WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama plans this week to name CIA Director Leon Panetta to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Gen. David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, would take the CIA chief's job in a major shuffle of the country's top national security leadership, administration and other sources said Wednesday. All sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes are not final. The changes would probably take effect this summer. Gates has already said he will leave this year, and the White House wants to schedule Senate confirmation hearings in the coming months. The officials say Obama is expected to also announce that Lt. Gen. John Allen would replace Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and that diplomat Ryan Crocker will be the next US ambassador in Afghanistan. The changes are expected to be announced Thursday at the White House. A former US official said all four candidates would stand together with Obama for the announcement. Allen, now the deputy commander of US Central Command in Florida, is due in Washington on Wednesday, and sources in Afghanistan said Petraeus was also headed to Washington. The Associated Press first reported Tuesday that seasoned diplomat Crocker is the top candidate for the Afghanistan ambassadorial post as part of a far-reaching revamping of the nation's top leadership in the conflict there, now in its 10th year. The Washington Post first reported that the additional changes would be announced as a package deal. Officials said Tuesday the White House was weighing several factors, including Crocker's role in the larger cast change in Afghanistan policy this summer and fall. Those personnel changes are unrelated to the progress of the prolonged war but come just as Obama needs to demonstrate enough success to follow through with his pledge to begin withdrawing US forces in July. US military and civilian defense leaders call 2011 the make-or-break year for turning around the war and laying the path for a gradual US exit by 2015. The main obstacles are the uncertain leadership and weak government of Karzai, the open question of whether the Taliban can be integrated into Afghan political life and the continued safe harbor Pakistan provides for militants attacking US and NATO forces over the border in Afghanistan. A US official who confirmed Panetta's move to the Pentagon said the White House chose him because of his long experience in Washington, including working with budgets at the intelligence agency, as well as his extensive experience in the field during his time as CIA director. The official said Panetta had traveled more than 200,000 miles, to more than 40 CIA stations and bases and more than 30 countries. Petraeus, who took over as Afghanistan war commander in June, has been expected to leave that post before the end of this year. His name had been floated for weeks as a possible replacement for Panetta if Obama tapped Panetta to replace Gates as Pentagon chief. Current and former administration officials noted that Petraeus would bring a customer's eye to the job as one of the key people to use and understand CIA and military intelligence during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
