Spook Shuffle Patraeus to CIA and Panetta to Pentagon

www.wtop.com...

President Barack Obama plans to name CIA Director Leon Panetta as the next secretary of defense and move Gen. David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, into the CIA chief's job in a major shuffle of the nation's national security leadership, administration and other sources said Wednesday.

Yes because Patreus wants to run for President..

I thought I heard him say that last year.

5 Facts about Patraeus ( though these arent the juicy ones )

* Petraeus, 58, replaced General Stanley McChrystal in June 2010 as the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He is widely credited with pulling Iraq back from the brink of all-out sectarian warfare, while head of U.S. Central Command overseeing a region including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen after 2008.

* A Republican favorite, Petraeus has often been mentioned as a possible future presidential candidate, but has said he has no interest in the job. Although once a registered Republican, Petraeus stresses his independence and has not voted for years. But suspicions linger in the Obama White House that he might harbor secret political ambitions and could pose a fierce challenge to Democrats some day.

* Known as a "warrior-scholar," Petraeus earned a doctoral degree from Princeton University and did his dissertation on the war in Vietnam. He oversaw development of the counter-insurgency field manual guiding the U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, which serves as the backbone of Afghan war strategy.

* Petraeus has survived his share of physical challenges. He was successfully treated for prostate cancer. His pelvis was broken in a parachuting accident and he was shot in the chest in a training exercise.

* Fiercely competitive and extremely fit, the general was once known to challenge younger soldiers to push-up contests.

www.reuters.com...

The word "spook" is as offensive as the "N" word.
Tempted as I am, I will not use the "M" word.

Originally posted by GeorgeH
The word "spook" is as offensive as the "N" word.
Tempted as I am, I will not use the "M" word.

Good lord.. really?? You have no idea what a "spook" is I guess..

PLEASE PLEASE report it.. the poor mods need a laugh whilst dealing with the BC threads!!!

Yeah spook in this case means creepy, ghostly CIA agent.

But I have heard it used as a racial slur, but not by anyone under 60.


Wonder if moving a General to the CIA is a way to prepare for military invasion of America by America?

Moving the head of CIA to Defense Secretary means more black ops and secret strike missions?

ANyhoo... back to big kid conversation that SHOULD trump the birth certificate nonsense:

5 facts about Panetta.. again.. not the juicy ones.

* Panetta, 72, is a long-standing Democrat who made his mark in Washington with success in cutting the federal budget deficit during the 1990s. As chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, his negotiations with the White House in 1990 forced Republican President George H.W. Bush to violate his "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. This budget deal is credited with helping catapult Bill Clinton, a Democrat, to the White House in 1992.

* Panetta became Obama's director of the CIA in February 2009. He pushed forward with the drone strikes against militant suspects in tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan that started in the George W. Bush administration. As spy chief he traveled to more than 30 countries.

* Clinton appointed him to head the Office of Management and Budget where he helped shape Clinton's 1993 budget agreement that raised taxes and moved the country on track to balance the budget. He took over as Clinton's White House chief of staff, and in 1996 helped negotiate a deal ending the shutdown of the federal government that resulted from a budget impasse many blamed on overly eager Republicans in Congress. He left the White House before the president got embroiled in an impeachment fight with Congress.

* Panetta was educated at Santa Clara University and its law school. After serving a stint in the Army he went to work for a series of moderate or liberal Republicans.

* President Richard Nixon appointed him director of the Office of Civil Rights, which he left due to disagreement with the Republican White House over civil rights enforcement. He quit the Republican party and became a Democrat in 1971 and was elected to his first term in Congress in 1976, representing a district near San Francisco. (Writing by Jackie Frank, Additional reporting by mark Hosenball; Editing by Vicki Allen)

af.reuters.com...

Originally posted by doctornamtab
Yeah spook in this case means creepy, ghostly CIA agent.

But I have heard it used as a racial slur, but not by anyone under 60.


Wonder if moving a General to the CIA is a way to prepare for military invasion of America by America?

Moving the head of CIA to Defense Secretary means more black ops and secret strike missions?

edit on 27-4-2011 by doctornamtab because: (no reason given)

I cant even fathom it at this point. Its quite the odd appointment if you ask me...

I started a thread regarding this shuffle earlier.

ATS Thread

I addressed a point or two that seemed odd to me as well.

Originally posted by ladyjem
I started a thread regarding this shuffle earlier.

