided. The last election made clear that the public wanted to move in a new direction.”That was the "best" they could do, huh? So now torture is patriotic?
By GottaLaff
In support of DickFail:
On the Sunday shows this morning, several Republican lawmakers attempted to defend or divert attention away from the revelation about Cheney. “I don’t think we should be jumping to any conclusions,” said Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) on ABC’s This Week. Kyl claimed that Cheney’s alleged actions were “not out of the ordinary” [...]The Nation of Dick lied again? Yaaaawwwn. Torture? ::Shrug:: Secret spy program? Z-z-z-z-z-z.
On Face The Nation today, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) defended Cheney, saying that "some of the Intelligence Committee people are pushing back on those stories. "I don't know what the facts are. But I believe that Vice President Cheney served his country with as much fidelity as he could possibly give to it. And he tried to serve us in an effective way. And I hope that nothing like this would impact on his outstanding record," said Sessions.
By GottaLaff
The Rushpublics are spinning this as an attack on the CIA. Of course they are. Because, see, that's the only reason anyone is discussing subjects like Dick Cheney's orders to conceal information, and the CIA's alleged lies. It has nothing to do with breaking the law, it's all about unfair attacks on our Central Intelligence Agency.Regarding the 8-year-old counterterrorism program, the Bush administration's failure to notify Congress "is a big problem, because the law is very clear," said Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Congress should investigate the secrecy because "it could be illegal," Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said.
According to Feinstein, CIA director Leon Panetta told Congress late last month that "he had just learned about the program, described it to us, indicated that he had canceled it and ... did tell us that he was told that the vice president had ordered that the program not be briefed to the Congress."
"We were kept in the dark. That's something that should never, ever happen again," said Feinstein.
Feinstein said that she understands the need for strong countermeasures following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
However, "I think you weaken your case when you go outside of the law," she added.
By GottaLaff
Rush Holt: There's no question that Congress was being misled... Pattern that's gone on for a long time, not just this issue, but others.... infringing on liberties.Andrea Mitchell: Intel Authorization Act will get vetoed by President Obama
Anna: If we don't get the proper information, how can we conduct our oversight... shape policy based on that information.
Holt: You're getting into what this is about. You said earlier that the relationship between Nancy Pelosi and Leon Panetta is the bigger issue... NO, it's the smaller issue. The bigger issue is how well-examined is the CIA? Oversight... A principle point will be the degree to which the CIA keeps Congress informed about what they are doing.This is exactly on point with the Lt. Col. Wingard/Fayiz al-Kandari series that I've been posting about. The media is distracted by waterboarding, and the word "torture". The issue is really everything else the CIA was doing, and Fayiz's story represents that.
I'm with Ed, not on the people dying bit, but I think Cheney would have no problem with a terrorist attack if it put us right back into the neo-cons laps. BTW, Bob nailed it with "Joe Scoldborough".
By GottaLaff
Ken Gude, an associate director at the Center for American Progress, who specializes in national-security issues, and who has close ties to the White House, believes that Obama’s instinct, like Panetta’s, was to set up a truth commission of some sort. “I think the political staff walked it back,” he says. “They said it would be a distraction.” Obama’s political advisers dread any issue that could trigger a culture war and diminish his support among independent voters. They also see little advantage in picking a fight with the C.I.A. But the decision to discourage an accountability process, Gude says, has backfired. The Administration has lost control of the story, as revelations about C.I.A. misdeeds have continued to emerge through lawsuits and the press. “It’s now become the distraction they wanted to avoid,” Gude says. “The White House briefings have been dominated by questions about releasing documents and photos.” It’s understandable, he says, that Obama wouldn’t want to spend his energy on Bush’s mistakes. But, he warns, “they can’t leave the impression that they’re trying to cover it up.” [...]
Meanwhile, John Brennan—the man who was considered too politically toxic for the top C.I.A. job—has become a senior official on the National Security Council. Brennan, who, as one former C.I.A. officer puts it, was once “joined to George Tenet at the hip”—he served as Tenet’s chief of staff—now advises Obama on terrorism and other national-security issues. He has reportedly lobbied hard to maintain secrecy on past abuses. According to Newsweek, Brennan recently persuaded Panetta to join him in protesting Obama’s plan to release four shocking Justice Department memos about the interrogation program. The documents, written by lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel, showed that the C.I.A. had waterboarded one suspect at least a hundred and eighty-three times and subjected many others to harrowing mistreatment. Opponents have argued that exposing such details could spark an anti-American backlash. Panetta also argued forcefully in favor of indemnifying any C.I.A. officers whose actions, as described in the memos, might have opened them up to criminal charges. [...]
After intense consideration, and a late-night meeting in Rahm Emanuel’s office, Obama rejected Panetta’s arguments for secrecy, deciding that it was in the public interest to release the memos. But Obama also endorsed the notion of giving blanket amnesty to any C.I.A. officers performing authorized work. [...]
Panetta’s advisers may have had a personal stake in opposing transparency. Another former C.I.A. official, who knows Brennan well, noted that, if the Bush torture program were to be further investigated, “potentially, both Brennan and Kappes could have a lot to lose.”
