John Brennan, Confirmation Open Thread
By Larry Johnson on February 7, 2013 at 4:48 PM in Current Affairs
Today’s performance by Brennan is a true view of the man. He is a human dreidel. Quite an accomplishment for an Irish guy from Jersey.
My fundamental problem with Brennan is that he is the quintessential bureaucratic toady. If your ass is hanging over him, he is a booty licking monster. You ass cheeks will be soft and supple after Brennan finishes kissing your policy derriere. His lips come slathered in political grease.
So, when Bush was President and water boarding was the King, Brennan was on board and a lusty cheerleader. If you watched the hearing to day you had the fun of watching him tap dance his way away from the fact that he had been copied on key emails concerning policy and direction of the so-called enhanced interrogations. He essentially blamed it on “spam.” He was just one small fish in the stream of information.
That’s not how the CIA works. Idiot Senators appeared to buy his bullshit explanation. The CIA still operates by “NEED TO KNOW” rather than “NICE TO KNOW.” What does that mean?
Only people directly involved in the policy or operation are put on the addressee line of an email (or document for that matter). Brennan’s name is on those emails because he was up to his ears in the policy. And he supported it.
But today, in a reversal worthy of a world class gymnast, Brennan did a backflip and assured Senator Levin that former CIA Directors Rodriguez and Mullen were liars, when they claimed that waterboarding was key to getting info out of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I think you know my opinion. Waterboarding is torture, it is outlawed by the Geneva Convention, we have prosecuted and punished Japanese for such practices and it is not an effective means to gather information.
Brennan’s tenure at the National Security Council is a clear warning of what the CIA will become if he gets the job. While at the National Security Council, Brennan has moved to dramatically restrict who could attend and participate in policy meetings. Why? In order to ensure no leaks that would embarrass the President would get to the public. Only the most loyal and faithful were allowed to attend these meetings. Often times that meant that professionals with substantive expertise were excluded from those sessions.
Brenna is an artful liar. Give him credit for denying having leaked any classified info to reporters even though his fingerprints are all over leaks about the drone program, the assassination of Al Qaeda operatives and the role of Seal Team Six in the killing of Bin Laden. Don’t kid yourself. Brennan is a world class player when it comes to the world of leaking in Washington.
The real danger with Brennan is that he holds no fundamental moral vision of what is right and wrong. Right and wrong in his world is only a function of whether or not it advances his own personal interests. He is a shameful sycophant. We need someone at the helm of the CIA who can protect analysts and sources and methods. But that’s not Brennan. His protection priorities are covering his ass and covering the ass of Obama.
If that’s what you want at the CIA then Brennan is your guy.
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