CIA director Leon Panetta to become U.S. Defense Secretary

PanARMENIAN.Net - CIA director Leon Panetta will become U.S. Defense Secretary and be replaced at the spy agency's helm by U.S. Army General David Petraeus, current head of military operations in Afghanistan, according to ABC News.

The changes are expected to be announced on April 28 at the White House.

Leon Edward Panetta became the 19th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on 13 February 2009. Before joining CIA, he spent 10 years co-directing with his wife, Sylvia, the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. The Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit center that seeks to instill in young men and women the virtues and values of public service. In March 2006, he was chosen as a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan committee established at the urging of Congress to conduct an independent assessment of the war in Iraq.