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Woodward writes that Panetta never volunteered his opinion to the President and that Obama never asked for it. Remarkable. Jones should have insisted on getting an "opinion" from the lawyer Obama appointed to head the CIA, but didn't. Neither did Congress.
Not that Panetta lacked an opinion. I don't mean an unexpressed intelligence opinion on the projected effects of this or that course of action in Afghanistan. Panetta's opinion, Woodward writes, pertained to the fact that "Obama was facing a huge political reality."
From the point of view of an intelligence professional, retired with no stars, the following may just be the most damning two sentences in Woodward's book. The author says that Panetta told other principal advisers:
"No Democratic president can go against military advice, especially if he asked for it " So just do it. Do what they say."
(Harry Truman, who created the CIA not to conduct assassinations or fire missiles from drones but rather to give the president, without fear or favor, unadulterated intelligence on developments abroad, must be rolling over in his grave.}
Small wonder that retired four-star admiral Dennis Blair, as Director of National Intelligence nominally Panetta's boss, called the Afghanistan review process "the goddamndest thing I've ever seen."
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