Panetta has unusual portfolio to be CIA chief

By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON—Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's surprise choice to head the CIA, clearly isn't someone with much hands-on national security or intelligence experience.


But no one disputes that the man knows government... the federal bureaucracy as a former... chief of staff for President Bill Clinton..


"It is true that he doesn't have an intelligence background..



A former Republican... A lawyer, Panetta became a Democrat in 1971...


Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, said Panetta's selection was an invigorating gamble by Obama.