Shock at Obama's pick for top spy jobs

US president-elect Barack Obama signalled a clean break from Bush administration policies with surprising appointments for the top intelligence jobs, according to Democrat sources.

Former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, an eight-term congressional veteran and administrative expert, is being tipped to head the CIA, while retired admiral Dennis Blair is Mr Obama’s choice to be director of national intelligence.

US spymasters were taken aback last night with the news of the apparent appointment of two men short on direct experience in intelligence-gathering.

But the selection had been expected for weeks, according to two Democrats who spoke anonymously because Mr Obama had not officially announced the choices.

The Obama transition team’s long delay in selecting CIA and national intelligence directors is a reflection of the complicated demands of the jobs and Mr Obama’s own policies and priorities.

Mr Obama is sending an unequivocal message that controversial administration policies approving harsh interrogations, waterboarding and extraordinary renditions – the secret transfer of prisoners to other governments with a history of torture – and warrantless wiretapping are over, say several officials.

Neither Mr Panetta nor Mr Blair are tainted by associations with Bush policies, in large part because they both come from outside the intelligence world. Mr Blair was posted at the CIA for about a year.

But Mr Panetta could face tough questions at his nomination hearing about his background in intelligence – he has no direct intelligence experience beyond a two-year stint in the mid-1960s as a US Army lieutenant.

Veterans of the CIA were caught off-guard by the selection.

“I’m at a loss,” said Robert Grenier, a former director of the CIA’s counter-terrorism centre and 27-year veteran of the agency who now is managing director of Kroll, a security consulting company.

The lack of intelligence experience put Mr Panetta at “a tremendous disadvantage”, Mr Grenier said.