From beginning, have not felt Petraeus as D/CIA was optimal for either man or institution. I see it as politically-driven POTUS strategic move to sideline potential political opponent who, right now, should be serving as Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
By David Ignatius
Washington Post, June 3, 2012, Pg. 21
CIA Director David Petraeus spoke first at an April 19 memorial dinner for agency officers killed in action. He delivered well-scripted remarks and an evocation of the agency’s heroes. Then came Leon Panetta, his predecessor at the CIA and the evening’s main honoree, who delivered a stem-winding emotional speech to fervent applause.
The freewheeling Panetta, now secretary of defense, has been a tough act to follow at the CIA, especially for a former four-star Army general who thrived in the disciplined, resource-rich world of the military. And in his first year at the agency, Petraeus’s transition has sometimes been bumpy, as the CIA’s finicky workforce struggled to adapt to its new director.
“I hear the rumblings” from mid-level CIA officers, says one senior administration official. But he says Petraeus gets high marks from the White House, which took the unusual step of naming the prominent general to the post.
Read full article.
Phi Beta Iota: Reading between the lines, Patraeus has accepted being sidelined, is making changes on the margins, not within the base, and may or may not emerge from this a wiser man. The clandestine service remains unrepentant and impotent–official cover, liaison hand-outs, legal traveler debriefings in the USA–while the analytic service remains childish, scatter-brained, and largely useless. Such “triumphs” as he achieves will handed to him by selected foreign services including the Israeli's with their broad false flag menu, or be in the science & technology arena, at great cost for marginally useful innovations. Nothing of import will be done on human intelligence, open source intelligence, all-source processing, whole of government decision support, or multinational clandestine, covert, and analytic operations.
