NO.

In order to be pro-choice, one must first be born. Ah, the irony.

That's a super analysis, Kerry. Imagine - had filegate ocurred during the Bush years, the left would be calling for impeachment - and Panetta's name would be mud. Thank goodness, Carl Rove is a nice man and a professional.

But Panetta was there for many controversial issues - Rendition! Ignatius is very clear here on what was:

He [Panetta] sat in on the daily intelligence briefings as chief of staff, and he reviewed the nation's most secret intelligence-collection and covert-action programs in his previous post as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Let's make it clear. The MSM has led the broad public, for years now, to despise President Bush for the 'horrible' policy of rendition.

It was Clinton's policy. It continued after 9/11, until we had Gitmo set up, for then we had a place to send captured terrorists to - we didn't really need to send them off to Egypt and Turkey to be held and tortured by others, using their methods, for information.

It will be interesting to find out what and how Paneta felt about Clinton/Gore ordering the CIA to establish the US policy of "Extraordinary Rendition?"  After all, Paneta was there.
[This from former White House intelligence advisor Richard Clarke's book].

RICHARD CLARKE - Snatches, or more properly "extraordinary renditions," were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgement of the host government. . . The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: Lloyd says this. Dick says that. Gore laughed and said, "That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass."

And shortly thereafter, Bill Clinton ordered the CIA to establish the US program of extraordinary rendition (PDD#39); the idea being that we could ship them off to you know who in Egypt - so that they could be tortured to get information out of them.

Later (interview in Oct, 2007), according to Gen. Hayden, Charlie Rose  found out that we did about as many of those before 9/11 as we have done after. How in the world could he not know, as he was very interested in pounding on the Bush administration for the policy. Most in the media still present the policy as simply one of Bush's house of horrors. It was a known fact:

According to ABC news:

Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA who resigned from the agency in 2004, has told Die Zeit that the US administration had been looking in the mid-1990s for a way to combat the terrorist threat and circumvent the cumbersome US legal system. "President Clinton, his national security adviser Sandy Berger and his terrorism adviser Richard Clark ordered the CIA in the autumn of 1995 to destroy Al Qaeda," Mr Scheuer said. "We asked the president what we should do with the people we capture. Clinton said 'That's up to you'." Mr Scheuer, who headed the CIA unit that tracked Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from 1996 to 1999, says he developed and led the "renditions" program.

kegan97478

 What a disastrous choice!  Wonder if Obama is worried about the evidence the CIA has of millions in illegal Obama campaign contributions from foreign sources?  Panetta is Obama's Harriett Meyers and will cover his butt but he is not equipped to protect this country from terrorism.  God help us!