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To be doing this such that somebody like myself can harass them as such, david? the chairman of the house and senate intelligence committees and the ranking members and the other senior congressional leadership. so-called gang of eight. they know all the secrets and they have to police them and ride herd for the nation because the public won t know and shouldn t know. they will and they have to do their job. thank you for the analysis and helping to educate us and see through some of the musical chairs, gentlemen. david, a pleasure. tony, it is always a pleasure. thank you, guys. we ll take a little bit of a break here. coming up as we just mentioned, the mill tarization of america, particularly the intelligence agency. we have the story you probably have not heard about this latest game of white house musical chairs. plus, is the president now the one who refuses to let the birther debate die? keeps bringing it upality ....
And take the cia guy and put him in charge of the pentagon? how blurry s the line between the military and american intelligence and is that a good or a bad thing and how are we to know? well, i think that jury s out for a while. i have worked on both sides. i think mr. vickers coming over from cia who s now the senior intelligence officer for the pentagon, he was well-known in charlie wilson s war for being one of the guys working at cia and the influence is increasing and the pentagon cross pollination going on. frankly we have talked about this before on your show. the big footprint of forces forward isn t helping us and i think it s time to be smarter about the application of deadly force and a good move in many ways. the one skepticism or concern and i m sure we ll talk about this later in the program, david, is what is the what are with to think of a world where the public war may be diminishing but the secret war being waged by the cia may be increasing? well, we should ....
On defense is does the withdrawal of general petraeus from the theater of war in afghanistan open the door for an easier withdrawal politically or rhetorically from the middle east, or is that, again, leaping to conclusions, tony? i think we are on a path to so-called decent interval and take very hard looks at what we are trying to achieve and i think some very hard realities that look. i admire general petraeus. he s a great guy. let s use the house metaphor. he built a great house and every stick of wood is infected with termites and leaving the issue is pakistan and may be the upside of it. the real battle in pakistan waged by cia and may be the one upside. and creates the segue i was heading to, david. does the decision moving away from the department of defense and wars and looking at the new cia, a cia run by a commanding ....
Decision to put a cia director in charge of the pentagon? well, i think mr. panetta s being hired because of his deeper background relating to budget and i have seen a lot of talk about the fact he s been compared to clark clifford coming in gnthe nam vietnam era. cap wineberger had a reputation of being a cost cutter but chartered to win the war. my concern here is the record at cia has not been stellar and in my earlier preinterview with your folks i talked about the fact it s bob nardeli ceo of home depot hired to chrysler. i m not convinced that someone without the best record in one organization with five times the responsibility is a good move. david srks that the right interpretation, though, that this is a set-up for potential budget cutting and a major overhaul at the pentagon or ....
General in the middle east, is tony s interpretation the right one, the cia will now become a paramilitary organization focusing on pakistan under the guidance of a former military general? is that right? the cia is a paramilitary organization. it has those capabilities. i think this is a signal that the administration is serious about the exit ramp, declining numbers of uniform military personnel starting this july. i think within a year we ll see all of the 30,000 person surge out of afghanistan. and i think that general petraeus in his new role at cia will have oversight of predator drones, of operations, personnel on the ground. this will move in afghanistan and to the extent possible in pakistan to a paramilitary opposed to a uniform military campaign over two or three years. david, the type of policy discussions seem like they have a certain level of political ....