New CIA chief speaks Calabrian

Leon Panetta fluent in dialect of his father's home town

(ANSA) - Siderno, January 6 - The man United States President-elect Barack Obama has chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency speaks the Calabrian Siderno dialect perfectly, the cousin of Leon Panetta told ANSA on Tuesday. ''When he was chief of staff for (ex-US president) Bill Clinton I went to see him at the White House and we understood each other perfectly both in our local dialect and in Italian, but not so much in English which I don't speak too well,'' Domenico Panetta, who was mayor of Siderno in the 1990s, said. ''Leon is very attached culturally to our home town. He told me he missed it dearly and wanted to visit again the place his family came from. But he has always ben too busy to do so,'' he added. ''Maybe in his new job he'll be able to come to Europe and to Italy and even visit us in Calabria. That would be really nice,'' the new CIA chief's cousin said. Leon Panetta, 70, is the American-born son of Italian immigrants from Calabria. His father, Carmelo, was the 13th member of his family to emigrate to America. He first worked in a copper mine in Wyoming before moving to California, where he set up a restaurant in Monterey, where his son was born. After serving in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, Leon Panetta was called by Clinton to the White House in 1994 to be his chief of staff, a post he held for three years. His cousin said he was not surprised that Panetta was Obama's pick for CIA director. ''Because of his political, cultural and human qualities I knew he would get a top-ranking appointment and I'm very happy this has happened,'' Domenico Panetta said. Siderno is one of the most important towns along Calabria's Ionian coast at the toe of the Italian boot. photo: Leon Panetta