John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination

Kevin_Kennedy

Defend Liberty
Aug 27, 2008
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Prior to President Obama's first inauguration in 2009, a controversy erupted over reports that he intended to appoint John Brennan as CIA director. That controversy, in which I participated, centered around the fact that Brennan, as a Bush-era CIA official, had expressly endorsed Bush's programs of torture (other than waterboarding) and rendition and also was a vocal advocate of immunizing lawbreaking telecoms for their role in the illegal Bush NSA eavesdropping program. As a result, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration, issuing a bitter letter blaming "strong criticism in some quarters prompted by [his] previous service with the" CIA.

This "victory" of forcing Brennan's withdrawal proved somewhat Pyrrhic, as Obama then appointed him as his top counter-terrorism adviser, where he exerted at least as much influence as he would have had as CIA Director, if not more. In that position, Brennan last year got caught outright lying when he claimed Obama's drone program caused no civilian deaths in Pakistan over the prior year. He also spouted complete though highly influential falsehoods to the world in the immediate aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing, including claiming that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight" with Navy SEALS and had "used his wife as a human shield". Brennan has also been in charge of many of Obama's most controversial and radical policies, including "signature strikes" in Yemen - targeting people without even knowing who they are - and generally seizing the power to determine who will be marked for execution without any due process, oversight or transparency.

John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

<insert token ironic comment regarding "hope and change" here.>

The best part might be Greenwald's update at the end:

There's one more point worth noting: the reason Obama needs a new CIA chief is because David Petraeus was forced to resign. Here we see the ethos and morality of imperial Washington: past support for torture and rendition does not disqualify one for a top national security position; only an extramarital affair can do that.
 
Prior to President Obama's first inauguration in 2009, a controversy erupted over reports that he intended to appoint John Brennan as CIA director. That controversy, in which I participated, centered around the fact that Brennan, as a Bush-era CIA official, had expressly endorsed Bush's programs of torture (other than waterboarding) and rendition and also was a vocal advocate of immunizing lawbreaking telecoms for their role in the illegal Bush NSA eavesdropping program. As a result, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration, issuing a bitter letter blaming "strong criticism in some quarters prompted by [his] previous service with the" CIA.

This "victory" of forcing Brennan's withdrawal proved somewhat Pyrrhic, as Obama then appointed him as his top counter-terrorism adviser, where he exerted at least as much influence as he would have had as CIA Director, if not more. In that position, Brennan last year got caught outright lying when he claimed Obama's drone program caused no civilian deaths in Pakistan over the prior year. He also spouted complete though highly influential falsehoods to the world in the immediate aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing, including claiming that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight" with Navy SEALS and had "used his wife as a human shield". Brennan has also been in charge of many of Obama's most controversial and radical policies, including "signature strikes" in Yemen - targeting people without even knowing who they are - and generally seizing the power to determine who will be marked for execution without any due process, oversight or transparency.

John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

<insert token ironic comment regarding "hope and change" here.>

The best part might be Greenwald's update at the end:

There's one more point worth noting: the reason Obama needs a new CIA chief is because David Petraeus was forced to resign. Here we see the ethos and morality of imperial Washington: past support for torture and rendition does not disqualify one for a top national security position; only an extramarital affair can do that.


As evidenced by the party's standard-bearer...B.J. himself. Screw an intern...become a hero to left-loon libs.
 
Prior to President Obama's first inauguration in 2009, a controversy erupted over reports that he intended to appoint John Brennan as CIA director. That controversy, in which I participated, centered around the fact that Brennan, as a Bush-era CIA official, had expressly endorsed Bush's programs of torture (other than waterboarding) and rendition and also was a vocal advocate of immunizing lawbreaking telecoms for their role in the illegal Bush NSA eavesdropping program. As a result, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration, issuing a bitter letter blaming "strong criticism in some quarters prompted by [his] previous service with the" CIA.

This "victory" of forcing Brennan's withdrawal proved somewhat Pyrrhic, as Obama then appointed him as his top counter-terrorism adviser, where he exerted at least as much influence as he would have had as CIA Director, if not more. In that position, Brennan last year got caught outright lying when he claimed Obama's drone program caused no civilian deaths in Pakistan over the prior year. He also spouted complete though highly influential falsehoods to the world in the immediate aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing, including claiming that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight" with Navy SEALS and had "used his wife as a human shield". Brennan has also been in charge of many of Obama's most controversial and radical policies, including "signature strikes" in Yemen - targeting people without even knowing who they are - and generally seizing the power to determine who will be marked for execution without any due process, oversight or transparency.

John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

<insert token ironic comment regarding "hope and change" here.>

The best part might be Greenwald's update at the end:

There's one more point worth noting: the reason Obama needs a new CIA chief is because David Petraeus was forced to resign. Here we see the ethos and morality of imperial Washington: past support for torture and rendition does not disqualify one for a top national security position; only an extramarital affair can do that.


As evidenced by the party's standard-bearer...B.J. himself. Screw an intern...become a hero to left-loon libs.

Yeah, that's clearly what he was saying. :rolleyes:
 
John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

<insert token ironic comment regarding "hope and change" here.>

The best part might be Greenwald's update at the end:


As evidenced by the party's standard-bearer...B.J. himself. Screw an intern...become a hero to left-loon libs.

Yeah, that's clearly what he was saying. :rolleyes:

Didn't say it was but it's what I felt like saying. Roll your eyes all you want...whistle too if you like. As jillian said...yawn. The poor articulation of your point leads one to ponder whether you know what you wanted to say.
 
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Yeah, that's clearly what he was saying. :rolleyes:

Didn't say it was but it's what I felt like saying. Roll your eyes all you want...whistle too if you like. As jillian said...yawn.

So at least you're honest about making up nonsense and attributing it to others.

Where did I attribute to anyone but myself? I believe that's my username in the upper left hand corner. So what's your point? In your words that is...

Did B.J. cheat on his wife with an intern or not? So do tell what's "made-up".
 
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Some of the preposterous claims Brennan has made include propaganda about drones never killing civilians and local populations in Pakistan and Yemen actually not minding getting persistently bombed – two assertions that are demonstrably false.

“We see little evidence that these actions are generating widespread anti-American sentiment or recruits for AQAP,” Brennan said in August. “In fact, we see the opposite. Our Yemeni partners are more eager to work with us.”

But experts who aren’t toeing the government line disagree. Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University, responded to Brennan’s claim: “The idea that the deaths of civilians in Yemen doesn’t lead to recruits to AQAP is either deliberately negligent or incredibly naive.” He added: “I think the US is, at least publicly, drastically underestimating blow back and revenge coming from Yemen.”

Obama to Nominate John Brennan for CIA Director -- News from Antiwar.com
 
Didn't say it was but it's what I felt like saying. Roll your eyes all you want...whistle too if you like. As jillian said...yawn.

So at least you're honest about making up nonsense and attributing it to others.

Where did I attribute to anyone but myself? I believe that's my username in the upper left hand corner. So what's your point? In your words that is...

Did B.J. cheat on his wife with an intern or not? So do tell what's "made-up".

As evidenced by the party's standard-bearer...B.J. himself. Screw an intern...become a hero to left-loon libs.

Yawn is right.
 
So at least you're honest about making up nonsense and attributing it to others.

Where did I attribute to anyone but myself? I believe that's my username in the upper left hand corner. So what's your point? In your words that is...

Did B.J. cheat on his wife with an intern or not? So do tell what's "made-up".

As evidenced by the party's standard-bearer...B.J. himself. Screw an intern...become a hero to left-loon libs.

Yawn is right.

Still waiting to hear your point in your own words. I have all day. How about you?
 
Brennan flamin' pro-Islam lib'ral...
:eusa_eh:
Islam &#8216;Helped to Shape&#8217; CIA Nominee John Brennan&#8217;s World View
January 9, 2013 &#8211; As a college student in the 1970s, John Brennan, President Obama&#8217;s nominee for CIA director, traveled in Indonesia where &#8211; he recalled in a speech in New York in 2010 &#8211; &#8220;despite my long hair, my earring and my obvious American appearance, I was welcomed throughout that country, in a way that is a reflection of the tremendous warmth of Islamic cultures and societies.&#8221;
Brennan&#8217;s Feb. 13, 2010 address to a meeting at the Islamic Center at New York University, facilitated by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), provided an insight into his views on Islam, a faith which he said during the speech had &#8220;helped to shape my own world view.&#8221; Travels around the world over more than three decades had taught him about &#8220;the goodness and beauty of Islam,&#8221; said Brennan, whose 25-year career at the CIA until 2005 included a stint as station chief in Riyadh. &#8220;Like the president during his childhood years in Jakarta, I came to see Islam not how it is often misrepresented, but for what it is &#8211; how it is practiced every day, by well over a billion Muslims worldwide, a faith of peace and tolerance and great diversity.&#8221;

