A Surprise for Langley
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on January 8th, 2009 5:39 am by HL
A Surprise for Langley
WASHINGTON — On its face, it’s a puzzling choice: Barack Obama selects as his spy chief a former congressman with no first-hand experience as an intelligence professional. Is Obama dissing the CIA? Is he further politicizing this badly bruised agency? What signal is he sending by picking Leon Panetta as CIA director? Here’s the message, according to Obama’s advisers: Panetta is a Washington heavyweight with the political clout to protect the agency and help it to rebuild after a traumatic eight years under George Bush, when it became a kind of national pin cushion.
