Barack Obama picks CIA director as next secretary of defence in reshuffle

Published on Wednesday 27 April 2011 18:19

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has named CIA director Leon Panetta as the next US secretary of defence. He will move General David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, into the CIA chief's job, in a major reshuffle of US national security leadership.

The changes will probably take effect this summer. Current defence secretary Robert Gates has already said he will leave this year, and the White House wants to schedule Senate confirmation hearings in the coming months.

Mr Obama also named Lieutenant General John Allen to replace Gen Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and diplomat Ryan Crocker to be the next US ambassador in Afghanistan. The long-anticipated overhaul could have broad implications for the Obama administration, which is pursuing deeper defence spending cuts in the face of a yawning budget deficit and will start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan this July.

Mr Panetta is a Democratic party insider seen as close to Mr Obama who could be more receptive to deeper defence spending cuts than outgoing defence secretary Robert Gates, a hold-over from the Republican Bush administration.

By choosing Gen Petraeus to head the CIA, Mr Obama advances perhaps the US military's most famous general and a hero among Republicans to one of the most important and difficult posts to fill in his administration.

Gen Petraeus, 58, is credited with pulling Iraq from the brink of civil war and has trumpeted battlefield successes in Afghanistan since late 2009.