CIA pick faces lingering skepticism from GOP senator

President Obama's pick to head the CIA Friday appeared to face one last hurdle on his way to being confirmed -- convincing Senate Intelligence ranking member Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., that he's the right man for the job.

For the most part, Leon Panetta has sailed through his confirmation process to lead the embattled agency, which came under fire during the Bush administration for operating secret prisons in other countries and using coercive interrogation methods against terrorism suspects.

A second round of Panetta's confirmation hearing was held Friday because Republicans had more questions. Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said after the hearing she plans to have the panel vote next week on the nomination. She said the strength of the vote would determine if the full Senate could also confirm Panetta by unanimous consent.

But Bond still had questions for Panetta after Friday's hearing. Asked if he is leaning toward voting to confirm Panetta, Bond only said: "I don't lean; I either do or I don't."

He added: "We need to get all the information." Bond has been pressing Panetta on his views about rendition, or the practice of rounding up terrorist suspects and transferring them to other countries for interrogation.

Under questioning Friday, Panetta retracted comments he made Thursday indicating the Bush administration transferred detainees to locations where it was known they would be tortured. Panetta said renditions would continue under the Obama administration on condition that the CIA has assurances from other countries that detainees will not be tortured.

In other questioning, Panetta told Feinstein that he will encourage CIA analysts to challenge and question intelligence they receive. "Very frankly you have to make waves," he said, suggesting that analysts should challenge assumptions and sources.

Feinstein said one of the main reasons she wanted to lead the committee was to ensure that massive intelligence failures, such as the pre-war assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, never happen again.

On another front, Bond said the committee will mark up two intelligence authorization bills this year -- one for fiscal 2009 and another for fiscal 2010. It was not immediately clear when the bills would be taken up by the panel.