Obama Team Debating Whether Kappes Will Join Panetta and Blair for PEBO Intel Announcement
EmailABC NEWS’ GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS AND JAKE TAPPER REPORT:
ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama is debating whether the current deputy director of the CIA, 27-year agency veteran Stephen Kappes, will be present when Obama unveils his Intelligence Team Friday. The President-elect will likely keep Kappes in his current No. 2 role.
This step would largely be done as a way of placating critics who have expressed concern about his pick for CIA director, former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, and said he lacks direct intelligence experience.
Some, such as both Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the incoming chair of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, the outgoing chair, have made it clear that they would have liked to have seen an intelligence professional get the director’s job, with Kappes’s name often mentioned.
Including Kappes in the announcement could symbolize that the agency will be run by both an outsider who has the confidence of the president, and a longtime insider — the best of both worlds.
Mr. Obama’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, will also be formally announced.
– Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos
UPDATE: This post has been updated.
Santorum Clarifies Concerns on Women in Combat 
Gulf of Mexico to Become Gulf of America?
Great, everything the guys does has a political overtone. That has been so good for America in the past. (sarcsm).
Panetta is a heck of a lot better than most CIA directors we have had. So quit trying to placate Fienstien and Fox ‘News’
Posted by: Blake | January 8, 2009, 11:55 am 11:55 am
jpt writes:
“The blog was updated to reflect the Obama Team’s changing view of this situation.”
Apparently it was “updated” to remove information about “Mr. Obama’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, Retired Admiral Dennis Blair”. WHY?? If the US is now a right-wing military dictatorship, instead of hopey-change land, might as well just announce it, and let those who want to leave, leave.
Do The One’s people-pickers somehow NOT have the ability to search the internet for the history of their proposed picks? (WHO is proposing these picks? What do they HAVE on PEBO? Maybe He’d better fess up and declare His independence.)
Here’s MORE on Blair, whose proposed appointment should ENRAGE Democrats:
“In April 2000, over the objections of U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Robert S. Gelbard, members of Congress and State Department officials, Blair made the first high-level visit to Indonesia since all military assistance was cut off in the aftermath of the 1999
independence referendum in East Timor.”
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 12:03 pm 12:03 pm
We should all prepare ourselves for another attack on American soil.
Obama has zero foreign policy experience.
Hillary Clinton has none unless you want to count her story of dodging bullets in Bosnia.
The incoming Director of Homeland Security only knows about immigration enforcement because of her experience in Arizona.
The Attorney General knows nothing about combating terrorism and pardoned of the FALN terrorists.
Panetta, is the worse choice to head CIA, has no experience and was formally notably as head of the Budget committee, OMB director, and Chief of Staff to the President.
This Obama administration will be like Carter. One term and he will be done in by a foreign crisis and run us into debt.
I saw his speech, it appears that Obama is nostalgic for his campaign days. Which speech did he pull that from October 13, 2008??? Again with the change rhetoric. I didn’t vote for Obama but January 20th couldn’t get here any faster. Then he can stop hiding behind “One president at a time” and Change.
Posted by: Peace Train | January 8, 2009, 12:07 pm 12:07 pm
Blair has a history of corporate conflict-of-interest in uniform, and of pursuing his own foreign policy. This information is EASILY accessible on the internet, and can NOT be unknown to the “Obama” organization.
What the Hell is going on with these people? Is the Congress REALLY going to go along with this?
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
Oooops..
Posted by: socalindep | January 8, 2009, 12:10 pm 12:10 pm
“We should all prepare ourselves for another attack on American soil.”
The next one might NOT be an inside job, at this rate. Maybe the Brits — or, heck, the Germans — will invade to liberate Americans from whatever this cabal actually IS.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Is this means that Team Obama are still debating?
Posted by: anonymous | January 8, 2009, 12:19 pm 12:19 pm
jpt writes:
“This post has been updated.”
Hmm. That replaces “The blog was updated to reflect the Obama Team’s changing view of this situation.”
IS the “Obama Team” suppressing the public posting of truthful information about Blair’s right-wing, loose-cannon history?
