Leon Panetta | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2011 | |
| 23rdUnited States Secretary of Defense | |
| In office July 1, 2011 – February 26, 2013 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Deputy | William J. Lynn III Ash Carter |
| Preceded by | Robert Gates |
| Succeeded by | Chuck Hagel |
| 3rdDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency | |
| In office February 13, 2009 – June 30, 2011 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Deputy | Stephen Kappes Michael Morell |
| Preceded by | Michael Hayden |
| Succeeded by | Michael Morell (acting) |
| 18thWhite House Chief of Staff | |
| In office July 17, 1994 – January 20, 1997 | |
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Mack McLarty |
| Succeeded by | Erskine Bowles |
| 29th Director of theOffice of Management and Budget | |
| In office January 21, 1993 – July 17, 1994 | |
| President | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Richard Darman |
| Succeeded by | Alice Rivlin |
| Chair of theHouse Budget Committee | |
| In office January 3, 1989 – January 21, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Gray |
| Succeeded by | Martin Olav Sabo |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 21, 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Burt Talcott |
| Succeeded by | Sam Farr |
| Constituency | 16th district (1977–1993) 17th district (1993) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Leon Edward Panetta (1938-06-28)June 28, 1938 (age 87) Monterey, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican (before 1971) Democratic (1971–present) |
| Spouse | Sylvia Varni |
| Children | 3, includingJimmy |
| Education | Santa Clara University (BA,JD) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1964–1966 |
| Rank | First Lieutenant |
| Awards | Army Commendation Medal |
Panetta testifying on collaboration between the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. Recorded July 25, 2012 | |
Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938)[1] is an American retired politician and government official who has served under several Democratic administrations asSecretary of Defense (2011–2013),Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2009–2011),White House Chief of Staff (1994–1997), director of theOffice of Management and Budget (1993–1994), as well as aU.S. representative fromCalifornia (1977–1993).
Panetta was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993. He served under PresidentBill Clinton as Director of theOffice of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994 and asWhite House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997. He cofounded the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in 1997 and served as a distinguished scholar tochancellorCharles B. Reed of theCalifornia State University system and as a professor ofpublic policy atSanta Clara University.
In January 2009, newly elected presidentBarack Obama nominated Panetta to bedirector of the Central Intelligence Agency.[2][3] Panetta was confirmed by theSenate in February 2009. As director of the CIA, Panetta oversawthe operation that killedOsama bin Laden. On April 28, 2011, Obama announced the nomination of Panetta as defense secretary to replace the retiringRobert Gates. In June, the Senate confirmed Panetta unanimously and he assumed the office on July 1, 2011.[4][5]David Petraeus became CIA director on September 6, 2011.[6]
Since retiring as Defense Secretary in 2013, Panetta has served as chairman of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, located atCalifornia State University, Monterey Bay, a campus of the California State University that he helped establish during his tenure as congressman.[7] The institute is dedicated to motivating and preparing people for lives of public service and helping them to become more knowledgeably engaged in the democratic process. He also serves on a number of boards and commissions and frequently writes and lectures on public-policy issues.
Secretary Panetta's son,Jimmy Panetta, has held the elder Panetta's former seat in the US House of Representatives since 2017.
Panetta was born inMonterey, California, the son of Carmelina Maria (Prochilo) and Carmelo Frank Panetta,Italianimmigrants fromSiderno inCalabria, Italy. In the 1940s, the Panetta family owned a restaurant in Monterey.[8]
He was raised in the Monterey area and attended twoCatholic grammar schools: San Carlos School (Monterey) and Junípero Serra School (Carmel). He attendedMonterey High School, where he became involved in student politics, and was a member of theJunior Statesmen of America.[9] As a junior, he was the vice president of the student body, and as a senior, he became its president.[10] In 1956, he enteredSanta Clara University and graduatedmagna cum laude in 1960 with a BA inpolitical science. In 1963, he received aJuris Doctor from theSanta Clara University School of Law.
