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John Brennan speaks Monday after President Barack Obama nominated him to become the next director of the CIA.
John Brennan hasn’t always been a bureaucrat, working out of a comfortable office at the White House. An Arabic speaker and Saudi expert, the 57-year-old CIA director-designate has at various points in his career confronted Iranian intelligence officials and Saudi princes, briefed President Bill Clinton, camped out with Bedouins in the Arabian desert and helped create the agency that ultimately became National Counter Terrorism Center.
Known now as President Barack Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, Brennan spent most of his career in the CIA.
A working-class kid from Hudson County, N.J., best known for its political intrigue, Brennan decided at a young age to apply for a job in international intrigue after graduating from Fordham University -- and reading a classified ad in the New York Times seeking recruits for the CIA.
He joined the agency in 1980, and for the next 25 years he worked for the CIA, both in Washington and overseas. He got his big career break when he was noticed by George Tenet in the mid-1990s. He was at the time delivering the agency’s security briefings to then-President Clinton.
Tenet was then intelligence adviser to the National Security Council and met with Brennan regularly on intelligence matters. When Tenet then became deputy CIA Director in 1995, he made Brennan his executive assistant. Then, when John Deutch abruptly quit as CIA director in 1996, Tenet succeeded him first on an interim basis, then permanently. Brennan, who was in Saudi Arabia from 1996-'99, returned to become Tenet's chief of staff, his gatekeeper on the CIA's seventh floor.
Obama taps Brennan to be next CIA director
Brennan's knowledge of Arabic and Arab cultures made him indispensable to Tenet in many ways and, in 1998, Tenet appointed him station chief in Saudi Arabia.
Work in Iran, with Saudis
In his memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," Tenet recounts a number of incidents where Brennan used his wits to get a message across.
Perhaps the most memorable took place in the late 1990s, when attacks against Western targets by Hezbollah and its chief backer, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), were causing problems for Washington in the Mideast. The CIA decided to launch a "disruption campaign" to let both know the U.S. was aware of their actions, and try to embarrass the Iranians.
As part of the campaign, agency officers would approach MOIS officers on the street or wherever they could get close and ask them if "they would like to come to work for us or sell us information," as Tenet put it.
"In one memorable example," Tenet recounts, "John Brennan, our liaison to the Saudis, handled the local MOIS head himself.
"John walked up to his car, knocked on the window, and said, 'Hello, I’m from the U.S. Embassy, and I’ve got something to tell you.' As John tells the story, the guy got out of the car, claimed that Iran was a peace-loving country, then jumped back in the car and sped away.
"Just being seen with some of our people might cause MOIS officers to fall under suspicion by their own agency. The cold pitches undoubtedly ruined some careers, and maybe even lives, but also occasionally paid off in actual intelligence dividends. It couldn’t happen to a nastier bunch of people."
President Obama is expected to announce his choices for Secretary of Defense and CIA Director later today. NBC's Tracie Potts reports.
Brennan also had to deal with often-recalcitrant Saudi leaders who were not as aggressive in cracking down on Islamic militants as the U.S. wanted.
Tenet wrote that in 1998, the Saudis had thwarted an al-Qaida operation in the kingdom. Their intelligence serviced had learned that operatives for the terror group were planning to smuggle four Sagger anti-tank missiles into the country from Yemen. What troubled the CIA was that the Saudi intelligence service had not informed the U.S. government of the plot. Even more troubling was the timing of the plot – just days before then-Vice President Gore was set to visit the kingdom. It didn't take much analysis to persuade the CIA that the missiles were part of an assassination plot.
The lack of cooperation set off alarm bells at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. If the Saudis weren't going to inform the CIA about such an explicit threat, what would they inform the U.S. about?
Brennan was instructed to meet with Prince Turki bin Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence. Turki pleaded ignorance and so Brennan suggested that Tenet pay a visit and play a bit of hard ball with the Saudis.