WHY? is the first question — another question is whether ABC is obliged to cooperate in suppressing information?
Is the Bill of Rights suspended? If it is, it’s time for a … REAL change.
Posted by: Smedley Butler | January 8, 2009, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
Obama:
“WE’LL SPEND OUR WAY OUT OF THIS”
..Yep one term Barry.
Posted by: Peace Train | January 8, 2009, 12:37 pm 12:37 pm
WHY would the “Obama” organization put a retired Admiral with an infamous history of mutiny against “civilian authority” — a president, if fact — in charge of ANYTHING to do with intelligence?
If the “Obama Team” appointments are being made under coercion by some sinister force, PEBO should squeal like Piglet, perhaps to the “civilian” Justice Department, for rescue.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 12:39 pm 12:39 pm
It’s understandable why Feinstein is speaking out against Panetta if you take her voting record into consideration. She consistently supported Bush legislation on interrogation methods, war and surveillance. Rockefeller was similarly aligned with the Bush administration.
Posted by: kat | January 8, 2009, 12:45 pm 12:45 pm
DiFi already said that she supports Panetta now. Jake, why isn’t that in your blog?
Posted by: Cameron | January 8, 2009, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
Thank you President Bush for keeping my family safe for the past seven years.
Posted by: Peace Train | January 8, 2009, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
“It’s understandable why Feinstein is speaking out against Panetta”
It WOULD be understandable, even laudable, if she WERE.
“Obama” symps should ask themselves why the Chicago group would go around the Oregon AND California Senators in this way in favor of Panetta, of all people.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
According to ABC news and other outlets, Feinstein and Rockefeller have clearly expressed their misgivings bout Panetta. That is why Obama is compromising by keeping Kappe in his present intelligence position.
Posted by: kat | January 8, 2009, 1:16 pm 1:16 pm
“..Yep one term Barry.”
I am not so sure he is a one termer. The guy can raise a billion dollars. And thats before he starts parceling out trillions. Everybody needs to be on his good side.
How are you going to complete against a billion dollars? Especially since the free media is going to be in favor of Barry by a 40-50 point spread.
I do think this is a one term House though.
Posted by: BertieW | January 8, 2009, 1:22 pm 1:22 pm
“How are you going to complete against a billion dollars?”
With the truth about Pelosi-Panetta et al.? A little history on Admiral Blair, Tom Daschle, the Chiquita banana AG pick, David Axelrod?
How’s a “change” Democrat so closely aligned with right-wing military forces in Indonesia, Colombia, etc., you gotta wonder.
If the Congress goes along with Blair, they completely deserve the meltdown to come.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
Belle- he wasnt even in town at the time! He never met Blago or Rezko. Cant we move on? What about Bush?
All he has to do is not confess and he probably has a built base of 30% support and 210 EVs.
Posted by: BertieW | January 8, 2009, 1:56 pm 1:56 pm
“All he has to do is not confess … ”
The CHANGEling, you mean? I have a funny feeling somebody’s gonna confess FOR Him, y’know? :^|
One feels a certain nostalgia for John Edwards, the populist with the plainly heterosexual zipper problem.
Sending incorrigible rich kids into the military to become intelligence officers, instead of to prison, might, in retrospect, NOT have been the best policy.
Posted by: Smedley Butler | January 8, 2009, 2:09 pm 2:09 pm
“210 EVs”
Well, if the Congress accepts Him, it’s their funeral.
Posted by: Belle Starr | January 8, 2009, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm
I’m glad they’re keeping Kappes in there, they need at least on official who knows the way to the restrooms – in the building.
Posted by: Todd | January 8, 2009, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm
Thank you President Bush and the Republican Congress for running record deficits for 6 years straight! Nice going Republicans!
You’ve left the country in fine shape. Bin Laden not caught, 2 wars costing
billions a week, a STRONG economy .. .
What more could you ask for from a government?
Posted by: pefros | January 9, 2009, 1:21 am 1:21 am
My god – don’t any of the Obama zealots hold him to accountability?
He is searching to create a government and it is hurting
Not the genious you hoped for
Posted by: volunteer | February 13, 2009, 9:26 pm 9:26 pm