Fergie's Tech Blog

Leon Panetta Gets a Rock Star Welcome at CIA Headquarters

Siobhan Gorman writes in Washington Wire:

So much for fears that Leon Panetta would be seen as an outsider at the Central Intelligence Agency because didn’t grow up through the spy ranks. The new CIA director and former Clinton administration chief of staff got a rock star’s welcome today at Langley headquarters during his formal swearing-in ceremony.

As Panetta entered the lobby of the main headquarters building, where the agency seal is inlaid in the floor, hundreds of CIA employees greeted their new leader with shouts, applause, and even some whistles. Cheers again when he was about to take the oath of office. Again after he completed the oath. More cheers when Panetta offered personal reflections, including a mention that he and his wife, Sylvia, met “at a mixer” 50 years ago. And of course more raucous applause when the ceremony ended and Panetta worked the crowd.

posted by Fergie @ 2/19/2009 09:36:00 PM