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John Brennan is responsible for the biggest atrocities of two different presidential administrations.
He was considered for the same position – CIA Director – in 2009, but eventually
withdrew his name from consideration following uproar over his support of the use of torture
after 9/11. The fact that there's significantly less controversy surrounding Brennan’s nomination
this time around suggests that the public – and Congress – have been quick to forget
the atrocities that have occurred over the past decade. If anything, Brennan’s record
has only gotten worse over the past few years.
To begin with, the passage of four years since Brennan was first considered to head the CIA
does not change the fact that he played an extremely troubling role in the Bush administration’s
torture policies.
Brennan served as the CIA’s Deputy Executive Director from 2001 until 2003. Many of his
colleagues say – and email traffic shows – he was well aware of the torture techniques
used by the agency at that time. If we have truly accounted for our past, then
at the very least, an individual who either approved of the torture – or even tacitly
condoned the torture – is certainly not someone that we should allow to now lead the
agency. Meanwhile, my whistleblower client, John Kiriakou, is the only CIA officer to
go to jail in connection with the torture program, and he's the one who blew the whistle
on it. In fact, if he had actually tortured people, I'm confidant he would not be going
to jail.
Brennan’s participation in illegal intelligence activities has only worsened since his consideration
in 2009. The latest wave of criticism surrounds Brennan’s involvement in the drone program,
in which individuals suspected of terrorism – including US citizens, and entirely innocent
US citizens, are targeted and killed abroad without any legal process whatsoever.
As President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, Brennan has been called the architect of the
drone program and the one who recommends targets to the President. Brennan has publicly defended
the drone attacks and made misleading statements regarding the number of individuals and civilians
killed. Americans are still largely in the dark in terms of how decisions are made regarding
the drone program are and who is involved. Even members of Congress have been stonewalled
from learning the President’s justifications for his targeted killings. Someone so deeply
involved in a program that condones the extrajudicial, extralegal killing of anybody is not someone
we should allow to lead the CIA.
The bottom line is that Brennan’s career has been inextricably intertwined with President
Obama’s kill list and the Bush administration’s torture and extraordinary rendition policies.
From the beginning of his first term, President Obama said his goal is to look forward and
not backward. But to allow Brennan to lead the CIA is clearly a huge step backward and
sends the wrong message to both Americans and to our friends abroad. Brennan’s nomination
says that we have already forgotten our recent past. It says that we have no remorse for
what has transpired and the illegal actions we have taken. And it underscores the fact
that we have promoted a culture of impunity and, rather than prosecuting or punishing
the architects of US war crimes, we have instead rewarded them with even greater amounts of
power.
The unfortunate reality is that the United States will likely face terrorist threats
in the foreseeable future. These threats will continue to challenge our morality and
lead some to believe the government is entitled – in the name of national security – to
infringe upon human rights and act outside the rule of law.
The individual chosen to lead the CIA should be able to promise us that, regardless of
how serious the threat of terrorism is in the future, we will not allow fear to shirk
our commitment to human rights or our responsibility to act within the confines of US and international
law. The next CIA director should be able not only to acknowledge our past mistakes,
but to also confidently say that he or she would have refused to sit idly by as such
atrocities occurred. And the individual chosen to lead the CIA should be able to declare
with certainty that such illegalities would never have happened under his or her leadership.
John Brennan is no such individual. The man who abrogated to himself the ability to
play prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner of anyone on the planet should not now be
in charge of the Central Intelligence Agency.