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Will Panetta Be a Problem or a Prize as CIA Chief?

January 6, 2009 at 11:42 am

Given how badly the Obama transition team mishandled its previous pick to head the CIA, news that President-elect Obama intends to nominate Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, to this sensitive post is a stunner –- and a relief.

Some students of the clandestine world were immediately critical: California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, for instance, the incoming chairwoman of the Senate’s intelligence panel, said she had long thought the job should go to an “intelligence professional.” Had team Obama not bothered to brief her in advance about its choice?

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Shattered Peace

December 26, 2008  •  The Daily Beast

President-elect Obama has said that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is a top foreign policy priority. But the habitually deplorable state of Arab-Israeli relations has deteriorated to the point where even the most talented of special envoys may be unable to stop the downward spiral, much less broker a treaty.

Last week, Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization that controls Gaza, announced it was ending its six-month cease-fire with Israel, because, it claimed, Israel had failed to lift its blockade or fulfill other pledges. Israel, for its part, accused Hamas of bad faith, justifying its missiles attacks and the blockade of food and supply shipments into Gaza on grounds that the cross-border rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities never really stopped.

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