In 1964, he joined theUnited States Army as asecond lieutenant, served as an officer in theArmy Military Intelligence Corps, and received theArmy Commendation Medal.[11] In 1966, he was discharged as afirst lieutenant.[12]
Panetta started in politics in 1966 as alegislative assistant to RepublicansenatorThomas Kuchel, theSenate Minority whip from California, whom Panetta has called "a tremendous role model."[13]
In 1969, Panetta became the assistant toRobert H. Finch,secretary of theUnited States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under theNixon administration. Soon thereafter, he was appointed director of theOffice for Civil Rights.[14]
Panetta chose to enforcecivil rights and equal-education laws over the objection of Richard Nixon, who wanted enforcement to move slowly in keeping with his strategy to gain political support among Southern whites.[citation needed]Robert Finch and assistant secretaryJohn Veneman supported Panetta and refused to fire him, threatening to resign if forced to do so.[15] Eventually forced from office in 1970, Panetta left Washington to work as an executive assistant forJohn Lindsay, the mayor of New York City. Panetta wrote about his Nixon administration experience in his 1971 bookBring Us Together.[16]
He returned to Monterey to practice law at Panetta, Thompson & Panetta from 1971 to 1976.[17]
Panetta switched to theDemocratic Party in 1971, citing his belief that theRepublican Party was moving away from the political center.[18] In 1976, Panetta was elected to the U.S. Congress to represent California's 16th congressional district, unseating incumbent RepublicanBurt Talcott with 53% of the vote. He would never face another contest nearly that close, and was reelected eight times.[19][20][21]
During his time in Congress, Panetta concentrated mostly on budget issues, civil rights, education, healthcare, agriculture, immigration, and environmental protection, particularly preventing oil drilling off the California coast. He wrote theHunger Prevention Act (Public Law 100–435) of 1988 and the Fair Employment Practices Resolution. He was the author of legislation establishing theMonterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary,[22] and legislation providing Medicare coverage for hospice care. Working with chancellor Barry Munitz, he helped establishCalifornia State University, Monterey Bay at the former Fort Ord military base.
He also attempted to form the Big Sur National Scenic Area with senatorAlan Cranston.[23] The bill would have created a 700,000-acre (280,000-ha) scenic area administered by theU.S. Forest Service. It budgeted $100 million to buy land from private land owners, up to $30 million for easements and management programs, and created a state plan for a zone about 75 miles (121 km) long and 5 miles (8.0 km) wide along theBig Sur coast.
The bill was opposed by California senatorS. I. Hayakawa, development interests, and Big Sur residents. Local residents mocked the plan as "Panetta's Pave 'n' Save" and raised a fund of more than $100,000 to lobby against the proposal.[24][25] The legislation was blocked by Hayakawa in the energy committee and did not reach a vote.[26][27][28]
Panetta was a member of theHouse Committee on the Budget from 1979 to 1989, and its chairman from 1989 to 1993, Panetta played a key role in the 1990 budget summit.[29][30]
His positions included:
Though elected to a ninth term in 1992, Panetta left the House in early 1993 after president-elect Bill Clinton selected him to serve as director of theUnited States Office of Management and Budget. In that role, he developed the budget package that would eventually result in the balanced budget of 1998.[citation needed]
In 1994, President Clinton became increasingly concerned about a lack of order and focus in the White House, an issue that stretched from foreign to domestic policy and political matters. Clinton, who had vowed to run a professional operation, asked Panetta to become his new chief of staff, replacingMack McLarty. According to authorNigel Hamilton, "Panetta replaced McLarty for the rest of Clinton's first term—and the rest is history. To be a great leader, a modern president must have a great chief of staff—and in Leon Panetta, Clinton got the enforcer he deserved."[31] Panetta was appointedWhite House chief of staff on July 17, 1994, and he held that position until January 20, 1997. He was a key negotiator of the 1996 budget, which was another important step toward bringing the budget into balance.[32][33]
On January 5, 2009, President-elect Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Panetta to bedirector of the Central Intelligence Agency.[2]
At the time of his selection, journalists and politicians raised concerns about Panetta's limited experience in intelligence, aside from his two-year service as amilitary intelligence officer in the 1960s. California Democratic SenatorDianne Feinstein, the chairman of theSenate Select Committee on Intelligence, expressed concerns that she was not consulted about the Panetta appointment and stated her belief that "the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."[34]
Former CIA officer Ishmael Jones stated that Panetta was a wise choice, because of his close personal connection to the president and lack of exposure to the CIA bureaucracy.[35][36] Also,Washington Post columnistDavid Ignatius said that Panetta did have exposure to intelligence operations as director of the OMB and as chief of staff for PresidentBill Clinton, where he "sat in on the daily intelligence briefings as chief of staff, and he reviewed the nation's most secret intelligence-collection and covert-action programs in his previous post as director of the Office of Management and Budget".[37]
