Why We Should Say No to Brennan

By lilburro, Section Diaries
Posted on Fri Nov 14, 2008 at 10:38:16 PM EST
Tags: John Brennan, torture, Obama (all tags)

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As Obama puts together his transition teams for various departments and looks to future appointments, and we approach the exciting day of January 20th, I think it is important to be clear and to provide a strong body of resources for progressive opposition to John Brennan.

I think it is important to recognize that we can do a lot better than John Brennan. The purpose of this diary is to collect important sources, show evidence of Brennan's complicity in the worst of the Bush administration's programs, demonstrate Brennan's association with the most conservative aspects of the intelligence community, and show that there are better experts out there.

Thanks to the people who authored these sources, and esp. to BTD for bringing up Brennan in the first place. I hope this is not too repetitive but I think it is important to gather all this information in one diary/place.

Part I: Brennan's Career and Personal Views

From the Intelligence and National Security Alliance:

Mr. Brennan served as the CIA's daily intelligence briefer at the White House in 1994 and 1995. Mr. Brennan was the Executive Assistant to then-DDCI George Tenet from 1995 to 1996, and he served as Chief of Station in a major Middle East capital from 1996 to 1999. Mr. Brennan served as DCI Tenet's Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2001 and as Deputy Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2001 to March 2003.

Need I remind anyone that George Tenet is a nutcase? Brennan's association with Tenet is extremely questionable, as I will expand upon below.

As far as Brennan's personal views go, we can start with two main areas of concern: FISA and torture. Here is Brennan on FISA from a Shane Harris interview as of March 2008 (h/t BTD