The AP Rewrites History On John Brennan

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 07:40:17 AM EST
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As Glenn Greenwald has documented, the Media simply cannot tell the truth about John Brennan and why many of us strongly opposed consideration of him for CIA Director. The Associated Press' Pamela Hess provides yet another example of the Media's inability to tell the truth about John Brennan:

The search for a new CIA chief has been stalled since November, when John Brennan, Obama's transition intelligence adviser, abruptly withdrew his name from consideration. Brennan said his potential nomination had sparked outrage among human and civil rights groups, who believed Brennan was not outspoken enough in his condemnation of Bush policies.

(Emphasis supplied.) Excuse me Ms. Hess, but if you do not know by now that Mr. Brennan not only was not "outspoken enough" agianst rendition and enhanced interrogation, that in fact Mr. Brennan was quite outspoken in defense of these criminal practices, then you should stop writing about the subject.

Speaking for me only

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The AP Rewrites History On John Brennan | 11 comments (11 topical)

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from CJR (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by lilburro on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 07:55:05 AM EST

"Horton added that people in the CIA say Brennan is 'absolutely correct he wasn't responsible for shaping this policy; but when he suggests he was a vigorous opponent, they laugh.'"
- Kaiser

I did think this was promising though from the AP article:

...say several current and former intelligence officials.
Obama hopes to send an unequivocal signal that controversial Bush administration policies approving harsh interrogations and waterboarding, renditions -- the secret transfer of prisoners to other governments with a history of torture -- and warrantless wiretapping are over, they said. All the officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because the Obama transition team has insisted on confidentiality in its internal deliberations.

That's not exactly supported by Brennan's closeness to the team...but that is the best thing I've heard out of the intelligence loop for a while.

Why do you care? (2.00 / 0) (#4)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 08:02:43 AM EST

Excuse me Ms. Hess, but if you do not know by now that Mr. Brennan not only was not "outspoken enough" agianst rendition and enhanced interrogation, that in fact Mr. Brennan was quite outspoken in defense of these criminal practices, then you should stop writing about the subject.

It seems the AP as a news source is not reliable. This is something that probably cannot be corrected, but only learned to be lived with.

Because a competent Media (5.00 / 3) (#6)
by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 08:04:35 AM EST

is essential to a functioning democracy.


: This may come as a bit of a suprise (none / 0) (#9)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 12:39:26 PM EST

but a competent does not necessarily include the AP. I'll take this site over AP any day.

Why can't it be corrected? (none / 0) (#8)
by Molly Bloom on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 10:20:19 AM EST

Nothing human is impossible (none / 0) (#10)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 12:44:44 PM EST

Nothing human is impossible so maybe the AP will get fixed. However, organizations that fail in their function usually get replaced by new organizations.

You may have noticed that newspapers with few exceptions are on the way out. The wire service won't be far behind.


: somehow I doubt it (none / 0) (#11)
by Molly Bloom on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 05:00:01 PM EST

Heh (none / 0) (#1)
by Steve M on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 07:44:54 AM EST

Well, the sentence does say this is Brennan's view! Why they delegated their story-writing obligations to him I'll never know. If he had known the AP was going to be his stenographer, he really should have gone the whole nine yards, like this:

Brennan said his potential nomination had sparked outrage among human and civil rights groups, who sought to impose a radical, far-left litmus test on his tireless efforts to protect America from the terrorists who hate our freedoms.

I disagree (none / 0) (#2)
by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 07:52:40 AM EST

The sentence states that Brennan blamed these groups and then describes their complaints about him.

Hess is speaking in her own voice as to what the complaints were.


: To me it can read both ways (none / 0) (#7)
by Militarytracy on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 08:38:58 AM EST

Properly done journalism doesn't leave the reported facts questionable though, just the conclusions we should all draw from them.

i'll bet you money (none / 0) (#5)
by cpinva on Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 08:04:18 AM EST

that in a couple of years, mr. brennan will be described as a modern day oscar schindler, putting himself at personal physical risk, to save as many detainees as he could from torture and rendition.

that's how the "village" works.