By GottaLaff
"I think he smells some blood in the water on the national-security issue. It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."
-- CIA Director Leon Panetta, in an interview with the New Yorker, on former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticisms of the Obama administration.
By GottaLaff
Yet another Democrat in Congress is alleging that the CIA included incorrect information in its records about past congressional briefings on interrogation policies.
Rep. David Obey sent a letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta on Tuesday saying that "in light of current controversy about CIA briefing practices," he was "surprised to learn that the agency erroneously listed an appropriations staffer as being in a key briefing on September 19, 2006, when in fact he was not." [...]
The letter makes Obey the fourth Democrat to allege that the CIA's record of which members of Congress were briefed on the Bush administration's enhanced interrogation techniques contained factual errors.
Bob Graham, as posted here, is one of the four. Jay Rockefeller is the other.
All told, the testimonies of these three Democratic officials bolster the case made by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the agency's own account of those now-controversial briefings is misleading. Pelosi -- like Graham -- has insisted that members of Congress were kept in the dark in the fall of 2002 about the Bush administration's use of waterboarding on terrorist suspects.
But let's get back to who ordered the torture in the first place, okay? That would be BushCo, aka what one might call "the responsible party".
By GottaLaff
The CIA is no longer operating secret prisons used to interrogate terror suspects with harsh techniques such as waterboarding, the agency's director has said.Leon Panetta confirmed the move in response to an order from Barack Obama, which was one of his first after taking office as US President in January.
"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites," the spy chief said in a letter to agency employees.
"I have directed our agency personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process and have further directed that the contracts for site security be promptly terminated." [...]
Mr Panetta said the CIA retained the authority to detain suspects "on a short-term transitory basis".But he added agents would use "a dialogue style of questioning that is fully consistent with the interrogation approaches authorised and listed in the Army Field Manual," which bans harsh techniques.
"CIA officers do not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behaviour or allegations of abuse," he said.
"That holds true whether a suspect is in the custody of an American partner or a foreign liaison service."
By GottaLaff
Vice President Joe Biden presided at a ceremonial swearing-in for the new CIA director, Leon Panetta, at the intelligence agency's headquarters in Langley, VA, where he was cheered by employees.Biden said as one of the agency's "leading customers" that he demanded the "unvarnished truth." He said that the CIA must "look around corners" and "imagine the unimaginable."
And the vice president underscored that a hallmark of this administration's foreign policy and diplomacy would be engagement, which he characterized as "active and aggressive."
In his remarks, Panetta said he wanted the agency to re-establish a working relationship with Capitol Hill. And he vowed, "We have to be honest." [...]
The new CIA director said that integrity and respecting law were the main missions of the agency. He said that the primary goal on his watch would be to provide leadership -- too often, he said, "we have governed largely by crisis."
By GottaLaff
MSNBC just reported that Leon Panetta was confirmed by the Senate as CIA director.
By GottaLaff
Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Linda Panetta
Apparently, the photo and caption above are making the rounds, and the Linda Panetta in it is being falsely i.d.'d as Leon Panetta's daughter. The Panettas, you know, have been pallin' around with a bad crowd. Wrong. Wronger than wrong, dead wrong. Via PUMA:Linda Panetta- Anti-Us Agitator, Leon Panetta- CIA Director Nominee… Is there anything wrong with this picture?Baseless rumors are so easily squelched, so why even start them?In it, we stated that Leon was Linda’s father, we however had the following disclaimer as well:
CAVEAT: Based on the reasearch we’ve done, it seems Linda is the daughter of Leon. She’s definitely given speaking engagements using that family history, there is however some controversy about her parentage, so till it’s conclusively proven that Leon is her father, take this one with a grain of salt.
Well, at this point in time , we can conclusively state that Linda is NOT Leon’s daughter: Accuracy In Media
But reached by telephone in Philadelphia, Linda Panetta told Accuracy in Media that while she admires Leon Panetta and that there may be a distant family connection somewhere, he is not her father and that she has never even met him. “Not only am I not his daughter but unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of meeting this man who has done amazing work in his lifetime,” she said. “He and my father may have been second cousins,” she acknowledged, but under no circumstances is he her father.
Despite charges or information to the contrary, she has never claimed to be his daughter. She explained, “God rest my Dad’s soul. He was an incredible individual as well. I would never in my lifetime claim to be anybody’s daughter but my father’s.”
By GottaLaff
There is a mini-slew (slewette?) of Obama news items:
Obama to officially announce Panetta, Blair nominations FridayNext:
[T]he President-elect will announce Leon Panetta as CIA Director and Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence. The officials also say that John Brennan will be named Friday as White House homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism. [...] Transition officials are eager to push back on a report suggesting that the homeland security adviser post might be downgraded in the Obama administration, noting that Brennan will also carry the title of assistant to the president, a sign that he will have direct access to the Oval Office.
Obama picks defense lobbyist as deputy defense secretaryAnd finally:Obama's transition office announced that William Lynn, an undersecretary of defense in President Bill Clinton's second term, is nominated to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' deputy.
