090114: Fellow Democrats Blast Obama's Pick for CIA Director

(QC Politics) -- The incoming and outgoing chairs of the Senate Intelligence Committee signaled concerns about President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Leon E. Panetta to head the CIA, primarily because of Panetta's thin intelligence resume.

"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta. . . . I know nothing about this, other than what I've read," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress, in an e-mailed statement. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."

Added an aide to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., who served as chairman of the committee in the 110th Congress: "I think, based on press reporting if it proves correct, Sen. Rockefeller has some concerns about his selection. Not because he has any concerns about Panetta, whom he thinks very highly of, but because he has no intelligence experience and because he has believed this has always been a position that should be outside of the political realm."

Though Panetta has no significant prior experience in intelligence matters, his selection continues a trend that has seen Obama select seasoned Clinton administration veterans known more for their Washington savvy than their partisan tendencies. But his service high in the ranks of the White House also could raise concerns about his policy views.

Clinton and his predecessor, President George Bush, began to cut intelligence agency budgets in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War, although counterterrorism funding rose under Clinton.

Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned the choice.

"Job No. 1 at the CIA is to track down and stop terrorists," Bond said in a statement. "In a post-9/11 world, intelligence experience would seem to be a prerequisite for the job of CIA director.

"While I will reserve final judgment on President-elect Obama's nomination for the leader of our terror-fighting agency, I will be looking hard at Panetta's intelligence expertise and qualifications."

Despite his thin resume on intelligence issues, Panetta has written and spoken on a number of issues pertinent to the work of spies as well as to concerns by liberals that some potential CIA choices were too closely aligned with Bush administration stances on interrogation policy and warrantless surveillance.

In August, he penned a piece for Washington Monthly headlined "No Torture. No Exceptions." It concluded: "We cannot and must not use torture under any circumstances. We are better than that."

In July 2006, he wrote critically in the Monterey County (Calif.) Herald about the Bush administration's interpretations of the law in the war on terrorism. "Under this interpretation, statutes prohibiting torture, secret detentions and warrantless surveillance have been set aside," Panetta wrote.

Rep. Rush D. Holt, D-N.J., chairman of the House Intelligence Oversight Subcommittee, said those kinds of views are exactly what the CIA needs. "Having served in Congress in the wake of Watergate and the domestic surveillance abuses that surfaced during the 1970s, Mr. Panetta understands how a democratic government should operate. . . . Mr. Panetta's background and reputation indicate he would serve the intelligence community, the president, and the country well," Holt said in a statement.

Panetta was elected nine times to the House and was the Budget Committee chairman from 1989 to 1993. He was selected by President Bill Clinton to head the Office of Management and Budget in 1993. He was appointed White House chief of staff in July 1994 and left for the private sector in 1997. In the post-Clinton years, Panetta has served in a variety of roles, including as a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan committee that called on the Bush administration to hand off the combat mission to the Iraqis, bolster diplomatic efforts in the region and pave the way for a drawdown of troops by spring 2008.

Former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, D-Ind., who served with him on the Iraq Study Group, praised Panetta's qualifications.

"First of all, he's certainly dealt with a lot of intelligence," said Hamilton, an Obama ally. "In the Iraq Study Group we dealt with it every day. As chief of staff in the White House, you deal with it every day, too."

Hamilton said Panetta would need top deputies from the intelligence community. "It's a complicated, arcane business," he noted. But he added, "What his strength will be is he brings an outsider's perspective to the intelligence community."

Following a stint in the Army from 1963 to 1965, Panetta came to Washington as a legislative assistant to then California GOP Sen. Thomas Henry Kuchel (1953-1969). He was director of the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) from 1969 to 1970 and also served as executive assistant to the mayor of New York before running for Congress.

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