Panetta at CIA: 'Clean break from past'

by Rebecca Cole and updated as hearing continued and ended

The Senate Intelligence Committee has taken up the nomination of Leon Panetta, former congressman from California and onetime chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, for director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

There was no vote today, but plenty of talk.

While Panetta's confirmation is expected, new questions have arisen this week surrounding the work he has done in the private sector -- collecting speaking fees from firm troubled banks and a company that does business with the Defense Department. And some have questioned from the start President Barack Obama's appointment of a CIA director who has no experience in the intelligence community.

But it was largely the conduct of the CIA and its relationship with Congress that was in question here -- with Panetta assuring senators that he will work closely with Congress and avert the abuses for which the CIA has been criticized in recent years.

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, told Panetta as the hearing got underway this afternoon: "Many of us were surprised by your nomination because we believed that the next CIA director should have a professional intelligence background, which you clearly do not have. This raises a number of questions that I will seek your answers to today and as the committee considers your nomination.''

At the same time, Bond may have presaged committee approval of Panetta (pictured at the hearing in a photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images) with this remark:

"For too many years we have had turf battles and power struggles as individual agencies and departments try to protect their own piece of the pie and their budgets. I am hopeful, that with your cooperation, we can make these destructive battles a thing of the past.''

Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who initially had voiced concern about the White House not confiding in her before nominating Panetta, said as she opened the hearing today that the White House views the appointment as "a clean break from the past, from secret interrogations and to break from analysis that was wrong and a product of bad practice that helped lead our nation to war.''

"I know Washington,'' Panetta told the committee, "I think I know why it works, and I think I know why it fails to work.''

Panetta acknowledged the tremendous change that the agency has undergone since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including the failure to prevent them.

Panetta also recounted the misidentification of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in 2002 and the controveries over the laws and policies governing rendition, detention and interrogation.

"I want to put that era behind us. We are a nation at war. Since 9/11, the CIA has been in an operational tempo unlike anything it has experienced in its history," Panetta said.

"I believe the director should be instrumental in shaping the role of the CIA in the 21st Century to protect this nation. We will remain clear-eyed about the threats and to always perform our responsibiliites according to the law and Constitution."

Panetta said the CIA's first responsibility will be to prevent surprise, and to that end, he will do everythig possible to improve coordination among the various agencies that operate under the Director of National Intelligence -- the coordination of those agencies representing the central reform initiated in the intelligence community after 9/11.

Panetta also alluded to the contentious relationship between the CIA and the Congress during the past several years, saying he wanted to rebuild a relationship of trust between the two groups.

Select members of Congress -- the House Speaker and minority leader, the Senate majority and minority leaders, and the chairmen and ranking members of the Intelligence committees -- had been privy to the most sensitive information, leaving others on the Intelligence committees to complain of being left in the dark.

"I believe the "Gang of 8" process was overused, and therefore abused,'' Panetta said. "Keeping this committee fully and currently informed is not optional. It is the law.''

Bond asked if Panetta was suggesting that the U.S. has sent suspects to foreign countries for torture under rendition.

"I do not have any direct evidence of that.'' Panetta said.

If the U.S. captures four or five "dangerous terrorists," Bond asked where would the CIA hold them -- "I assume you don't want to let them go."

Individuals held in a non-"black site" would have acess to the Red Cross, Panetta said, they would be held on a temporary basis, and the conventions of the Army field manual would apply to their treatment and interrogrations. The president has signed an order that interrogations must follow the field manual's strictures against torture.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked: "Our country wants to know how you would deal with the human-ticking time bomb - the person who has crticial, urgent-threat information and you need to secure that information.''

"I think we have to do everything possible within the law get that information. And that's what I would do if I were the director of the CIA," Panetta said.

Wyden asked the nominee if he would be willing "to work with me and this committee to start declassifying some of the information about the CIA's interrogations?"

Panetta's answer: Yes.

Bond, apparently not satisfied with Panetta's answers to his earlier responses on extraordinary renditions, opted for another chance to further grill the nominee about Panetta's statement about the U.S. sending people to other countries for torture.

"Were you fully advised of the extraordinary rendition during his tenure as chief of staff in the Clinton administration," Bond asked.

"I have not seen specific information and did not have access to specific information within the agency," Panetta said. He concluded by saying much of what he knew was "what I've seen in the press'' -- earning Panetta a sharp rebuke.

"That's a much different statement," Bond said.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) offered some praise for Panetta's skill in working across agencies and for his directness of his responses.

"He is perfectly situated not only to represent the interests of the CIA within our government, but to convey an important message to the rest of the world - that when you are talking to the director of the CIA you can be assured that he is speaking for the president and the whole of the administration," Feingold said.

The question of Panetta's outsider status appeared to be firmly dismissed by Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va), in his opening statement: "Mr. Panetta, I am delighted by your appointment."

Rockefeller asked about a recent statement made by former Vice President Dick Cheney about concerns that the Obama's administration would "turn the other cheek" against terrorists and that "everything would be OK if we just talk nice to the terrorists."

After expressing his disappointment over those comments, Panetta said he thinks the country is a stronger nation when it abides by the law: "If we don't act together to protect this country, that is the surest way to lose our security."

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) asked about the most infamous terrorist still at large. "What do you think it says about our country that we can't catch Osama bin Laden?"

Panetta responded by saying he asked himself that question nearly every day. "It would be one of my priorities, frankly, to find him and bring him to justice."

The flurry of interest in Panetta's nearly $1 million in earnings from consultant and speaking gigs in 2008 appears to be of minor concern to the committee. Not one senator has posed a question asking about Panetta's financial disclosure statement, released yesterday, or about his service on several corporate boards and institutions.

In light of the Obama administration's continued difficulties with a number of its nominations, including former Sen. Tom Dachle withdrawing his nomination upon discovery of unpaid back taxes and his own lucrative time in the private sector, there was some expectation that Panetta would be similarly grilled.

But it appears that the confirmation will be smooth sailing for Panetta.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked Panetta about the recent ABC News-break about the CIA station chief in Algeria allegedly raping two Muslim women. Both Hatch and Feinstein expressed outrage that the committee was not told of the months-long investigation, and had to find out via the press.

Hatch pointedly expressed concern that the goodwill that President Barack Obama had generated by appearing on Al Arabiya television for his first post-election interview was squandered when just days later news broke of the Algergian problem.

"What would you have done differently?" Hatch asked.

Panetta responded by saying that person should have been brought back to the U.S. for questioning and relieved of his post.

By the end of the afternoon, with several floor votes on the economic stimulus package pending on the Senate floor,Feinstein recessed the hearings until 10 am EST Friday.