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Obama names intel picks, vows no torture
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 | CIA pick signals shift Jan. 6: Leon Panetta as nominee to lead the CIA points to a major change in direction for U.S. intelligence policy. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports. Nightly News |
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 Obama accepts Nobel, acknowledges reality Dec. 10: Praised by the Nobel Committee for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize under the shadow of war. ITN’s Juliet Bremner reports. |
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F-22 conflict of interest inquiry
Blair is also expected to face questions about a conflict of interest investigation over the F-22 jet fighter. He resigned from a Pentagon think tank two years ago after the Senate Armed Services Committee raised questions about his membership on the boards of two defense contractors whose work the think tank was reviewing. Obama's presidential opponent, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, was one of three senators who called for the investigation in 2006.
In the meantime, Panetta's prospects for a smooth nomination hearing appeared to improve this week. Word he had been selected was greeted by incoming Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., with shock. S
he said Monday she had not been consulted on the pick. On Tuesday, she and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the outgoing Democratic intelligence chairman from West Virginia, had spoken to Obama, who apologized for the slight, and to Panetta and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Panetta was not their first choice, Rockefeller said. They both had pushed for the promotion of current Deputy CIA Director Steve Kappes, a popular and respected longtime officer.
Rockefeller said that news that Obama had asked Kappes to remain in his job softened his view on Panetta a great deal.
Brennan as counterterror adviser
Obama also nominated John Brennan to be his Homeland Security adviser for counterterrorism.
Brennan, a career CIA official, was the first director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the intelligence agency's locus for terrorism strategy and analysis. He had been considered Obama's leading candidate for CIA director, but bowed out late last year after critics said he was too close to the Bush administration's interrogation policies.
It has been reported that Brennan, as a single adviser reporting directly to the president, would oversee and restructure counterterrorism policy for the Obama administration.
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