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Where Is Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Getting His News on CIA Scandal? ‘I’m Reading the Papers Like You’

Nov. 13, 2012 5:02am Jonathon M. Seidl

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters on Monday that he’s getting at least some of his news on the CIA scandal surrounding disgraced former director David Petraeus the same way you are: by reading the papers.

“You know, I don’t know the answer to that,” the Weekly Standard quotes him as saying after being asked about when Petraeus’s affair started and if he would be prosecuted. “I guess, I’m reading the papers like you are to determine just what the committees finds out, what the ultimate investigation determines on that issue. We obviously are going to watch this closely to determine just exactly when that took place. But I think right now my view is lets see what the investigation turns up and what the congress, these committees are able to determine just exactly what took place.”

Panetta, however, is not a complete outsider to the agency. Many will remember that he preceded Petraeus as the CIA director. And now considering the entanglement of one of his active generals, John Allen, in the scandal, Panetta could be getting more hands on information than he expected.

“With regards to the future, you know, having served there the first 2 years of this administration, I think its really important to continue to have the CIA stay on track doing the job that is absolutely essential to our national security,” he added. “They have very important mission focused on intelligence and intelligence operations and I think it’s very important to get someone strong and capable and dedicated to be able to continue that effort. This is a critical time to make sure that with all the threats that we’re dealing with in the world, that we maintain a strong intelligence operation.”

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Comments (20)

JQP
Posted on November 14, 2012 at 7:06pm
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

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Nicholson William R
Posted on November 14, 2012 at 2:45pm
This all points to the failure of not only the administration but society in general. It used to be that wealthy and wise men of industry considered it a civic duty to serve in the armed forces , both to satisfy civic responsibility and to learn the real costs of serving. We need real leaders now and the public is not served by having only grads from commie lib progressive indoctrination centers as people in responsible positions. This country will continue to decline until we have true morally based leaders instead of the dope smokin ghoom gang …………

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VHVila
Posted on November 14, 2012 at 12:05pm
This administration and it’s foot soldiers (FBI, CIA, Congress…) truly believe the American people are stupid. As long as we, the American people, sit back and mumble or complain about the issues and do nothing, this Fraud President with his agenda of LIES will continue to play his game. Personally, I’ve had ENOUGH and I’m mad as hell!
I’m a mature, professional woman and commit myself to resisting this government with everything that is in me and at every turn. I may have to go to jail for being too outspoken or whatever, but I won’t go down without a fight nor will I go quietly! That is a promise to my fellow conservative citizens.

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ManFromMcKavett
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:59pm
Panetta-Stop playing the public for a fool – We know you’re getting your info from inside the CIA-We know you used to be the CIA boss man & we know you probably made good enough friends with a few that they still feed you info they are supposed to keep to themselves – Here what I’d like to know:
Why did Obama make a civilian the SecDef when he had a 4 star general that just retired that would have made a great SecDef but instead, Obama made him Dir. of CIA & took you from that job to be SecDef-Makes no sense at all – So, Mr. Panetta, please impress us with your impressive military experience – You do have some don’t you ??? And by the way, I see where people are crying for the death penalty for an Army enlisted man that allegedly killed 16 Afgans (or Pakistanies)-If he gets the death sentence, you damn well better see to it that the idiotic Muslim major at Ft. Hood gets the death sentence also !!!!!!! None of this crap about Obama soft peddling stuff to his Muslim friends !!! If our guy dies, this Muslim dude better die also !!!!!!! If you don’t pull that off, then don’t be surprised when driving to work you see folks holding signs telling you how much they don’t like you !!!!!

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ManFromMcKavett
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:43pm
Come on Panetta, quit playing the public for fools – you’re getting your info from someone inside the CIA dude – We’re smart enough to see that !! We know you used to be CIA boss man & we know you probably made good enough friends with a few to have them feed you info they’re supposed to keep to themselves. My question is why did Obama make you SecDef when Petraeus retired, because he would have made a great SecDef !! Panetta, impress us please with your impressive military experience – You do have some don’t you ??

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THKLVBRO
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:38pm
A side from the ovious-that Obama is working on destroying the Military. I think the whole thing has been spun to create a diverson from the media talking about the election fraud findings, and there are many. Remember Ron Imanual said, never let a good crisis go to waste. Hey! sex sells and that is all the media talks about all day long. Including Fox, what a disappointment.

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atagirl
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 7:45pm
All gave some,some gave all.NEVER FORGET BENGHAZI !!! Keep your eye on the ball….