At Brennan's suggestion, Tenet met with the late Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the royal in charge of security. After what seemed to be an interminable soliloquy by the prince on the two countries' "special relationship," Tenet interrupted and, to get Nayef’s attention, moved in close and put his hand on the prince's knee, something one does not do with a Saudi royal.
Tenet then delivered his message to Nayef. "I let him go at last, but I assured him that I would be back the next week, and every week after that if necessary, to ensure that the flow of terrorism-related information between U.S. and Saudi officials was timely and unencumbered," he wrote.
Within a week, Brennan was given a comprehensive written report on the Sagger episode by the Saudis, for which he expressed profound gratitude.
Enhanced interrogation 'saved lives'
In other negotiations between Tenet and Arab leaders, Brennan was often one of two or three advisers in the CIA director's party.
In one memorable meeting with Yasser Arafat, Tenet writes that he had Brennan vet a proposed peace agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Israel before presenting it to the Bush White House, wanting his expert eye to review it.
After Brennan’s return to Washington from Saudi Arabia 2002, Tenet made him deputy executive director of the CIA. The job took him out of intelligence gathering and into administration. As the No. 2 in the CIA's administrative office, Brennan was essentially "deputy mayor" of the agency, "making the trains run on time" for the worldwide operation, as one former Tenet aide put it.
In that role, he helped set up the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the predecessor to the National Counter Terrorism Center. Brennan built the unit from the ground up, finding the building, setting up security procedures and staffing it with analysts from across the intelligence community. His aggressiveness in staffing didn't sit well with those who lost analysts. In his memoir, "Hard Measures" Jose Rodriguez, then the director of the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center, accused Brennan of "ripping most, if not all, of the top CT (counter terror) analysts out of CTC."
But after creating the organization, he was passed over for director of the NCTC and left the government in 2006, founding The Analysis Corp., an intelligence contractor with offices near the NCTC offices. In 2008, he joined Barack Obama's presidential campaign as intelligence adviser.
There's no indication Brennan played a role in development of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques," which were established in 2002 and 2003 while he was in the CIA's administrative office.
Brennan later said he opposed some of the most egregious interrogation techniques. Waterboarding, for instance, was "not going to be allowed under an Obama presidency," he told The Washington Times in 2008, just before the presidential election.
But when President-elect Barack Obama floated Brennan’s name to be CIA director, controversy over the enhanced interrogation techniques was increasing and Brennan came under attack from the left. Although his fingerprints weren't on the memos that established the interrogation program, his tacit support for them became a problem. Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon.com, called Brennan "an ardent supporter of torture" and "one of the most emphatic advocates" for enhanced surveillance powers.
Opponents of his nomination also pointed to an interview with Harry Smith, then of CBS News, in September 2007.
Brennan defended the techniques as necessary. "There (has) been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives," he told Smith emphatically. "And let’s not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse for the deaths of 3,000 innocents."
In the interview, Brennan also defended Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who in his Senate confirmation hearing had refused to call the enhanced interrogation techniques “torture.”
'Tireless,' 'legendary'
The criticism took its toll, and less than three weeks after the election, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration.
"It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration, such as the pre-emptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding," he said in a Nov. 25, 2008, letter to Obama.
Instead, Obama named him his counterterrorism adviser. In that role, he pushed hard for finding al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and originally was a champion of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan, which has become a centerpiece of Obama’s anti-terror operations there. But in recent months, according to several reports, he was leading a drive to put more controls on targeting, among other things.
While Brennan has his critics inside and outside the agency, none questions his work ethic and toughness.
As Obama said Monday, “In all this work, John has been tireless. People here in the White House work hard, but John is legendary, even in the White House, for working hard.”
As for his toughness, one former colleague recalled that while working at the White House, Brennan had a hip replaced on a Monday and was back at work on Thursday. The colleague said he was told that the next time Brennan went in for a hip replacement operation, the driver who took him to the hospital asked if he should wait.
Robert Windrem is a senior investigative producer for NBC News.
