transcript

Do you approve of Leon Panetta as CIA director?

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LISA MULLINS: Barack Obama seemed to be leading a charmed life. The President-Elect's nominations for his Cabinet were winning bipartisan raves; then his pick for commerce secretary bowed out under an ethics cloud. Now, Obama's getting static over his choice to head the CIA. 70-year-old Leon Panetta is widely admired. He is a former Congressman. He was former President Clinton's Chief-of-Staff. But Panetta has had little experience in intelligence matters. As The World's Jeb Sharp reports, even Democrats are expressing doubts.

JEB SHARP: One of the strongest signals of disapproval came from Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. She will chair the committee that handles the nomination for CIA Chief. Feinstein said she believes the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time. Loch Johnson edits the academic journal “Intelligence And National Security”; he's disappointed in the choice of Panetta, too.

JOHNSON: It has nothing to do with him personally, but I am disappointed because I think it needs someone who really knows more about it. I mean, would you invite your dentist to do open-heart surgery on you? I doubt it. So expertise is important and I just don't think he has that for this job.

SHARP: Other experts agree. Tim Weiner wrote the book “Legacy of Ashes: The History of The CIA”. Weiner says picking someone with so little intelligence experience is a recipe for resentment inside the agency.

WEINER: The Director has to have the trust and confidence of his underlings or the ship goes very badly astray, as it has done often in the past.

SHARP: And, Weiner says, this particular moment already holds huge potential for a disconnect between the White House and the CIA.

WEINER: We have now had 7 years of intense White House pushing for the CIA to kill, capture, harshly interrogate terror suspects in the war on terror. The changing of the guard at the White House is going to change the way President Bush's war on terror has been conducted.

SHARP: President-Elect Obama underscored that point today. Asked about Leon Panetta, he praised him and promised an intelligence team that would give him the unvarnished truth. Then he added:

BARACK OBAMA: I think what you're also going to see is a team that is committed to breaking with some of the past practices and concerns that have, I think, tarnished the image of the agencies – the CIA agencies as well as U.S. foreign policy.

SHARP: Leon Panetta is known for his outspoken opposition to torture. Those who support the Panetta choice cite his anti-torture credentials as a major benefit. John Prados is a fellow with the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Prados thinks Panetta has something else going for him, too. Panetta may be just the man to invigorate the intelligence reforms that came out of the 9/11 Commission and help sort out the balance of power among the CIA and other spy agencies, and the Director of National Intelligence, or DNI.

JOHN PRADOS: Panetta, having been a close associate of Obama's and advising his campaign, would be a good person to implement a solution that takes the CIA and moves it back into the pack as opposed to trying to overtrump the DNI position.

SHARP: The DNI position remains to be filled, but it's expected to go to Obama advisor and retired Admiral Dennis Blair. Prados says he's a little puzzled by the negative reaction to the idea
as Panetta as CIA Chief. After all, he says, other successful CIA heads have come in without intelligence experience. One of them was the current President's father, George H.W. Bush. And even Panetta skeptic Loch Johnson acknowledges it can be effective to have an outsider as CIA Director, especially when damage repair is required.

JOHNSON: Walter Smith and John McCone came from the outside, and they were viewed as the best ones of all. Now, the big difference is in the case of Smith, he was a General and knew quite a bit about intelligence. In the case of McCone, he didn't know that much about intelligence but he was in his 50s and he was a human dynamo. I don't know that Panetta has those qualities, but again, let's hope we're all happily surprised.

SHARP: What Panetta does have is extensive experience in politics. Whatever happens at the CIA, that could come in handy. For The World, I'm Jeb Sharp.

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