US: Secretary of Defense retires, CIA has new leader

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates officially left office on June 30 after 4 years leading the Pentagon. The US Congress officially approved the decision to appoint General David Petraeus to the position of Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Mr. Robert Gates shook hands with President Obama at the farewell ceremony - Photo: AP

President Obama personally awarded Mr. Gates the Presidential Medal of Freedom - one of the two highest honors for American citizens.

“A humble patriot, a man of integrity and one of our finest public servants,” CNN quoted President Obama as praising Mr. Gates during a solemn farewell ceremony held outside the Pentagon.

Mr. Gates was appointed by former President GWBush in 2006 and continued to work under President Obama, becoming the first Secretary of Defense in US history to be retained in office by a newly elected President.

Described as “a straightforward, no-nonsense person,” former Secretary Gates led the Pentagon through crucial stages of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2006 to the present. In a ceremony he described as “the last leg of a long farewell,” former Secretary Gates said he “will always remember those who fought and are still fighting, as well as those who never returned from the battlefield.”

Mr. Leon Panetta, currently CIA Director, will replace Mr. Robert Gates as US Secretary of Defense.

On the same day, both the US Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the appointment of General David Petraeus as the new CIA director to replace Mr. Panetta. The 58-year-old general, who is commanding US forces in Afghanistan, said he would leave the military before taking up his new position later this year.

Petraeus said he supported President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, even though the plan went further than what he had proposed to the president. The four-star general also insisted he would lead the US intelligence agency independently, despite his ties to the military.

(According to Tuoi Tre)