On February 12, 2009, Panetta was confirmed in the full Senate by voice vote.[38]
On February 19, 2009, Panetta was sworn in asdirector of the Central Intelligence Agency by vice presidentJoe Biden before an audience of CIA employees. Panetta reportedly received a "rock star welcome" from his new subordinates.[39]
As CIA director, Panetta traveled extensively to intelligence outposts around the world and worked with international leaders to confront threats ofIslamic extremism andTaliban. In 2010, working with the Senate Intelligence Committee, he conducted a secret review of theuse of torture by the CIA (euphemistically referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques") during theadministration of George W. Bush. The review, which came to be known by 2014 as thePanetta Review, yielded a series of memoranda that, according toThe New York Times, "cast a particularly harsh light" on the Bush-era interrogation program.[40] TheTimes noted: "The effort to write the exhaustive history of the C.I.A.'s detention operations was fraught from the beginning. President Obama officially ended the program during his first week in office in 2009. The intelligence committee announced its intention to take a hard look at the program, but there was little appetite inside the [Obama] White House to accede to the committee's request for all classified C.I.A. cables related to it." The findings of the Panetta Review reportedly aligned with much of what theSenate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture[40] found in its factual accounting. Both reports were largely seen as an effort in fact-finding and prevention, but not a governmental path towards some possible project of accountability or punishment for past interrogation or torture.
Panetta supported the Obama administration's campaign of U.S.drone strikes in Pakistan, which he identified as the "most effective weapon" against senior al-Qaeda leadership.[41][42] Drone strikes increased significantly under Panetta, with as many as fifty suspected al-Qaeda militants being killed in May 2009 alone.[43][44]
As director of the CIA, Panetta oversaw the hunt for terrorist leaderOsama bin Laden, and played a key role inthe operation in which bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011.[45][46]
On April 28, 2011, President Obama announced the nomination of Panetta asUnited States secretary of defense as a replacement for retiring SecretaryRobert Gates. On June 21, 2011, the Senate confirmed Panetta in an unusual 100–0 vote.[47] He was inaugurated on July 1, 2011.
One of Panetta's first major acts as defense secretary was to jointly certify with thechairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the military was prepared to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which triggered final repeal after 60 days.
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In August 2011, Panetta publicly warned that deeper cuts in the defense budget risked hollowing out the military and would hamper Pentagon efforts to deal with rising powers such asChina,North Korea, andIran and he urged Congress not to go beyond the roughly $500 billion in defense cuts required over the next decade under thedebt reduction bill signed by presidentBarack Obama. Working with military and civilian leaders at the Department of Defense, Panetta developed a new defense strategy.
Funding the United States military, in the face of tightening budget constraints, became an ongoing theme of Panetta's tenure. He also warned that future service members may see changes in retirement benefits, and that the military healthcare system may need reforms, to rein in costs, while also ensuring quality care.[48]
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Another major issue during Panetta's tenure as defense secretary was the Obama administration's diplomatic effort to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In January 2012, Panetta stated that nuclear weapons development was a "red line" that Iran would not be allowed to cross—and that the United States was keeping all options, including military ones, open to completely prevent it. He said that Iran would not be allowed to block the Straits of Hormuz.
In January 2013, shortly before his departure from the defense secretary post, Panetta announced that women would be allowed to enter all combat jobs in the military, citing an assessment phase in which "each branch of service will examine all its jobs and units not currently integrated and then produce a timetable for integrating them."[49]
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Panetta and his wife Sylvia founded the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in December 1997 and served as co-directors there until 2009, when Panetta was appointed CIA director by Barack Obama while he was president. He has since returned to the institute in the role of chairman, while his wife serves as co-chair and CEO, supervising the institute's day-to-day operations. The institute is located atCalifornia State University, Monterey Bay, a campus Panetta was instrumental in creating on the site of the decommissionedFort Ord Army base when he was a Congressman. Coincidentally, Panetta was stationed at Fort Ord in the 1960s during his service as an Army intelligence officer.
