WaPo's Ignatius Praises Panetta: He Can 'Fend Off Critics', Omits Panetta Fended for Clinton During Filegate

Photo of Kerry Picket.
  • Bookmark and Share

President-elect Barack Obama is bringing back yet another Clinton retread. While many question former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta as the best choice to head up the CIA, due to his lack of experience in the world of intelligence, the Washington Post's David Ignatius has nothing but praise for Obama's pick.(my emphasis throughout:)

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 rebuild after a traumatic eight years under George Bush, when it became a kind of national pincushion.

"Leon is not going to preside over the demise of the CIA," explains one member of the Obama transition team. "The CIA needs to have someone who can represent them well."

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

This argument for Panetta makes sense. Ideally, the next CIA director would have been an experienced professional -- someone like Steve Kappes, the veteran case officer who now serves as deputy director. But the reality is that the professionals now lack the political muscle to fend off the agency's critics and second-guessers. That's the heart of the problem: The agency needs to rebuild political support before it can be depoliticized.

Ignatius is right about one thing. Panetta is very good about fending off critics and second guessers. However, Ignatius conveniently fails to mention Panetta's pathetic excuses in 1996 over why several hundred FBI background reports on American citizens were obtained by Craig Livingstone.

Livingstone was a former bouncer who was hired to head up security at the Clinton White House. According to the September 25th 1997 Congressional Record no one seemed to know who hired him at the time.

These FBI background reports contained confidential information on mainly GOP appointees, including former Secretary of State James Baker, former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, and Tony Blankley, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's press secretary. A 1996 CNN article details Panetta's lame excuse at the time:

A House committee chairman said he will investigate how and why the White House obtained hundreds of FBI background reports, among them files on prominent Republicans. GOP challenger Robert Dole suggested President Bill Clinton should personally take responsibility for the incident.

Chief of staff Leon Panetta apologized over the weekend for the blunder, which he termed both "inexcusable" and "a completely honest bureaucratic snafu." In an interview with CNN, Dole said, "This isn't the Panetta administration," and suggested the voters want to hear an explanation directly from the president.

In 2000 the L.A. Times reported that, after a 6-year investigation of "Filegate", independent counsel Robert Ray found no criminal wrongdoing. The saga was chalked up as a "bureaucratic blunder."

Igantius may think a political heavyweight like Panetta will benefit the CIA and the Obama administration, but he fails to mention how Americans can count on Panetta to keep the nation safe.

Bureaucratic blunder or not confidential information was compromised, nonetheless. We are living in a post 9/11 world now. Is this the kind of leadership America really wants in a CIA chief?


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

'Is this the kind of leadership America wants'

NO.

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

Pannetta

"Peon Lannetta" couldn't lead Nuns in silent prayer! He, and his ilk, will no doubt allow the terrorists another opportunity to bring their world-wide jihad to our shores.

Panetta been there for many controversial issues - Rendition!

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.

So what was in Sandy's pants?

What do you think Sandy Berger made off with, when he removed Federal records and hid them under the trailer?

NorthCoaster - Panetta's notes, perhaps?

NorthCoaster - Panetta's notes, perhaps?

(;~> gary

So, Panetta was Clinton's flying feces deflector. So what?

How does that qualify him for the position chief spook?

Hell, I bought a new Ford back in May. Does that make me qualified to run the Ford Motor Company?

"Leon is not going to preside over the demise of the CIA," explains one member of the Obama transition team.

I'm sorry, but I believe that is exactly why Leon was selected.

The saga was chalked up as a "bureaucratic blunder."

Bureaucratic blunder my a$$. Craig Livingstone didn't just sneak into the FBI building and steal those files. They didn't get out of that building without the duplicity of someone way high up on the FBI totem pole.

-Dave

“Them that’s going get on the wagon. Them that ain’t get out of the way.” -Because enough is enough.

Dave, you have to remember

Dave, you have to remember that Obama hasn't even been around that long; he doesn't know anybody!  Therefore, he has to pick people from previous administrations in any capacity, because they might have an inkling!  Same with his picks of Pastor Warren and Dr. Gupta.  Pop culture figures.

Those are the only people he knows; the ones he's heard about!

mb,

This whole PEBO thing is becoming not a little scary.

I don't think an American Idol president and a Clintonista retread cabinet is going to do much for our national security.

These are the same people who were around when AQ attacked us five times under Billy Jeff.

-Dave

“Them that’s going get on the wagon. Them that ain’t get out of the way.” -Because enough is enough.

CIA Has Evidence of Foreign Money in Obama Campaign...

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!   

Ignatius Press has a very

Ignatius Press has a very good reputation for publishing excellent books. I have purchased many from them.

No more.

They have insulted their customers by even mentioning this jerk's name, let alone endorse him for anything. I'm very surprised, actually.

He is the examplar of the low crawling political hack maneuvering for power at any cost and from any source. Don't let that phony smile fool you. If you are not useful to him, he'll throw you off the bus quicker than the driver can open the doors.

 

Uh, David Ignatius is a reporter...

....and is not the same as Ignatius Press.

To paraphrase what I said earlier...

In another post I mentioned the fact that are adversaries throughout the world know who the main "players" are in the intelligence field. If they don't know, they make "book" on them toot sweet.

I also mentioned that the head of the CIA could come from a variety of sources: CIA itself, DIA, NSA, FBI, the military intelligence departments, Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the Special Forces community, hell, even the U.S. Secret Service. I'm sure all of those agencies have men and women who are cold-war warriors, leaders, people of great accomplishment in a variety of fields. Who does Obama pick as our CIA head? Leon Panetta.

Now picture Putin (a former KGB officer) deep inside the Kremlin.  He is curious as to this new President's choice of CIA head. Who will Putin's intelligence adversary be? Who will be the man or woman who will attempt to unlock the secrets of the Kremlin? Who will be the protector of the keys to the secrets of the United States? Finally, the news comes in. Putin sees the name "Leon Panetta". Now what do you think his reaction was?

Quit laughing. Its not polite. 

You and I know that when it

You and I know that when it was announced that L.P. was to be the CIA chief, the leaders of countries that hate us, all lit up big fat Cuban Cigars and washed it down with some Dom. His pick is a blessing... to our enemies!

Iran Pulls Strings In Gaza

 

 Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/  

Barack Obama is a Smart Politician

I posted this elsewhere but it is applicable here also.

Reuters is reporting that President-elect Obama is revamping counterterrorism
responsibilities and will select CIA veteran John Brennan to the post of deputy national security adviser.

Mr. Brennan, who was Obama's top adviser on intelligence, took his name out of the running for the CIA position because of the heavy criticism from the left-leaning blogs for his association with rendition and interrogation techniques in the Bush administration.

This will help to reduce the criticism of Obama's selection of Leon Panetta as CIA director.

------------------------------------------------------

“The liberal mind does not work like the mind of a regular person.  Their obsession with power and control is what drives them at all times.” ~ Rush Limbaugh