By Christian Brose
President-elect Obama's pick of Leon Panetta for Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) has kicked up a lot of dust about the merits of appointing an "intel outsider" to that post, instead of a career intelligence professional. My colleague Josh Keating has a good overview of the strange bedfellows now aligning over this issue. This brought to mind what one intelligence professional turned DCI (Robert Gates) had to say about his old "intel outsider" boss at Langley:
What truly set Bill Casey apart from his predecessors and successors as DCI was that he had not come to CIA with the purpose of making it better, managing it more effectively, reforming it, or improving the quality of intelligence. What I realized only years later was that Bill Casey came to CIA primarily to wage war against the Soviet Union.
So instead of focusing, as so much commentary now is, on how Panetta will relate to the career service, how he will work with Congress, and whether he will clamp down on detention and interrogation practices -- all of which are essentially management issues -- maybe we should be asking what strategic policy goal (or goals) Panetta should be heading to the CIA to pursue.
I'm told that "wage war against the Soviet Union" is out.
Read More
(2)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE