WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Leon Panetta to head the CIA has surprised those who expected him to pick an intelligence expert.

But Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon says the former congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff is an inspired choice.

In a statement released Tuesday, Wyden said the nation’s intelligence community has been operating with questionable effectiveness and legality. He says the pick provides a chance to restore the CIA’s accountability to Congress.

In choosing Panetta, Obama passed over a list of former and current CIA officials who had either worked in intelligence during the Bush administration’s development of controversial policies on interrogation and torture or earlier, during the months leading up to 9/11.