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atagirl
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 7:39pm
All gave some,some gave all..NEVER FORGET BENGHAZI !! Keep your eye on the ball…

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integrityfunding
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 7:29pm
This really isn’t a surprise because we know live in a culture of uninformed, illiterate, useless idiots. The election all but confirmed that. And the conspiracy of the media is the final straw of that unless we have a revolution, America will not survive the decade.
The wave of petitions to secede from the union will be pick up more and more steam because the economy will get worse, and as the government becomes more impotent and more totalitarian, Obama will then do what we all believe he will do, over reach and then be exposed for the empty suit, the fraud that he is. And a desperate man with power is a very dangerous thing.
How 3 million Republicans could sit out the election, how 6 million “christians” could vote for a man who believes it is ok for a baby who survives abortion to die, alone, because that was the woman’s intent in the first place, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, gas prices, unemployment, 59 precincts in Philadelphia with ZERO votes for Romney, and all the useless idiots care about is Survivor, The Voice, American Idol, etc… well you get the picture.
The election may have only been lost by 1 to 2 million, but we are galaxies away in the ability to get the importance of the conservative message to America and with the takers now outpacing the producers, which way do you think politicians will go.
Panetta is a Clinton era politician, his “ignorance” is now the norm, complicit with the “chicago” culture of corruption.

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ezekiel22
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 3:53pm
This all a bunch of smoke and mirrors. If the MSM can ignore Benghazi then they are complicit in other scama as well. This is just another diversion to keep the sheeple happy. A real life soap opera if you will. Even the father of the writer that is in the middle of all of this says there is something much bigger going on.
For one thing Holder is connected with this. My view of him is that he is Obama’s hatchet man no less. Why announce it now considering that,”it was known,” since early summer? Now the WH says they did not know of this until the day of the election? Right!
Try this one on for size. The one institution that the American people have and still rely on is the military. No matter who was in the WH the military could be relied on as a stabilizing force as they are our sons and daughters serving. In them we are confident. In order to shake that confidence up there needs to be a pogrom that guts the guidance of the military. It has been rumored that there is an investigation into a cabal involving hundreds of officers. Look at the officers that have recently been replaced and where they have been stationed and what they were responsible for. Look at Benghazi and how that was handled. This investigation does promise to expand into something that nobody wants. What if Patraes instead of a biography was telling the writer how things really are when it comes to the milPanetta has no business being head of Defense. He is a mere politician nothing m

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vietnamvet
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 3:51pm
Leon Panetta says he did not have an Advance notice for the Benghazi Murders to react and help the 4 Americans, NOW this is the same LYING Sec. of Defense saying he is getting his news about General Petreaus Affair from newspaper. He was the Former CIA Chief before the General and NOW he does not get any news on what is going Down. FIRE him and the Rest of the CLOWNS. LIES & COVER UPS!!!

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Larry E
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 3:28pm
If that’s really true he’s even dumber than I thought.

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- smv803
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 5:28pm
  No, he thinks we are!
  
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wrecked
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 2:02pm
Really? The secretary of defense and he gets his news from the papers? I wonder if he got the news the same way when he was head of the CIA? Really cool spy stuff you can find it all in the new york times or in some of the upcomming editions of time magazine. How about a horoscope? We spend billions of dollars for this group? Lord help us all !!

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- turkey13
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 2:59pm
  Believe it – it is true. The grapevine says that when someone tweets that Obama just passed gas , old Leon runs up behind him and start sniffing.
  
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South Philly Boy
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 12:48pm
Yep, Just like good old bill clinton

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- NeilChapin
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 1:13pm
  This is without a doubt the most incompetent group of people ever assembled. Read fresh political commentary at:http://smallcraftadvisorychronicles.blogspot.com/
  
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garbagecanlogic
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:52am
Leon is just another example of “if you can’t do your job properly – then we promote ya”.

Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
The U.N. Out Of The U.S.

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noslave
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:26am
look at all the money we can save by eliminateing the seemingly incompetent fbi, the cia,and all the other so called INTELLEGENCE AGENCYS??JUST PICK A HONEST NEWSPAPER TO GET YOUR INFO??MAYBE PANETTA SUGGESTS PRAVDA??

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- Platonician
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 12:03pm
  You are right. These agencies were created to protect America from communism, now that communists are in control, the FBI and the CIA are their tools of repression and psychological warfare. They are just what the Gestapo and KGB were in Germany and the USSR.
  
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