“’Josh Gerstein” - Barack Obama unveils national security team
April 29, 2011 JOSH GERSTEIN
April 28, 2011
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53890.html
President Barack Obama formally unveiled the reshuffling of his national security team Thursday, including new nominees for Secretary of Defense and CIA director. Yet he also stressed that the new assignments will not bring significant change to the administration’s defense and anti-terrorism strategies.
“I’ve worked closely with most of the individuals on this stage, and all of them have my complete confidence,” Obama said as he announced the nominations during a ceremony moved from the Rose Garden to the East Room due to threatening weather. “Given the pivotal period that we’re entering into, I felt it was absolutely critical that we have this team in place so we can stay focused on our mission. … I cannot think of a group of individuals better suited to lead our national security team during this difficult time.”
Obama said the nominees will deliver the “counsel, continuity and unity of effort that this moment in history demands.”
The reshuffling — rumored for weeks and officially confirmed by the White House on Wednesday — will send CIA Director Leon Panetta to become Secretary of Defense, current U.S. commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus to head the CIA, veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker to become U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan and Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen to take Petraeus’s slot overseeing coalition troops in Afghanistan.
All of the assignments are subject to Senate confirmation, but that process is expected to go smoothly since all four nominees have been well received by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Obama praised Panetta’s work at the CIA before noting that his extensive resume will help him confront the significant budget pressure the Pentagon is expected to face in the coming years. “Just as Leon earned the trust and respect of our intelligence professionals at the CIA by listening to them and fighting fiercely on their behalf, I know he’ll do the same for our armed forces and their families,” Obama said. “As a former Office of Management and Budget director, he’ll ensure that even as we make tough budget decisions, we’ll maintain our military superiority.”
Panetta echoed that theme during his own brief remarks at the event, noting, “Today, we are a nation at war, and job one will be to ensure that we remain the strongest military power in the world.”
Yet he also alluded to upcoming budget cuts for the Defense Department, saying the U.S. faces “a time for hard choices. It’s about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged, but it’s also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation’s limited resources to defending America.”
Obama said Petraeus’s experience “uniquely positions him to lead” the CIA because he’s seen more than his share of intelligence reports during his tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. “As a lifelong consumer of intelligence, he knows that intelligence must be timely, accurate and acted upon quickly,” the president said.
Petraeus used his remarks to put in a quick plug for his work in Afghanistan, saying he’ll travel back there Friday “with a sense of guarded optimism about the trajectory of the mission.”
Obama said Crocker’s background, including his service as the first U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, makes him well-suited to return. “Few Americans know this region and its challenges better,” the president said. “This is exactly what is needed now in Afghanistan.”
The president also praised Allen, currently the No. 2 officer at U.S. Central Command and a former senior U.S. commander in Iraq, as “a battle-tested combat leader” and stressed that the general has been “deeply involved in planning and executing strategy in Afghanistan.” Allen has not been previously stationed in Afghanistan — a fact that Obama did not mention.
“I understand well the demands of this mission,” Allen said.
In a message to CIA employees Thursday, Panetta said he was leaving the agency “not without a heavy heart at the prospect of leaving this extraordinary organization.”
Panetta also boasted, in an apparent reference to the CIA’s drone operation in Pakistan, that the agency is “conducting our most aggressive operations against Al Qaeda and severely constraining their operational ability.”