Panetta currently only officially served as Minister of Defense of the United States(U.S.), replacing the retiring Robert Gates. Under the leadership Panetta, the CIA has successfully launched several important missions, among others, is its success in killing Osama bin Laden on 2 May.
"I faced many challenges to our country, and we will make it more powerfulintelligence agency and is ready to accept the challenges of the future," Panetta saidas quoted by PTI, Friday (1/7/2011).
"We have a difficult task that is hunting down Al Qaeda and its allies, we havelaunched a counter-terrorism operation in the history of the most aggressive," he said.
The CIA is now led by General David Petraus who formerly had become commanderof operations in Iraq. U.S. officials also said General Petraus is a figure of thinkerswho are experts in the field of strategy.
"General Petraus well suited to lead the CIA, he spent all this time to fight terrorismand conduct counter-insurgency operations," said Senator Mark Begich.