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Why John Brennan Matters: Part 2
TalkLeft —
I posted it in the Open Thread but I think it is worthy of its own post - Greenwald on John Brennan: It simply is noteworthy of comment and cause for concern -- though far from conclusive about what Obama will do -- that Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity. It would be foolish in the extreme to ignore that and to just adopt the attitude that we should all wait quietly with our hands politely folded for ...
Holy Joe And The Beltway Boys
Balloon Juice —
... Glenn has a good read up (and some of you need definitely need to read it, because he makes clear some things that seem to confuse people- mainly, it makes no sense to flame Obama for things he hasn’t done, but that doesn’t mean he is beyond criticism. Without naming names, some of the dimmer bulbs out there simply can not grasp that.) about the Lieberman situation, and amazingly enough it looks like he is going to survive: ...
Lieberman and Congressional Democrats Are on the Same Page
Comments from Left Field —
... And always have been. If you are under the impression that there is any meaningful anger or hostility toward Joe Lieberman because he campaigned for John McCain and characterized his own party’s candidate as a favorite of terrorists and a man who doesn’t put his country first, you should not be: ...
Glenn Greenwald: Pony H8r
Corrente —
Make the bad man stop harshing the mellow:
Though it hasn’t happened yet, it is appearing increasingly likely that Senate Democrats — led by Barack Obama (who seems to be playing a much more active role in all of this than his spokesperson yesterday suggested) — are going to choose Joe Lieberman to serve as their Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the next Congress.
Now That We Agree . . .
TalkLeft —
The latest -- "[Obama] is [not] beyond criticism." Good to know. Now a consideration of Obama's selection of John Brennan to head his transition team on intelligence matters is in order. As I wrote, this is a matter of concern. As Glenn Greenwald wrote via Balloon Juice: It simply is noteworthy of comment and cause for concern -- though far from conclusive about what Obama will do -- that Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity. It would be foolish in the extreme ...
Pardons and Prosecutions
The Mahablog —
Mark Benjamin writes in Salon that Dubya might issue a blanket pardon for anyone in his administration involved in torture. Meanwhile, advisors to Barack Obama are pushing for a nonpartisan commission to investigate torture in the Bush Administration.
It is said (nothing is official) that the plan is to do painstaking investigation of torture before coming to any conclusions about prosecution. As much as we’d all like to see Dick and Dubya in stocks asap, that’s probably sensible.
But then there’s the blanket pardon thing. Benjamin writes,
Constitutional scholars say a pardon of this kind would be ...
Obamaguity On Torture ?
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Greenwald argues that it isn't a good idea for Obama supporters to stay silent until policy has been enacted: It simply is noteworthy of comment and cause for concern -- though far from conclusive about what Obama will do -- that Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity. It would be foolish in the extreme to ignore that and to just adopt the attitude that we should all wait quietly with our hands politely folded for ...
Hmmm
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Yesterday Greenwald wrote: Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity. Today James Gordon Meek writes: Much speculation centers on John Brennan, a highly respected retired CIA official who stood up the National Counterterrorism Center in 2004 and is advising the President-Elect. Among many things Democrats like about the softspoken Brennan are his anti-torture views. ...
A Clue About The Identity Of The Next CIA Director?
The Atlantic Politics Channel —
... Brennan's long association George Tenet and with the CIA during the first few years of the Bush administration may give civil liberties advocates and Congressional Democrats some pause; it is not clear to what degree Brennan participated in or was read into many of the intelligence community's controversial post 9/11 /Iraq programs, including extraordinary renditions and orders that
sanctioned coercive interrogation techniques -- or, if you're inclined
to call it torture, torture. ...
Hullabaloo — ... Brennan, who served under former CIA chief George J. Tenet in a variety of capacities at a time when the agency has since acknowledged it waterboarded a small number of terror suspects. “Whether the Army field manual is comprehensive enough to cover all those tactics and techniques, that’s something I think he’d look to his national security advisers for,” Brennan said in an interview with CQ in August. For more on Brennan, see Greenwald. This is a difficult problem. Bringing the prisoners to US soil for trial is ...
Obama's Intelligence Transition Chief Undercuts Message of Change
Open Left - Front Page —
... team who provided that phony intelligence. So what I think people at the CIA are worried about-and I've talked to many of them over the weekend-is that there will never be any accountability for these violations and some of the unconscionable acts committed at the CIA, which essentially amount to war crimes, when you're talking about torture and abuse and secret prisons. So, where are we, in terms of change? This sounds like more continuity.
Last week, Glenn Greenwald also remarked on Brennan's unsuitability:
It's just a fact that there ...
The Lieberman-Obama Pony Plan
Firedoglake —
... As Glenn Greenwald notes, its understandable that everyone's euphoric the age of Bush is over and wants to think that Obama is going to be the ultimate liberal pony provider. But there's very little evidence that Obama is liberal in most important respects and if liberals decide that they can take a vacation for the next 4 months, like they did when Dems took Congress, and give him the "benefit of the doubt" I fear the results are going to be the same as they were for the Congress of 07 and 08. ...
This is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House
The Latest on Air America —
... Sudanese airfields, aircraft and other military assets. It could blockade Port Sudan, through which Sudan's oil exports flow. Then U.N. troops would deploy -- by force, if necessary, with U.S. and NATO backing."John Brennan A longtime CIA official and former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Brennan is one of the coordinators of Obama's intelligence transition team and a top contender for either CIA Director or Director of National Intelligence. He was also recently described by Glenn Greenwald as "an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic ...
What's The What?
Open Left - Front Page —
... (2) Even worse are choices like John Brennan as Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, who was not, like Gates, a fourth quarter BushCO replacement, but a BushCo cheerleader for its most noxious policies. As Glenn Greenwald has written: ...
Brennan withdraws his name from consideration for CIA.
Think Progress —
... that Brennan, who has supported Bush’s interrogation and detention policies in the past, was being considered for the position. Glenn Greenwald wrote that Brennan “was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity.” In his letter Tuesday, Brennan informed Obama that he did not want to be ...
Brennan withdraws his name from consideration for CIA.
The Hollywood Liberal —
... that Brennan, who has supported Bush’s interrogation and detention policies in the past, was being considered for the position. Glenn Greenwald wrote that Brennan “was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity.” In his letter Tuesday, Brennan informed Obama that he did not want to be ...
Here Comes The Argument
Firedoglake —
... Glenn has led the charge against John Brennan for being "an ardent supporter of torture." Without touching on Glenn's evidence, I looked at the case made by an anti-Brennan coalition and found it to be ...
Jeremy Scahill: Will Obama Block Release of Key Bush-era Torture Memos?
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... who was described by Greenwald as as "an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity." It is also the Brennan who described the CIA's extraordinary rendition program as an absolutely vital tool. Here is the CIA's case to Obama in a ...
