5 Most Terrifying Things About the Likely New CIA Head John Brennan

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/5-most-terrifying-things-about-likely-new-cia-head-john-brennan


John Brennan in Washington, DC in 2011.

***SNIP


1. Staunch Drone Warrior

Brennan is closely identified with the Obama administration’s expanded policy of using drones, or remotely piloted aircraft, to strike at suspected militants in countries such as Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. The Washington Post refers to Brennan as “the principal architect of a policy that has transformed counterterrorism from a conventional fight centered in Afghanistan to a high-tech global effort to track down and eliminate perceived enemies one by one.” The Post adds that Brennan is at the “core” of the White House centered effort to use drones and that “when operations are proposed in Yemen, Somalia or elsewhere, it is Brennan alone who takes the recommendations to Obama for a final sign-off.”

***SNIP

2. Misleading Advocate for Drones

He’s also a serial misleader on the drone program. “There hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we've been able to develop,” Brennan said in June 2011. But as Micah Zenko points out in Foreign Policy, there have been many “public reports -- from Pakistani and Yemeni reporters and anonymous administration officials -- of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes.”

***SNIP

3. Supporter of Immunity for Telecom Companies

When the scandal of the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping of Americans broke, one issue that got a lot of attention was the complicity of telecommunication companies who allowed the Bush administration to spy on their customers. But Brennan thinks those companies should be left alone, despite his skepticism of warrantless wiretapping.

***SNIP

4. Supporter of Torture

Brennan is opposed to waterboarding, the most infamous torture tactic of the Bush years. But on other aspects of the torture program, he’s more supportive. “A lot of information... has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives,” he said in 2007, while he was a CIA aide. The New Yorker's Jane Mayer described Brennan as a "supporter" of the CIA's torture program.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Why not just appoint Negroponte? Yuck. nt

[Jakes Progress]

2. Feel the change.

Notice the silence. Or, I guess that civil liberties aren't a Democratic Party issue any more.

[Jakes Progress]

8. Still a general silence compared to more trivial matters.

Both in the media and even on DU.

Our party has been hijacked just as surely as the republican party.

[cthulu2016]

3. "It has saved lives" (barf) rec. nt.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Meet the new boss.

[forestpath]

6. Somewhere Bush is smiling.

[Jakes Progress]

7. And cheney is cackling.

O seems like a nice enough guy, but he's either reagan democrat all the way or someone or some group is doing the actual running of things.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. Well that is depressing...

More of the same ol' same ol'.

[woo me with science]

11. Kick

[KoKo]

12. K&R....

[Octafish]

13. Continuity Of BUSHCHENEYCRIME Government.

The socialists put it politely:

The Brennan nomination: A government of torturers and assassins

Bill Van Auken
WSWS.org 9 January 2013

“He has worked to embed our efforts in a strong legal framework,” President Barack Obama declared Monday during an appearance in the East Room of the White House. “He understands we are a nation of laws. In moments of debate and decision, he asks the tough question and he insists on high and rigorous standards.”
The president was describing his nominee as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, who currently serves as Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser. He also lauded Brennan’s “integrity” and “commitment to the values that define us as Americans.”

One would hardly guess from this high-flown rhetoric that Obama was describing Brennan’s role as the nation’s assassin-in-chief. He has demonstrated his “integrity” and commitment to values, law and standards by chairing the so-called “terror Tuesday” sessions at the White House, putting together “kill lists” for the president to approve, and overseeing remote-controlled murder by Predator drones.

The “strong legal framework” refers to his development of the so-called “disposition matrix,” a system for “codifying and streamlining” the extrajudicial executions that are carried out by means of drone missile strikes on a virtually daily basis. This framework, developed by a cabal of military and intelligence officials, has as much to do with a “nation of laws” as the decrees issued by Hitler during the Third Reich.

CONTINUED...

http://wsws.org/en/articles/2013/01/09/pers-j09.html

There is a difference between the two parties. Policies -- and those chosen to enact and enforce them -- should be part of that differentiation. That is why I vote Democratic -- I work for change.