The Senate has voted "overwhelmingly" to confirm General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the architect of the widely admired Iraqi "surge," as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Reuters. Petraeus will replace Leon Panetta, whom the Senate recently confirmed unanimously as secretary of defense. Petraeus is expected to assume his new role in September. 

Petraeus has many supporters on both sides of the aisle, which helps explain his easy confirmation. As for his qualifications as C.I.A. director? The AP notes that in Iraq and Afghanistan, "Petraeus has been known as a prodigious consumer of intelligence produced by the agency he will next lead."

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Uri Friedman