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The door is about to be slam shut on the Gop's/Republicans/-so called conservative=tea party..??= Gun runners ...give everybody a gun (even the teacher) an turn them on each other...don't think so think again. An this has been the problem in this country for over the last 46 years. waging war's based on the fears of the American public. Now ask your self who's getting rich from the last two wars. So if the more responsible media dose not educate the American public, in a reasonable an down to earth manner than they/we would fall into a black hole of violence, once again govern by the rich. (fast & furious-crip & bloods)..experiments in social behavior.. look close look very very close...an NO it's not about gloom& doom-....
Responsible media??? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! Good one.
This guy loves to torture ppl.
I wonder about a man who does not like harsh interrogation techniques but ok with dropping bombs on cars and houses with suspected terrorists and civilians inside. One causes pain, the other causes death. He is against the pain but for death. Does that make sense?
"When John O. Brennan was first considered as director of central intelligence four years ago, he withdrew his name after questions were raised about his role, as chief of staff at the agency, in the creation of a program of harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration."
November 2008
Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan noted that observation but then linked to this post from James Gordon Meek of the Counterrorism blog, which reported that Brennan — a top CIA aide to George Tenet during most of the Bush administration — is a leading candidate to replace Mike McConnell and become Obama’s Director of National Intelligence. Meek, not providing any links or citations, wrote: ”Among many things Democrats like about the softspoken Brennan are his anti-torture views“ (emphasis added). Andrew is right when he says: “They both can’t be right.”
My statement about Brennan was based on several pieces of compelling evidence. First, there is this detailed New Yorker article on Bush’s secret interrogation programs by Jane Mayer, unquestionably one of the nation’s best and most reliable reporters on these matters. She wrote:
Mayer explicitly identified Brennan –with whom she spoke concerning these programs — as a “supporter.”
Then there is Brennan’s December 5, 2005 appearance on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, in which he vehemently defended the Bush administration’s use of rendition — one of the key tools to subject detainees to torture:
Even when CBS News — for which Brennan was serving as an intelligence analyst — was reporting on the dreadful case of Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen whom the Bush administration abducted at JFK Airport and rendered to Sryia for 10 months to be tortured only for it to then be revealed that he had no connection whatsoever to terrorism, Brennan was defending the rendition program:
In November, 2007, Brennan — in an interview with CBS News’ Harry Smith — issued a ringing endorsement for so-called “enhanced interrogation tactics” short of waterboarding:
In the same interview, Brennan even defended — or at least justified — Michael Mukasey’s refusal to say whether waterboarding was “torture,” on the ground that by doing so, Mukasey would be admitting that the President broke the law (as though that is a valid reason for a prospective Attorney General to refuse to opine on a legal matter):
And in July, 2008, NPR attributed Obama’s reversal on FISA and telecom immunity to the fact that he was relying on the advice of Brennan, an emphatic supporter of those policies:
In fairness, Brennan, over the last couple of years, as he’s become more attached to Obama’s campaign, has several times said that waterboarding specifically is wrong, that it is “inconsistent with American values and it’s something that should be prohibited.” In a 2006 PBS interview, he said that “the dark side has its limits”; that ”we’re going to look back on this time and regret some of the things that we did, because it is not in keeping with our values”; and, to his credit, he urged that there be much greater openness in debating policies such as eavesdropping and interrogation.
Brennan, instead of answering hard questions about those years, became the President’s counterterrorism adviser. That job includes many duties. One of them is crafting the President’s “kill list” (which I’ve written about in the past) and then taking it to him for final approval.
Read more:.newyorker.com/online/blogs/
Sheepled
I think you got a pretty good handle on the situation. The key here is to understand that Brennan is really a carreer bureaucrat who has been there so long because he does moderate his position according to who is running the government at the time though.
The ideal candidate for a chief executive is someone who believes pretty close to what the executive believes. This is one reason why Sen. Hagel is a good choice for Obama aside from the political angle that Obama is clearly trying to drive a wedge between voters and the Republican party. by choosinng Hagel,Obama trying to drive home the point that republicans are so extreme they won't accept Hagel or compromise.