Panetta served on the board of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation, as a Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor ofCalifornia State University[51] and as a Presidential Professor atSanta Clara University. He was urged to consider running for Governor of California during the recall election in 2003 but declined in part because of the short time available to raise the necessary campaign funds.[52]
Panetta has long been an advocate for the world's oceans. In addition to introducing legislation and winning passage of ocean protections measures such as theMonterey Bay National Marine SanctuaryArchived June 22, 2004, at theWayback Machine during his time in Congress,[51][53][54] he was named chairman in 2003 of thePew Oceans Commission, which in 2005 combined with theU.S. Commission on Ocean Policy to establish theJoint Ocean Commission Initiative. Panetta co-chaired the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative from 2005 to 2010 and continues to serve as a commission member.[55] He presently co-chairs theNational Marine Sanctuary Foundation.[56]
In 2006, Panetta was part of the presidentially-appointedIraq Study Group, or Baker Commission, which studied potential changes in U.S. policy in Iraq.[57][58]
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In 2014, Panetta published his memoirWorthy Fights, in which he recounted his long career in public service. While overwhelmingly positive in his assessment of theObama presidency, Panetta aired some disagreements in the book with the President'spolicies in Syria and Iraq. TheNew York Post said: "By failing to persuade Iraq's leader to allow a continuing force of US troops, the commander in chief 'created a vacuum . . . and it's out of that vacuum thatISIS began to breed,' Panetta said."[59]
Panetta was a speaker on the third day of the2016 Democratic National Convention in whichHillary Clinton was nominated to run as the Democratic candidate in thepresidential election that year. His speech was booed by antiwar supporters ofBernie Sanders who protested his war record.[60]
Panetta toldCBS News that Congress releasing theNunes Memo, which purported to provide intelligence about the open Russia probe, could cause damage to national security.[61]
In October 2020,Panetta and a group of 50 other former senior intelligence officials signed a letter stating theHunter Biden laptop controversy had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian disinformation operation" because it contained potentially damaging information to the Biden campaign.[62] However, in 2022, several media outlets, includingThe New York Times andThe Washington Post, confirmed the laptop's authenticity.[63]
Panetta compared thefall of Kabul to theTaliban in August 2021 to the failedBay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, saying that "President Kennedy took responsibility for what took place. I strongly recommend to President Biden that he take responsibility . . . admit the mistakes that were made."[64]
Panetta, one of ten living former secretaries of defense, published aWashington Post op-ed piece in January 2021 telling President Trump not to involve the military in determining the outcome of the 2020 elections.[65]
In October 2022, Panetta joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project launched byIssue One to address the negative mental, civic, and public health impacts ofsocial media in the United States, cochaired by formerHouse Democratic Caucus leaderDick Gephardt and formerMassachusetts Lieutenant GovernorKerry Healey.[66][67]
In August 2024, Panetta was a speaker on the fourth day of theDemocratic National Convention.[68][69]
In September 2024, Panetta referred toIsrael's pager attack in Lebanon as an act of terrorism.[70]
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(February 2017) |
Panetta has held positions within a number of institutions and corporations, including:
In June 2002, theU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops appointed Panetta to their National Review Board,[82] which was created to look into the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal. This created controversy because of Panetta's pro-choice stance on abortion and other views seen as conflicting with those of the church.
Panetta is also a member of thePartnership for a Secure America's bipartisan advisory board. The Partnership is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that promotes bipartisan solutions to national security and foreign policy issues.
Panetta serves on the Advisory Board of the Committee to Investigate Russia.[84]
Panetta is Catholic.[85][86] He is married to Sylvia Marie Varni, who administered his home district offices during his terms in Congress.[87][88] They live on his family's 12-acre (4.9 ha) walnut farm inCarmel Valley, California. They have three sons and six grandchildren.[22] In 2016, their third son,Jimmy Panetta, a former Monterey County Deputy District Attorney, won election to his father's old congressional seat, now numbered as the19th District.
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 16th congressional district 1977–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 17th congressional district 1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theHouse Budget Committee 1989–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Director of theOffice of Management and Budget 1993–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | White House Chief of Staff 1994–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of Defense 2011–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 2009–2011 | Succeeded by Michael Morell Acting |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
