Leon Panetta Gets a Rock Star Welcome at CIA Headquarters

[babylonsister]

Leon Panetta Gets a Rock Star Welcome at CIA Headquarters

Siobhan Gorman reports on intelligence matters.

So much for fears that Leon Panetta would be seen as an outsider at the Central Intelligence Agency because he didn’t grow up through the spy ranks. The new CIA director and former Clinton administration chief of staff got a rock star’s welcome today at Langley headquarters during his formal swearing-in ceremony.


Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon E. Panetta at his formal swearing-in ceremony at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., Thursday.

As Panetta entered the lobby of the main headquarters building, where the agency seal is inlaid in the floor, hundreds of CIA employees greeted their new leader with shouts, applause, and even some whistles. Cheers again when he was about to take the oath of office. Again after he completed the oath. More cheers when Panetta offered personal reflections, including a mention that he and his wife, Sylvia, met “at a mixer” 50 years ago. And of course more raucous applause when the ceremony ended and Panetta worked the crowd.

The military color guard, which performed the national anthem—Panetta and the intelligence leaders flanking him on stage appeared to be singing—didn’t get any cheers.

The event, itself, provided few new hints of Panetta’s plans for the agency, though he repeated several times his intention “to be honest with the president” and to carry out spy activities in accordance with the law. While intended as a signal that the alleged political pressure that led to intelligence failures on Iraq wouldn’t happen in the new administration, some current and former spies have bristled at the notion that their natural inclination wouldn’t be to speak truth to power.

more...

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/02/19/leon-panetta-gets-a-rock-star-welcome-at-cia-headquarters-2/

[Sultana]

1. .

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Go on w/ ur bad self Leon.:D

[spanone]

2. maybe the birds will start singing soon????

[madrchsod]

3. when the cia guys and gals clap, whistle, and shout

just how bad was it to work at the cia under bush? now maybe we can really find out who the bad guys are and where they are. i`m sure the rest of the spooks across the world will be able to trust the cia again. the plame affair must have cost some lives of our "special friends" across the middle east

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I know a few people who work there, but many more who work at a different 3 letter agency

They **hated** working for the bushies.

[Captain Hilts]

10. Correct. Bush blamed them for lies of his own Office of Special Plans..

RIP Socks.

[Triana]

5. What a face. You know the cartoonists will have a field day caricaturing him! n/t

[babylonsister]

8. I swear, he reminds me of Tony Bennett every time I see his pic. nt

[Peace Patriot]

6. Anyone who believes that Panetta is a civilian needs to think the thing through

a little better.

This is not just a matter of personnel morale. It is a matter of WAR between the CIA and Rumsfeld/Cheney. Obama is no fool. He would NEVER have nominated an inexperienced civilian to put things right in our intelligence community. Remember when DiFi criticized the Panetta nomination saying he was inexperienced? Notice how fast she shut up? Notice how there has not been ONE WORD about his "inexperience" since then? I think Panetta is deep CIA--the kind you never hear about because he doesn't want you to--and very high up in the organization. (DiFi shot her mouth off because she didn't know who he was--then zipped it up, as soon as she was told--and the silence of all potential critics since then has been...shall we say, very noticeable.)

[EFerrari]

9. That's probably right. And most of us know CIA's record too well

to cheer anyone greeted as a "rock star". CIA is nothing to cheer about.

[ThomCat]

7. Will he have the guts to clean house?

Or will he just put lipstick on the pig and dance to a slightly nicer tune?

With all the illegal stuff we know about, how much more has been going on that we never found out about. The stuff we know about is so massive and so horrible that any world court would be justified in gutting the agency if they could find a way to hold the US accountable. How much worse is the stuff that would only come out after a thorough investigation?

x(

[chill_wind]

11. This tell you anything?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_go_co/cia_panetta

Warm welcome and deep sighs of relief?

[ThomCat]

14. So much for any hope of change.

x(

[goforit]

12. Yah think Bushco will commit a backstabbing at will???

[PopSixSquish]

13. If Anyone Wants to Know How Bad the Past 8 Years Have Been Those in Government

one need only look at the reactions that Hillary Clinton got at State, Leon Panetta at the CIA and the overjoyed reactions Michelle Obama gets every time she visits another federal agency.

Many of these people are career public servants who went into their jobs in order to help people and make a difference. Not to be used and threatened by a bunch of thugs for their own personal gain.

I'm glad to see them excited again.