ATS Thread

I addressed a point or two that seemed odd to me as well.

SOrry, I looked and didnt see your thread!

Hi Adv!
This is first time a CIA director has been made secretary of defense to my knowledge.
Then shuffling Petraeus to the CIA
This is too much shuffling of intelligence and military for my tastes.
Then again they used to have different functions. Now? who knows?
It looks more and more like the government is against the people now anyways.

this is real news and means more than the BC crap, to me this means the CIA will have more front line combat than it does now, more say so, if and when TSHTF , will be more in "combat" than intell. www.cia.gov... and this does not make any sense

Leon Edward Panetta became the 19th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on 13 February 2009. As Director, he leads the Agency and manages human intelligence and open source collection programs on behalf of the Intelligence Community.

Mr. Panetta has dedicated much of his life to public service. Before joining CIA, he spent 10 years co-directing with his wife, Sylvia, the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. The Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit center that seeks to instill in young men and women the virtues and values of public service. In March 2006, he was chosen as a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan committee established at the urging of Congress to conduct an independent assessment of the war in Iraq.

why put him in the SecoDef??????

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Hi Adv!
This is first time a CIA director has been made secretary of defense to my knowledge.
Then shuffling Petraeus to the CIA

This is too much shuffling of intelligence and military for my tastes.
Then again they used to have different functions. Now? who knows?
It looks more and more like the government is against the people now anyways.

I agree.
The more I read on this the more I think it may be killing a few birds with one stone.. prevents Petraeus from running for president and puts Panetta firmly under Hillary.. he was the most liberal/nanny state of the bunch. You may be right about a govt against the people...
Im still looking for other shuffling. Id imagine that there will be more to complement these placements.

"QUOTE Yeah spook in this case means creepy, ghostly CIA agent.
But I have heard it used as a racial slur, but not by anyone under 60"

OK you got me, I'm 73. But you'll get your turn.

reply to post by GeorgeH


To be fair, "spook" for CIA agent is also a little archaic now. It feels a bit like saying they're not groovy. But I can second that it's a legitimate alternate use with no connection to the racist version (as opposed to something a poster just likes to say so he thinks it's okay that it happens to be a slur as well -- that happens sometimes, but isn't the case here).

This the best political news I have heard of in a while. Obama made possibly the best decision of his presidency putting Petraeus in charge of the CIA.

Putting Petraeus in charge of the CIA is a great idea. Petraeus is highly intelligent, incredibly motivated, and of high moral standards. He is exactly the guy we need in charge of the CIA right now, to put that organization under control.

This means if Petraeus runs for president in 2016, he will be in a position to actually take control of the reigns of power, which I don't think Clinton ever actually succeeded in doing, and Obama can only do what he is allowed. Petraeus is a real threat to the PTB controlling things behind the scenes, and with his military background and connections, they aren't about to mess with him.

Maybe Petraeus could be the new lion we need to reign in the Fed Res and the ICs. I hope he is well groomed for learning the ropes of politics.

Leon Panetta has been a great asset for the U.S. government, and moving him over the Sec of Def after having served as Director of the CIA is another step in the right direction.

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Hi Adv!
This is first time a CIA director has been made secretary of defense to my knowledge.
Then shuffling Petraeus to the CIA

This is too much shuffling of intelligence and military for my tastes.
Then again they used to have different functions. Now? who knows?
It looks more and more like the government is against the people now anyways.

First time?

Robert Gates, current SecDef. DCI from 1991-1993.

There was even a big hoopla made over it on the news when it happened.

Just looking it over seems to be a bit of "on the job cross training" to me. Here you have the general that literally wrote the book on modern counterinsurgency tactics in an urban environment being placed in a traditionally civilian position. While at the same time, placing a more or less civilian in a position of being the president's mouthpiece between the military and the Oval Office.

If Patraeus was to run against Obama in 2012, he has been placed in a position where Obama can hear the discussions and musings better via CIA leaks to the president, but at the same time give Patraeus an easier workload in order to run, outside of the time adjusting to the transition. Again, could be the point. Keep him too far off balance and out of contact with trusted people to prevent a run...but you know, the funny thing about Skype and other direct communications via the internet is that they can be done from anywhere. I could do one of the live shows from an iPod Touch at a McDonald's for example. Were it an iPhone or Droid, I could be virtually anywhere.

Either way, I look to see less requests for boots on the ground and more drones in the air as a result of this. Something that I am not completely against.