The second level of ideal is one willing to adapt the executive's opinon. Brennan fits this description quite well.
James;
The US does not wage wars based on the fears of "The American Public." They are based on the greed and false fears of the American Bureaucrats.
Brennan is an architect of torture.
Neuter and cage him along with the CIA !!!!!!!
See, shoveling camel-@!$%# with the Arabs is part of your qualification for this job, it appears.
Hey this is more like it - MSNBC campaigning directly for Obama. Way to go MSNBC!
This article reads more like an appeal to support Brennan than an informative and balanced article. Why, among all the qualified people in this country, would Obama go back to the Bush administration and pick the torture & drone guy? And why is the article so intent on cleansing Brennan of the whole mess?
Will Dems succumb to their loyalty to the president and skip over the Torture & Drone debate? Republicans won't press him on it--they endorsed it under Bush and continue that view.
Hello folks, now here is a man that warms the cockles of what's left of Dick Cheney's heart! His support and enthusiasm for torture, rendition, war and murder knows no bounds. He's the type of man that makes you proud to be an American, NOT!
Obama, what the hell are you doing?
Ok...first it's:
Brennan defended the techniques as necessary. "There (has) been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives," he told Smith emphatically. "And let’s not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse for the deaths of 3,000 innocents."
Then it's:
"It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration, such as the pre-emptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding," he said in a Nov. 25, 2008, letter to Obama.
Uhhh....ok, which is it then? And maybe this is exactly what is the root problem in politics....all this double-speak and flip-flopping. And they wonder why the people are losing respect for them. Tsk tsk.
Btw, HI Trust. Long time, no see. Liked your post.
It seems like the guy has been a very loyal American and worked for Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama.
Maybe he ought to finally get that promotion, along with that raise.
TO: KeenInsight who wrote:
Brennan started with President Clinton and the CIA kept him on until he was passed up for a promotion to a Top Position, so he went into business for himself.
So Obama picks Darth Vader...interesting....
I am in the middle of reading this book that came out in 2012. It is called "The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service" by Henry A. Crumpton. This book has Crumpton involved with the counter terrorism and the making of drones. Oddly enough, I cannot find Brennan mentioned in this book. If this article be right, he should be. Things get awfully confusing when it comes down to who can take credit for what.
I was looking at another article on this news site, one about the upcoming movie "Zero Dark Thirty." It gives the link where the CIA chief denies the accuracy of that film.
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/2012-press-releasese-statements/message-from-adcia-zero-dark-thirty.html
The second bullet point on their statement is a non-denial denial if I ever heard one.
I plan to go see this movie Friday to see what the fuss is all about. No doubt the controversy will make the movie gross a fortune this weekend.
So just what is the fuss all about? Obama has picked Darth Vader to be the next CIA Director. The CIA is frantically issuing denials that aren't really denials. Some CIA personnel may be in trouble for revealing too much to these film-makers. The whole power of the Dark Side thing has got everyone flipped out.
Well, I well remember where I was on 9-11. I did not find out until four in the afternoon because we did not have the TV on. A friend came pounding on our door and told us. We at first did not believe him. Then we turned on the TV and saw the towers going down. We wondered if it was fake, a movie perhaps. I called my cousin up in New York State to confirm that it was real. She said it was because her husband the doctor had been called to New York City. We watched and waited. We and a few others in our condo building were assuming the nukes would be lobbed any minute like in Pearl harbor. For the next several days, people were putting signs around saying "Nuke 'em all; let Allah sort them out." This was in Sarasota, Florida where people were shocked to find out that the terrorists took their flying lessons right in Sarasota County. If all that ended up happening is that a few of these creeps got waterboarded, that would seem like no big deal really. After all, many wanted to drop a couple of nukes on Kandahar. I'd say the U.S. response was pretty mild considering what they did to us. Do you really think that anyone would have given a hoot if some Japs were subject to "enhanced interrogation" if it were in connection with Pearl Harbor?