In the speech, during which he drew applause after speaking in Arabic for more than a minute, Brennan used terms evidently designed to appeal to his audience, such as &#8220;Al-Quds&#8221; for Jerusalem, &#8220;Palestine&#8221; and &#8220;as the Qur&#8217;an reveals&#8221; &#8211; in keeping with the Muslim belief that the Qur&#8217;an was &#8220;revealed&#8221; directly by Allah to Mohammed through the angel Jibril (Gabriel). He condemned what he said were negative stereotypes in the U.S. about Muslims and hostility towards Islam, adding that government actions and policies had contributed to the problem but saying this would change under Obama. &#8220;Ignorance is a threat to our national security, prejudice is a threat to our national security, discrimination is a threat to our national security. And those who purport to be religious are frequently the most egregious purveyors of ignorance, prejudice and discrimination &#8211; and it must stop,&#8221; he said.

&#8220;We must also acknowledge that over the years the actions of our own government have at times perpetuated those attitudes,&#8221; Brennan continued. &#8220;Violations of the Patriot Act; surveillance that has been excessive; policies perceived as profiling; over-inclusive no-fly lists subjecting law-abiding individuals to unnecessary searches and inconvenience; creating an unhealthy atmosphere around many Muslim charities that made Muslims hesitant to fulfill their sacred obligation of zakat [an Islamic tithe or tax] &#8211; these are challenges we face, we face together as Americans, and President Obama and his administration are pursuing a comprehensive approach to address them,&#8221; he said.

As Obama&#8217;s counterterrorism adviser, Brennan &#8211; a Jesuit-educated Catholic &#8211; has played a prominent role in the administration&#8217;s outreach to Muslims, American Muslims especially. He has also been a leading proponent of the effort to stop using terms many Muslims find offensive, such as &#8220;jihadist&#8221; as a descriptor for terrorists acting in the name of Islam. &#8220;They are not jihadists,&#8221; he told the NYU audience in 2010, &#8220;for jihad is a holy struggle, an effort to purify, for a legitimate purpose. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing holy or pure or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children.&#8221;

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See also:

CIA Nominee John Brennan Has Touted Hezbollah&#8217;s &#8216;Moderate Elements&#8217;
January 9, 2013 &#8211; CIA director-designate John Brennan&#8217;s stated views on the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah at times has appeared to be out of step with others in the Obama administration, which he has served as White House counterterrorism adviser since 2009.
Even before President Obama&#8217;s election, Brennan &#8211; who was Obama&#8217;s chief intelligence adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign &#8211; was promoting a shift in the U.S. approach to Hezbollah. The Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored Shi&#8217;ite group, which also participates in Lebanese parliamentary politics, is blamed for attacks included a series of suicide bombings in Beirut in 1983 which killed more than 300 people, including 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French troops.

In a July 2008 journal article suggesting policy on Iran for the next administration, Brennan wrote, &#8220;It would not be foolhardy, however, for the United States to tolerate, and even to encourage, greater assimilation of Hezbollah into Lebanon&#8217;s political system.&#8221; He argued that the best hope for &#8220;reducing the influence of violent extremists within the organization &#8211; as well as the influence of extremist Iranian officials who view Hezbollah primarily as a pawn of Tehran &#8211; is to increase Hezbollah&#8217;s stake in Lebanon&#8217;s struggling democratic processes.&#8221;

Brennan wrote that doing so would require the U.S. to persuade Israel to drop its &#8220;aim of eliminating Hezbollah as a political force.&#8221; (Like Obama&#8217;s nominees for secretaries of state and defense, Brennan is on record as supporting engagement with Tehran. In the same 2008 article he urged the next president to &#8220;implement a policy of engagement that encourages moderates in Iran without implying tolerance for Tehran&#8217;s historic support of terrorist activities.&#8221;) Brennan took his views on Hezbollah into the administration, telling an August 2009 event in Washington that the group had &#8220;a terrorist core,&#8221; but adding that &#8220;a lot of Hezbollah individuals are in fact renouncing that type of terrorism and violence and are trying to participate in the political process in a very legitimate fashion.&#8221;

The State Department denied that the comments signaled a policy shift. &#8220;We do not make any distinction between the political and military wings, and that is our policy,&#8221; said then-spokesman Robert Wood in response to questions about Brennan&#8217;s remarks. &#8220;Until Hezbollah decides that it&#8217;s going to change and stop carrying out the acts of terrorism and other acts that are causing instability in the region, there's no reason for our policy to change.&#8221;

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