Lynn is currently a senior vice president at Raytheon, which has billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts and is the maker of the Army's Patriot Missile system and the Tomahawk missile used by the Navy. The company is also developing a global positioning satellite communication system with the Air Force.
As deputy secretary, Lynn would be involved in the process of budgeting and acquisitions, in addition to running the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department.
Obama's transition office acknowledged that appointing a lobbyist did not, on the face of it, seem in line with the president-elect's ethics stance but that Lynn's qualifications and the recommendations that came from both Republicans and Democrats made him the top candidate.
"Because Mr. Lynn came so highly recommended from experts across the political spectrum, the president-elect felt it was critical that he fill this position," said Obama transition spokesman Tommy Vietor.
Vietor said Lynn and the transition team would create guidelines that would fit the ethics standards of the new administration.
Obama to meet with Mexican presidentI don't know about you, but I'm all slewed out.
President-elect Obama will meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Washington on Monday, the Obama transition team said Thursday.
Barack Obama recommends delay in switch to digital TV, scheduled or February 17.Sidebar: I'm watching Larry King right now. What has Priscilla Presley done to her face?
By GottaLaff
From this to this:
Just two days after she criticized President-elect Obama’s pick to head the sometimes-troubled CIA because he is not an intelligence professional, incoming Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein says she will support Leon Panetta because he will “tell truth to power.”Everybody kissed and made up.In an interview with CNN, Feinstein said she believes Panetta, a former congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff, will “surround himself with very qualified intelligence professionals in the top positions.” She praised Panetta, whom she’s known for 20 years, as “smart” and “credible.”
“He will, as has been said, tell truth to power. Not what power wants to hear but should here,” Feinstein said. “That’s probably the most fundamental part of all of this. That what many of think happened with the Iraq NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) never happens again.”
Feinstein denied that the short statement she issued Monday, after news of the Obama’s selection was reported by the New York Times, was designed to send a message to the incoming administration that she was angry at not being consulted about the selection.
By GottaLaff
P.E. Obama is answering questions from the press. I came in a late, but here's what I could get:
On the economy:
"We are going to ban all earmarks in the recovery package... the process by which members insert them without review. There are no earmarks in the recovery package."
"We are close to a trillion dollar deficit."
On Panetta: I have the utmost respect for Leon Panetta... He brings extraordinary management skills, political savvy, integrity... fully versed in international affairs and crisis management, he had to evaluate intelligence on a regular basis... I haven't made an announcement yet... I'm putting together a top notch intelligence team.. who will not tell what the president wants to hear, but what he needs to keep America safe. A team that is committed to breaking with some of the past practices and concerns that have...tarnished the agencies, as well as foreign policy. There are outstanding intelligence professionals in the agencies, and I have the utmost regard for their work. This is a team effort that is looking forwards, not backwards."
On Gaza:
When it comes to foreign policy, we need to adhere to one president at a time. On domestic matters, Republicans and Democrats can argue back and forth, but on international matters, other countries look to see who speaks for the United States. Obviously, I am deeply concerned about the conflict. I'm being fully briefed and monitoring on a day to day basis. The loss of civilian life on both sides is of deep concern to me. After Jan. 20, I'll have plenty to say. I'm not backing away at all from what I said in the campaign. We will engage effectively and consistently in.. the Middle East.... It's right for the region and for the security of the American people. So, on Jan. 20, you'll be hearing directly from me. Until then, my job is to monitor, and to put together the best national security team possible.
Sidebar: Rusty Dornan is leaving CNN.
By GottaLaff
Political Wire has learned that early in the Obama transition former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta was actually angling to be secretary of commerce -- not CIA Director.That would be an, er, unusual move. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing Team Obama would do. Fluctuation isn't their style. Too messy.
However, now that the leaked news of Panetta's nomination has apparently ticked off Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) -- and with the commerce seat now open again -- might Panetta be tapped for that job instead?
By GottaLaff
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate’s incoming Intelligence committee chair, slammed President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA Monday.Everything I've heard so far about Panetta, both in the media and here in Comments, is that he's a good choice. Let's not forget that Feinstein supported Michael Mukasey as Gonzo's replacement for Attorney General.“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” Feinstein 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.” [...]
"The President-elect will now have a chance to make his arguments,” the spokesman said. “Her next move is to listen."
The senators have let the transition team know they believe that the agency has finally settled down under Michael Hayden and needs a real intelligence pro to make key decisions -- and get institutional support to make them stick.Wiretappin' Michael Hayden. Perfect.
Chuck Todd is telling me on MSNBC. More here on Panetta. Not sure how I feel about this.
Update-
President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday.
Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been buffeted since the Sept. 11 attacks by leadership changes and morale problems.
Given his background, Mr. Panetta is a somewhat unusual choice to lead the C.I.A., an agency that has been unwelcoming to previous directors perceived as outsiders, such as Stansfield M. Turner and John M. Deutch. But his selection points up the difficulty Mr. Obama had in finding a C.I.A. director with no connection to controversial counterterrorism programs of the Bush era.
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