President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, went before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday — the first step in the Senate confirmation process required by the U.S. Constitution.  Panetta, the current Central Intelligence Agency Director, was warmly received by the panel, but faced a number of tough questions on his ideas about the size and pace of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and plans by the president to cut the nation's defense budget. VOA Congressional Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Capitol Hill.