Big Fish 102 - Buenos dias, vacaciones!

One of the few balanced and somewhat rigorous looks at Leon Panetta and how he'll do as the new director at CIA.

Intelligence Design - The New Republic

Since Obama tapped him for the job, critics have mocked Panetta's lack of experience within the intelligence establishment. But the fiasco over pre-war intelligence about Iraq's WMD program--the "slam dunk" that wasn't--underscores the importance of having a rigorous empiricist at the helm of the agency. "The thread that runs through his career is integrity," says Erick Mullen, a longtime former aide to Panetta.

Still, if Panetta thrives as a stabilizing force, he may not have the vision and imagination the CIA now needs. Establishment Men tend to succeed by virtue of a certain caution. Since leaving Washington, Panetta has charted a comfortable path of TV appearances and corporate boards. ... Panetta also served on the Iraq Study Group, that ultimate gathering of "wise men" whose near-hopeless view of the war more accurately captured public opinion than reality on the ground. This kind of complacency is already plaguing the CIA, which time and again has failed to adjust to new conditions and alignments.