I guess the impact of what these terrorists did has lost its sting after 12 years.
A very good choice
I agree Brennan sounds like a good choice and highly qualified.
But if he has one fault, or controversial comment he made forty years ago, or slight smudge on a lifetime of stellar accomplishments, the GOP will dig it out and make a mountain out of a molehill claiming he is unfit to hold any post.
Why?
Because President Obama picked him, of course!
GG JFG
"The most incriminating aspect of Brennan’s views, in my opinion, is his support for the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Since he says he opposes waterboarding and isn’t on record opposing anything else, one can reasonably assume that must include some combination of things like stress positions, forced nudity, hypothermia, sleep deprivation, exploitation of paranoias, extreme isolation, hanging by the wrists, threats, and other previously forbidden techniques authorized by the Bush administration."
"Because President Obama picked him, of course"
I'm from SC and I won't be voting for Lindsey!
I agree with Bob Block. This job I am sure isn't easy. As rich and powerful as this County is (and in a lot of debt), it also has some powerful enemies. Without the CIA we're sitting ducks. I am glad someone wants the job becuase I couldn't nor would I want the job.
ok you all need to check the shoes that Graham wears cause there are little fairy wings on them and him a born again southern baptist..
Most of these posts seem based on a perfect system. Reality is far from perfect and seems to be getting farther away since the day we invaded Iraq. That was a milestone in defining who, and what, America is. Or was. We flipped off almost everyone who supported us after 9-11. We showed no concern for world opinion and, as it turned out, for getting bin Laden. But the path we followed twisted and contorted what most believed when we raised our index finger and shouted, 'We're # 1'! The rules, and the morals, changed. Factor in the knuckle-draggers that are against ANYTHING Obama is for and you have what we're stuck with now. Fiscal cliff? Our bigger concern is a directional cliff.
Both Hagel and Brennan will keep the fires of fear burning, but they will keep its heat at a level suitable to the wishes of their Commander In Chief. Neither will help create an atmosphere where there is less need for America`s multi- trillion dollar security apparatus, that is not their pay grade. They both will be searching the planet to find those that threaten the tranquility of our peace loving nation. American`s will feel secure in their homes when the two strong men are nominated to guard their gates.
Obama Needs men like this to enforce NDAA
"Brennan, instead of answering hard questions about those years, became the President’s counterterrorism adviser. That job includes many duties. One of them is crafting the President’s “kill list” (which I’ve written about in the past) and then taking it to him for final approval."
Read more: #ixzz2HOByzGpb
ROFL...Our peace loving nation??? What a joke.
perfectly said..it will without questions create many more enemies
its like bush and cheny all OVER AGAIN !
The US has had a whopping 13 years of "peace" out of 236-1/2 so I don't see how we're a "peace loving" nation. I hope you were sarcastic.
This whole spat over Hagel is to distract the public on both sides from the CIA Director nomination of John "Angel of Death" Brennan. Both sides love and need this guy to keep dropping bombs from drones on suspected terrorists. Oh, but torture is a horrible things, so let's just kill them instead. While we're at it, how about we also bomb that mail carrier who was a friend of the one guy who shopped at the same market as the other guy who's uncle once worshiped at the same mosque as that other "suspected" terrorist.
I do not envy Mr.Brennan, he has always undertaken extremely difficult and unpopular jobs.
I could not do his job if you gave me a chair and whip.
Godspeed, Mr.Brennan.
If Brennan was in the CIA during the Bush administration, then he knows 9/11 was an inside job, because some of the insiders were CIA. I am guessing the man is pure evil and disappointed in Obama for choosing someone like him. Petraeus was a far better choice, but perhaps he was not have been willing to do some of the more gruesome things, which are routine for the CIA, so he had to go.
Hagel is the perfect choice for Secretary of Defense. He is a man of honesty, truth and a patriot.
