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Obama says Panetta, Blair will help restore record on human rights
By Pamela Hess
and Lolita Baldor
Associated Press
Published on Saturday, Jan 10, 2009
WASHINGTON: Promising to protect the United States while adhering to its core human values, President-elect Barack Obama formally unveiled his intelligence team Friday, praising their integrity, management skills and willingness to tell him the truth.
''We must adhere to our values as diligently as we protect our safety with no exceptions,'' Obama said.
Obama picked retired Adm. Dennis Blair as the national intelligence director and Leon Panetta to head the CIA.
He called them ''public servants with unquestioned integrity, broad experience, and strong managers with the core pragmatism that we need in dangerous times.''
Obama said he has given the men the clear charge to restore the United States' record on human rights.
''I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals,'' he said.
Obama said that the country learned ''tough lessons'' under the Bush administration, and he will demand intelligence assessments ''grounded solely in the facts, and not seek information to suit any ideological agenda.''
Blair, a former head of the U.S. Pacific Command, pledged to uphold the standards that Obama articulated ''and that the American people have a right to expect.''
Blair won high marks for countering terrorism in southeast Asia after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He worked closely with foreign partners in crafting offensives that crippled the Jemaah Islamiyah terror faction in Indonesia and the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines.
Panetta, a former congressman, White House chief of staff and budget director with no direct intelligence experience, will have the president's ''complete trust and substantial clout,'' Obama said.
''He has handled intelligence daily at the very highest levels, and time and again he has demonstrated sound judgment, grace under fire, and complete integrity,'' he said.
Obama is also tapping John Brennan to head homeland security and counterterrorism on the National Security Council.
Michael Leiter will remain on as the director of the national Counterterrorism Center.
Outgoing National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell will serve on Obama's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Obama has also asked the CIA's current deputy, Steve Kappes, to remain at the agency.
WASHINGTON: Promising to protect the United States while adhering to its core human values, President-elect Barack Obama formally unveiled his intelligence team Friday, praising their integrity, management skills and willingness to tell him the truth.
Get the full article here.
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