Friday
Jan092009
Obama names key intelligence positions, comments on unemployment
Friday, January 9, 2009 at 2:12PM
President Elect Obama named nominees for key intelligence positions. Former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta was nominated as CIA director and Retired Admiral Dennis Blair was nominated as National Intelligence Director.
Additionally, Director John Michael McConnell will offer counsel through the President Elect's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Michael Leiter will continue as the head of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, and CIA veteran John Brennan will serve as Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism.
Brennan was an earlier contender for the CIA Director position, but pulled himself out of the running after facing criticism for perceived ties with the several of the Bush administration's controversial interrogation and detention policies.
Obama stated that Panetta would be a strong CIA Director and explained his managerial skills.
"He knows how to focus resources where they are needed, and he has a proven track record of building consensus and working on a bipartisan basis with Congress. I am confident that he will strengthen the CIA's capability to protect the American people as it continues to adapt to our reformed intelligence community," said Obama during a press conference in Washington D.C.
The President Elect also lauded Blair's past as a former National Security Council staffer and Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support, explaining that the position qualified Blair to build bridges amongst different security institutions.
Both Blair and Panetta made similar pledges to provide the President Elect with the accurate intelligence and analysis, promising that they would not just tell Obama what he wanted to hear.
Following a question regarding U.S. interrogation techniques, Obama pledged that under his administration there will be no torture.
The President Elect also touched upon the recent unemployment crisis,
"My staff and I have been engaged in a constructive dialogue with members of Congress over the last few days and weeks about my American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan which will save or create at least 3 million jobs, and make long-term investments in the critical areas of energy, health care and education."
Additionally, Director John Michael McConnell will offer counsel through the President Elect's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Michael Leiter will continue as the head of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, and CIA veteran John Brennan will serve as Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor for Counterterrorism.
Brennan was an earlier contender for the CIA Director position, but pulled himself out of the running after facing criticism for perceived ties with the several of the Bush administration's controversial interrogation and detention policies.
Obama stated that Panetta would be a strong CIA Director and explained his managerial skills.
"He knows how to focus resources where they are needed, and he has a proven track record of building consensus and working on a bipartisan basis with Congress. I am confident that he will strengthen the CIA's capability to protect the American people as it continues to adapt to our reformed intelligence community," said Obama during a press conference in Washington D.C.
The President Elect also lauded Blair's past as a former National Security Council staffer and Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support, explaining that the position qualified Blair to build bridges amongst different security institutions.
Both Blair and Panetta made similar pledges to provide the President Elect with the accurate intelligence and analysis, promising that they would not just tell Obama what he wanted to hear.
Following a question regarding U.S. interrogation techniques, Obama pledged that under his administration there will be no torture.
The President Elect also touched upon the recent unemployment crisis,
"My staff and I have been engaged in a constructive dialogue with members of Congress over the last few days and weeks about my American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan which will save or create at least 3 million jobs, and make long-term investments in the critical areas of energy, health care and education."
Counterterrorism Chief Defends Record
By A.J. Swartwood
In response to rising criticisms that the American counterterrorism team has been more lucky than good in the last year, Michael Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, argued Wednesday morning that good intelligence, hard work, and dedication help officials make their own luck.
“No single tool… will stop all the attacks, but as a whole they create a system that reduces the likelihood of terrorist success, and that is the luck that we are working to create,” said Leiter, who invoked Thomas Jefferson’s quote, ” I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”
With the recent arrests in Portland related to attempted terrorist plot and a seemingly constant stream of threats, Leiter acknowledged the “frenetic” pace of attempted attacks over the last year, but reiterated that the pieces are in place to reduce the risk of attacks to the fullest extent possible.
Leiter conceded that counterterrorism will never be perfected, nor can a terror free future be expected, but that does not mean the NCTC or the American government does not set that as their goal.
“We aim for perfection, but perfection will not be achieved,” he conceded. “But to say that we will not successfully stop all terrorist attacks is certainly not to say we are not trying to stop all attacks, we are.”