Vindictive John Brennan Should Be Fired Before He Strikes Again
Rarely do we get to see both faces of John Brennan.
Since the release of the summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on torture, I don’t think we’ve seen a return of the fawning press pieces over John Brennan where we see reverent mention of his moral rectitude. That’s a good thing, since the hummus incident in the report would suggest that those he leads at the CIA display something more like moral rectaltude. Sadly, though, it seems that outgoing Senator Mark Udall of Colorado is the lone voice in the wilderness calling for Brennan to be fired. Here he is on Wednesday, in the Senate, disclosing more information from the Panetta review on torture and calling for Brennan to be fired over his continued lies to Congress and the American people (at 3:09 of the video, “In other words, the CIA is lying.”):
As Udall notes, Brennan has continued to cover for CIA lies and misrepresentations to Congressional overseers. He also has mostly claimed that CIA torture saved lives, although yesterday he did engage in some semantics over that point, presumably in response to Udall’s Wednesday speech.
But besides Udall’s point about Brennan needing to be fired over his failure to clean house over torture or even to fully recognize it, there is another, stronger, reason to call for Brennan’s removal. Brennan has demonstrated, multiple times, that he will allow political vindictiveness to drive his actions. And he has done so in the worst possible way: in his previous counterterrorism role and then at CIA in his control of drone strikes. As I have noted in this post and this one, drone strikes in which Brennan would have played a controlling role can be seen as being driven by political retaliation rather than security.
A man who has used drone strikes as political retaliation tools has no business running a CIA that is once again under siege for its crimes. Even though few in the US are calling for prosecutions, calls for prosecutions have now come from more than one UN figure.
Also, don’t forget another event that will factor into Brennan’s anger over calls for prosecutions and/or his removal: he undoubtedly feels that the anti-torture crowd caused him to have to wait to take his rightful role as head of CIA. Recall that he withdrew his name for consideration in 2008 due to his association with the torture program and has been director now for less than two years.
How can Barack Obama leave in office a man who has used lethal drone strikes in the past to score political points to remain in office when the organization he leads is under siege for its demonstrated breaches of international law? Brennan makes the case for his removal even more urgent when he says that a return to torture is simply a question for future policymakers rather than something that is clearly illegal.
John Brennan will torture again. He as much as said so and even Foreign Policy has picked up on this.
It’s time to investigate what leverage John Brennan is using over the President and Congress. Because there are a lot of people who in earlier times have said a lot who currently are saying very little.
I have often wondered about the merit of various articles that speculate about Obama’s time at Columbia. And, where he was, when he wasn’t there. There do seem to be some gaps in Obama’s history during that time. Do you think such speculations (which include that of a much earlier relationship between Obama and Brennan) have any merit? I know you to be a sane person, so I would be interested in your thoughts.
Example of internet article:
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/01/10/john-brennan-the-cia-zibgnew-brezinski-columbia-university-and-obama/
Fire John Brennan? Who’s going to do that? The Barackstar? Doubt it.
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Even if fired, so what? Brennan’ll just skip through the revolving door and get a more highly compensated position advising some murky “business” on how to do torture better.
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Brennan, like Cheney, W, Rummy, Obama, Biden, etc, etc, all need to be indicted as War Criminals. But who’s going to do that?
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Remember, FOLKS, we must look FORWARD. … to more of the same sadistic shit.
Of course this/these Articles Today shit the target they were aimed at! However the Whole target is too large to fit into 100 targets! Like the legislation aimed at target the working Peoples to PAY for the crimes committed by OUR Govt elected and employees! The 1% guilty as hell get off with a ‘free pass’ while emptying the National Treasury!
What needs to be said and done is to shut done this Nation Until we have packed the entire bunch of to the ICC to sort out their crimes and issue punishments!
Sorry Jim, I can’t accept that Brennan (or anyone else) is doing his dastardly deeds without guidance from the micro-managing 400 person Obama “security” staff. The notion of a renegade CIA doesn’t fly with me. It goes to the notion of deniability, which Obama wants us to have. And to fire a guy who was just following orders from a criminal president doesn’t get to the problem.
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Cheney has just testified that Bush was fully into the torture program, so having Biden do the same on Obama with drone strikes would be nice, but unnecessary in my view.
Tangential– What is going on with HR4681 ( https://congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4681/text ) ?
Here’s an article ( http://thefreethoughtproject.com/breaking-congress-secretly-okd-nsa-spying-domestic-criminal-cases-focused-torture/ ) pointing to a 10Dec2014 Facebook post by Rep Justin Amash ( @repjustinamash ) to constituents ( https://www.facebook.com/repjustinamash/posts/812569822115759 ). Here’s an excerpt from that Facebook post regarding “Block New Spying on U.S. Citizens: Vote “NO” on H.R. 4681″:
quote”Last night, the Senate passed an amended version of the intelligence reauthorization bill with a new Sec. 309—one the House never has considered. Sec. 309 authorizes “the acquisition, retention, and dissemination” of nonpublic communications, including those to and from U.S. persons. The section contemplates that those private communications of Americans, obtained without a court order, may be transferred to domestic law enforcement for criminal investigations.”unquote
lf ever there was a blatant admission that the 4th Amendment has been usurped by Congress..this is it. These scumbag cockroaches masquerading as our “representatives”, have actully declared PRIVACY NULL AND VOID. It won’t be long before they’ll pass a law requiring a camera in every room of your home. ..but not theirs. Meanwhile, the Dumbest Fucking Country on the Planet(DFCOTP) collectively yawns and orders Sat. night pizza and a Netflix.
On the other hand, today, some people in this country got the memo, amongst others, and are taking a more active approach by NOT COMPLYING, enmass, with new Washington state laws that make it “illegal” to sell your gun to another citizen without obtaining a “permit” to do so, which now sets a precident whereby ANY right enumerated in the Constitution may be circumvented by requiring a PERMIT to exercise it..ie..right to free speech, right to assemble..etc etc. Which is EXACTLY what those scumbag collectivists in Washington just did by passing Initiative 594.
http://www.examiner.com/article/is-it-time-to-treat-the-first-amendment-just-like-the-second
Fortunately, there are people who see this crap for what it is.. and are raising their middle finger to it by refusing to comply..right on the Washington Legislation building steps .
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/11/12/gun-rights-rally-will-violate-i-594-in-every-way-possible/
Good for them. At least SOME people in this country refuse to comply with un-constitutional mandates. Maybe someday.. if enough people in this country realize the real coup d’etat happened in 1913, they’ll refuse enmass, to comply with the 16th amendment by virtue of a mass tax revolt. But I’m not holding my breath. After all, they don’t call it the DFCOTP for nothing.
Replace Brennan with Mark Udall!
http://www.policybear.com/fire-brennan-hire-udall-to-head-cia/
Making Brennan CIA director is like Bush giving Tenet the Medal of Freedom to keep his fracking mouth shut. Obama knows that Brennan has the goods on him about drone strike atrocities, among other things.