Panetta to Head C.I.A.

The Obama transition team has selected Leon E. Panetta, former California Congressman, White House Budget Advisor and Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, as the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Panetta has no experience with intelligence directly, but has a wealth of managerial and government experience. Perhaps the Obama team is looking for a reformer, whether that means structural change or just reputational. The agency has seen harsh international criticism in recent years for its conduct during the war on terror, to which Panetta is free from association.

The NY Times described Panetta as a man with a "reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues." The choice, although unusual, is not unprecendented. Both John McCone and George H.W. Bush, two successful CIA heads, had no intelligence experience before taking the helm, the Times article points out.

Obama initially sought someone with extensive experience in the field of intelligence gathering but had difficulty looking for someone in the community not tied in some way, at least in popular opinion, to the Bush Administration.

The task now seems to be to build a strong team of high-level intelligence officials to aid the new man in charge.