WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will name former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta to head the Central Investigation Agency (CIA), said media reports on Monday.
According to reports from CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times, the 70-year-old White House veteran is to be named as the CIA director, a key player in the country's anti-terrorism and intelligence efforts.
Citing Democratic officials, the media reported that Obama is also to pick retired Adm. Dennis Blair for National Intelligence Director.
Born in an Italian family in California, Panetta was an activist of student politics. With a bachelor's degree in political science and Juris doctor, he joined the army in 1964.
He was elected as the congressman for California in 1976 and maintained his seat in the House till 1993. Starting 1994, he served as the chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
However, Obama's choice for the CIA is considered a surprise since Panetta had no experience in the intelligence community, except that he was a member of the Iraq Study Group in 2006, a bipartisan panel that made recommendations to President George W. Bush's administration on the Iraq war.
In contrast with Panetta, Blair, the former head of U.S. Pacific Command, would be named to the post with little surprise.
Blair served in the Navy for 34 years and served as chief of the U.S. Pacific Command during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was also an expert on China, and worked on cooperation between the military and the CIA.
It is the latest move of Obama's transitional office to complete the new government that is set to take office on Jan. 20.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and his family will move into the Hay-Adams hotel across the street to the White House this weekend, his aides said Thursday.
It is partly because Obama's daughters, Sasha and Malia, will have to attend their new school in Washington next week, the Obama transition team said in a statement. Full story
WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Barack Obama's leadership rating hit the highest mark for a president-elect on that characteristic in nearly three decades, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.
Seventy-six percent of Americans questioned in the CNN survey said Obama is a "strong and decisive" leader. Full story
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's economic recovery plan will not only aim for meeting short-term needs, but also will lay the groundwork for long-term growth and prosperity, his top economic advisor said.
Obama's economic team is "crafting a broad proposal, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, to support the jobs and incomes essential for recovery while also making a down payment on our nation's long-term financial health," Lawrence Summers, who will lead White House National Economic Council in the Obama administration, wrote in an article published on Sunday's The Washington Post. Full story
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama vowed on Tuesday that he would work with governors from both parties to tackle the current financial crisis.
"To solve this crisis and to ease the burden on our states, we need action, and action now," Obama spoke to a bipartisan group of governors in Philadelphia. Full story
