In SpyTalk, Jeff Stein quotes intelligence professionals who believe incoming CIA chief Leon Panetta will be in a world of hurt with his deputy, Steve Kappes:
The lionization of Kappes among ops veterans at the CIA still rankles some officials from that era, who think [Porter] Goss got a raw deal.
I would say that if Kappes is kept on,’ said one, still bitter, ‘Panetta will need to watch out for the first time he crosses him. There will be more nasty leaks and innuendo and ‘experienced’ officers leaving in a huff.’
Another Goss-era official warns that Panetta “is doomed with this arrangement, one way or the other”:
‘He should be insisting, if ‘change’ is really what the Obama administration wants at CIA, that he gets to clean house. [...]‘‘Otherwise, he will be managing and working against cross purposes with those who carried out the very policies they believe to be inhumane and improper.’
Of course, Panetta isn’t Goss, Obama isn’t Bush, there’s Blair and there’s Jones and there’s Johnsen, and all in all, it’s a whole new ballgame.
