Announced changes at the head of the CIA and the Pentagon

The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon Panetta will be appointed as the US Secretary of Defense instead of Robert Gates, and he will be replaced at the head of the CIA by David Petraeus, the commander of the forces in Afghanistan, reported the US television networks NBC and ABC. These replacements have been announced for several weeks. since the current Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced his retirement last summer for 2011. According to the AP agency, the changes will likely be implemented this summer, and will be announced tomorrow at the White House. Leon Panetta, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, is at the helm US intelligence agencies since 2009. General Petraeus replaced General Stanley McChrystal to lead the war in Afghanistan barely a year ago, after McChrystal was fired due to an interview highly critical of the US administration published in Rolling Stone magazine. It is also announced that the current number two in the US military command General John Allen to replace Petraeus in Afghanistan, and that the current US ambassador in Kabul, Carl Eikenberry, will be replaced by Ryan Crocker, a diplomat who is now in Iraq.