Petraeus to take over CIA, Panetta to Pentagon: reports
ANNE GEARAN, KIMBERLY DOZIER
Washington— The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, Apr. 27, 2011
Administration sources say President Barack Obama plans this week to name CIA Director Leon Panetta to replace Defence Secretary Robert Gates, and Gen. David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, would take the CIA chief's job.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes are not final.
The changes would probably take effect this summer. Mr. Gates has already said he will leave this year.
The officials say Obama is expected to also announce that Lt. Gen. John Allen would replace Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and that diplomat Ryan Crocker will be the next U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan.
The changes are expected to be announced Thursday at the White House.
In the coming months, President Barack Obama, who is preparing to begin bringing U.S. forces home from Afghanistan this summer, will have to name replacements for Mr. Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, other senior military leaders and probably Gen. Petraeus himself.
Gen. Petraeus, who took over as Afghanistan war commander in June, is expected to leave that post before the end of this year. Adm. Mullen, the nation's top military officer, will leave his post in the fall.
U.S. military and civilian defense leaders call 2011 the make-or-break year for turning around the war in Afghanistan and laying the path for a gradual U.S. exit by 2015. The main obstacles are the uncertain leadership and weak government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the open question of whether the Taliban can be integrated into Afghan political life and the continued safe harbor Pakistan provides for militants attacking U.S. and NATO forces over the border in Afghanistan.
Gen. Petraeus claims that military advances, especially in the traditional Taliban stronghold areas of southern Afghanistan, have blunted the Taliban-led insurgency and given the edge to the U.S. and its NATO partners. A planned transition to Afghan security control begins this year, and the U.S. wants to start withdrawing some of its approximately 100,000 forces in July.
The nearly wholesale changes at the top of Mr. Obama's Afghanistan military and diplomatic lineup will leave fewer military and civilian leaders who have Mr. Obama's ear and who also have Afghanistan experience.
The top candidate to replace Adm. Mullen, a Navy admiral, as Joint Chiefs chairman is Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who has never has served there. The same is true for the leading candidate to replace Gen. Petraeus whenever he goes, Marine Lt. Gen. John Allen. Gen. Petraeus' top deputy, Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, who also is leaving, has one of the longest Afghanistan resumes in the U.S. military.
