CIA's Panetta 'to take over at Pentagon'

In a major shakeup of President Barack Obama's national security team, CIA director Leon Panetta will take over as the new defense secretary this summer, a US official told AFP Wednesday. As part of the overhaul, Obama also is expected to name General David Petraeus, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, to succeed Panetta at the helm of the Central Intelligence Agency, US media reported. Panetta, 72, would replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, an influential figure in Obama's cabinet whose tenure began under Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. Gates, who had vowed to step down later this year, is himself a former CIA director and has spoken highly of Panetta's work at the spy agency. If he receives Senate confirmation to the top Pentagon post, Panetta would be the first Democrat to hold the top US defense job since William Perry in 1997. ABC and NBC television reported that Petraeus, the commander leading military operations in Afghanistan, will be replaced there by Lieutenant General John Allen, who currently is deputy head of US Central Command. On the civilian side in Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, a former US diplomat who served as ambassador in Pakistan and Iraq, will reportedly replace Ambassador Karl Eikenberry in Kabul, who has had a strained relationship with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The White House on Wednesday declined comment about the reports. The reshuffling of the president's top echelon of security officials was floated weeks ago by the administration. The overhaul will shape Obama's approach to the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, the NATO-led air war in Libya and to unrest threatening Washington's influence across the Middle East. Apart from the defense secretary job, a number of crucial national security posts are coming open in the next several months, including the military's top officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, who finishes his term in September while Petraeus was long expected to wrap up his stint in Afghanistan by year's end. Panetta -- who enjoys solid bipartisan support in Congress -- emerged as a strong candidate to succeed Gates as Pentagon chief after it became clear Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not interested in the job. With his experience as a member of Congress and as a budget chief under former president Bill Clinton, Panetta may be well-equipped to take over at the Pentagon at a time of growing fiscal pressures and belt-tightening. The son of Italian immigrants, Panetta in 1993 was appointed as the director of the office of management and budget under the incoming Clinton administration, and was widely credited with helping to balance the federal budget and achieve a surplus. In July 1994, Panetta was appointed Clinton's chief of staff, serving for almost three years. As for Petraeus, some former CIA officials and analysts have touted the general as a perfect fit for the spy agency, citing his work with intelligence operatives battling Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere, as well as his experience in Washington's policy debates. "General Petraeus would be an exceptional choice to run the CIA," Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and fellow at the Brookings Institution, told AFP recently, as rumors swirled about the possible shuffle. "He has unique experience at the front line in the war against Al-Qaeda and in the inter-agency process in Washington that would be invaluable" as a CIA director, he said. Petraeus, a four-star general with a high profile and an acute intellect, has been widely credited in Washington for helping to salvage the war effort in Iraq in 2007-2008. The 101st Airborne Division paratrooper, who rewrote the Army's manual for counter-insurgency warfare, oversaw a surge of US troops in Iraq at a time of spiraling sectarian violence.