Leon Panetta
Today the New York Times is reporting that President-elect Obama has selected Leon Panetta as his nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. This reminded me that I had taken a course in college from Mr. Panetta on public policy. It was a fascinating class, the highlight of which was Mr. Panetta telling stories from when he managed the federal budget and served as White House Chief of Staff. I recall one class where he had to step out of the classroom briefly to be interviewed by CNN, which had parked a massive satellite truck on the street outside.
I dug through some old boxes and found my final paper from that class. The title was American Intelligence Community: (not an oxymoron) Combating terror. In the paper I describe in detail the organization of the US intelligence community as well as the role the then position of DCI entailed. If you are using that paper for reference Mr. Panetta, I do wish to make a correction which is that you now report to the Director of National Intelligence and not the President. Sorry about the demotion.
I go on in the paper to list changes in CIA policy since 9/11 and to raise concerns about those changes, such as an apparent repeal of the Presidential directive prohibiting assassination. Of course the interesting question is, what did Leon Panetta think about my paper?
Much like this post, it seems I tend to ramble a bit and could use better organization. B+.
Here he seems to be agreeing with my stance that having a President with a “hands off” approach to targeted assassination is disturbing. Though, his hand writing is cryptic and difficult to read, so he could just as easily be disagreeing with my position.
His only other mark on my paper is to underline my concluding sentence about order versus freedom. Certainly the kind of question he will be weighing if he gets the job.
After spending a few months listening to the man discuss public policy, the political process, and managing governments, I was left with the impression he was honorable and decent, with a studied and diligent approach to problem solving. Exactly the kind of person I would want for the job he has been nominated for.
posted on: January 05, 2009