wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] michaelw from INWOOD January 06, 2009 - 09:54AM

  Scary choice.

  We better brace ourselves for an other 9-11.

  Obama is really into recycling.

  His administration looks like the Clinton administration.

  
  
• [2] benjoya from Brooklyn January 06, 2009 - 10:11AM

  Feinstein is afraid we'll find out about her complicity in the torture regime. obama told other members of the intel committee, just not DiFi.

  
  
• [3] superf88 January 06, 2009 - 10:12AM

  if the main job of cia director will be to fight homeland security for turf, then an experienced bureaucrat makes perfect sense.

  
  
• [4] Joe Corrao from Brooklyn January 06, 2009 - 10:13AM

  Brian

  I am not a big booster of the CIA but..

  1) They aren't to blame for 911...they had the intelligence, but the adnministartion dismissed it.

  2) they knew that Iraq had NO WMD, but the admin ignored/lied/fudged the intelligence.

  do you NOT remember that?

  
  
• [5] Smokey from LES January 06, 2009 - 10:14AM

  If you really want change, you have to look beyond the usual suspects. I'm willing to give Panetta a chance.

  
  
• [6] Joe Corrao from Brooklyn January 06, 2009 - 10:14AM

  Moral Compass?...man

  
  
• [7] karen from NJ January 06, 2009 - 10:15AM

  What were George H.W. Bush's credentials when Ford made him director of the CIA? ...He was a former congressman, ambassador and RNC chairman. What was his connection to the intelligence community?

  
  
• [8] Leonore from Stuyvesant Town January 06, 2009 - 10:15AM

  The goal for CIA director is not "efficiency" as in not making mistakes, but not being like the CIA of the 1970s and 1980s - overthrowing foreign governments, supporting deathsquad huntas, etc. Can Panetta set a standard of democratic integrity is the question?

  
  
• [9] superf88 January 06, 2009 - 10:16AM

  (Frontline, re the 1986 "Gallo Ammendment" when Panetta was a congressman)

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/president/players/gallo.html

  
  
• [10] Samuel from NYC January 06, 2009 - 10:17AM

  "Change we can believe in."

  In Obama's dictionary change means 'time before last' as in Clinton.

  why can't there be some new people in our government. This is insane. Its the same old gas guzzling car with a new paint job in my opinion.

  
  
• [11] Karen from Manhattan January 06, 2009 - 10:17AM

  Obama has chosen insiders in some areas, such as the economy and state department, and outsiders in others, such as the CIA appointment. I think that the pattern signals where he wants to make significant changes and where he wants to work within existing procedures and structures. Clearly, the failure of the CIA/FBI regarding 9/11 shows that we need to overhaul our intelligence services. This can be best done by "Obama's man" -- ie., an outsider -- rather than an insider. That's why he chose Panetta.

  
  
• [12] Karen from Manhattan January 06, 2009 - 10:18AM

  George H.W. Bush had been a spy, my dear.

  
  
• [13] anna from Manhattan January 06, 2009 - 10:18AM

  Since when is having relevant expeience in a particular discipline a requirement for getting a position? We have NUMEROUS examples of people who have no experience in working in a particular discipline or organization who are not leading the said organization but also setting policies for all the organizations within that discipline they have no background in.

  Just look across the street to the Tweed Courthouse.

  I say hire him.

  
  
• [14] R. Bennett from Pelham, NY January 06, 2009 - 10:19AM

  Historical Irony -- Wasn't George H.W. Bush the outsider brought in by President Ford to head the C.I.A after the excesses and lawbreaking allowed by the Nixon administration?

  
  
• [15] Jason from New York January 06, 2009 - 10:19AM

  Here is the transcript of the Frontline episode mentioned in #9

  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/president/presidentscript.html

  
  
• [16] Eric from B'klyn January 06, 2009 - 10:20AM

  I think the moral compass comment made on air is interesting. However, it appears that DENNIS BLAIR may be more controversial or ought to be; the journalist Allan Nairn is reporting that Blair was deeply involved in the East Timor invasion

  
  
• [17] The Truth from Atlanta/New York January 06, 2009 - 10:23AM

  Experience did NOT prevent the first 9/11. Terrorism has nothing to do with experience.

  
  
• [18] Karen from Manhattan January 06, 2009 - 10:23AM

  I had always been told that George H.S. Bush had been a covert agent while serving as ambassador, et al., and was therefore not an "outsider" to the "insiders."

  
  
• [19] Ramon from New York January 06, 2009 - 10:24AM

  When will we stop blaming everything on the CIA and start acknowledging that it was the Bush administration who misled the country on WMD?

  
  
• [20] David Harrington from NYC January 06, 2009 - 10:26AM

  Is this the same Spencer Ackerman from Camp Kinderland? Ha.

  
  
• [21] Leo from Queens January 06, 2009 - 10:28AM

  Have you taken 5 minutes to look at all of the appointees for his cabinet? - a LOT of new real competent dedicated people - There are only a couple of hacks.