Reporting from Washington — President Obama and senior administration officials have begun receiving a daily CIA report on the global economic crisis in addition to briefings on terrorist threats and other national security issues, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said Wednesday.
The CIA's role in producing the report underscores the level of anxiety within the administration over how rapidly the economic downturn is spreading, as well as its potential to hobble foreign governments and trigger instability overseas.
The report, called the Economic Intelligence Brief, was launched at the request of the White House and delivered for the first time Wednesday.
Panetta said the document will survey major economic developments internationally, but also focus on how plunging markets and credit pressures are driving the decisions in nations including Russia and China.
The report covers "economic, political, leadership developments" in other countries as well as "the implications of those developments in terms of the U.S. economy," Panetta said.
Panetta's comments came during his first extended meeting with reporters since he was sworn in as CIA director last week. The former California congressman and onetime chief of staff to then-President Clinton also touched on a wide array of national security issues.
Panetta met this week with senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials in Washington and said he had expressed concern over Islamabad's recent decision to strike a truce with militants that have fought with the government over control of the Swat Valley region in Pakistan's volatile northwest.
Panetta said he pressed the Pakistanis over U.S. worries that the truce "represents a retreat in the war on terror," but that Pakistani officials defended the deal as a measure that will help stabilize the region and allow the government to continue pursuing Al Qaeda and Taliban elements along the Afghanistan border.
The truce would grant militants new powers to impose Islamic law in the Swat Valley. It follows previous cease-fires between Pakistan and militants that were widely blamed for allowing Al Qaeda to regroup and regain its strength.
Asked whether he believed the new truce would avoid that outcome, Panetta said, "I remain skeptical."
Panetta met at CIA headquarters with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, as well as ? Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan's spy service, Inter-Services Intelligence.