God's Son Jesus died on the Cross so that man would turn the will of his
flesh,his sinful nature,over to the will of God,and be Born Again of the
Spirit,God's Holy Spirit,which Jesus left with us,not to kill his sinful nature
in the practice of wars of guns and bombs,because all life is precious and
sacred to God,but in wars life is expendable.Jesus says,God is a Spirit and must
be worshiped in spirit and truth.Wars can't kill a man's soul,which is what God
Judges men by,all souls are eternal,and can only be Judged by God to be
eternally separated from Him in the Lake of Fire where Hell is,or forever with
God in His Kingdom.So as Jesus says,all who take the sword will perish by the
sword to discourage the sword,not to encourage it and kill the innocent along
with the guilty,including children,which is the nature of wars.Jesus says if you
do it to one of the little children you do it to me.So wars Crucify Jesus again
and again the opposite of what they are believed to be.Wars are a temptation of
the flesh by Satan since Eden,Genesis chapter 3,when Satan tempted man's flesh
to sin the sin of pride,wars are of the flesh and the devil.God told Abraham,He
doesn't kill he innocent along with guilty,God has not given man the authority
to kill the innocent along with the guilty in wars.The Roman Empire took that
authority and eventually fell in wars,before this Jesus had sent his disciples
out without swords to spread his Gospel.
I agree. However, man, in his unlimited attempt to understand the "Will of God" has written such hymns as: Onward Christian Soldiers. Why not Onward Christian Missionaries? Christianity has waged numerous Holy Wars throughout history.
There have been more "wars" or acts of violence waged by Christians in the name of their lord than by any other single group on the planet. Judaism, Islam and Christianity all take their lessons from the same writings of man.
The only difference is the preference of which writings are to be "interpreted" and which writings are to be ignored.
Dean, give it a break. Islam has been starting fights ("acts of violence", as you put it) for 40 years straight, all over the world, and they don't appear to be stopping any time soon. Christianity had its issues, but they learned. Cut out the intellectual b.s......no one is buying it.
middle,
obviously someone did
ever read the Islamic Bible?..or as we know it, The Old Testament? I will grant you the 40 years debate, but a single mission known as the crusades went on for about 300 years and some think they continue today. Also, most of the biggest proponants of our involvement in the middle east think of themselves as christians and our purpose there is to show them the error of their muslim ways.
Isn't the Old Testament the Judaic Bible, aka the Torah? Those books are full of wars and Yahweh's cruel vengeance against infidels and pagans. Whole lot of smiting goin' on. Islam (Quran) is about 600 years younger than Christianity and over 1,200 years younger than Judaism. It's still going thru growing pains and jihadist movements, like the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Maybe in another 600 years it'll mature into a more "peaceful" religion. That is, if the Christians, Jews and Muslims don't destroy humankind first.
you got half of my point. All 3 relate to an interpretation of the old testament.
May God Bless and give the Newly appointed people the strengh and courage to to their Job. GOD Bless the Americans. GOD BLESS THE USA.
Kevin Valentine Moraes
Mira Road (Thane)
God only blesses his true followers. You're wasting your time with that wish.
"God only blesses his true followers"
In which holy book did you learn that?
Bet he won't be allowed to bring in a biographer to do up his, his, "book" !
This guy has the typical beady eyes of an experienced liar. He should fit in well with his nominated position.
Sounds like the right man for the job!!! Go get'em!!!
I think Obama chose the right man for the job.
This is the CIA we're talking about, not the Peace Corps.
The CIA is is a terroristic group in itself. The agents are taught to spy, lie, kill, torture, without any feelings. Who do you think had the Taliban on their money list and Bush/ Reagan supplied weapons. Who do you think gathered up the thugs they called al Qaeda to put fear in us as an excuse to illegally invade other countries. A long list of terrible things they do but we are only to know what others do. Think about who may have been the real ones behind 9/11. As for GOD,... he fell asleep a long time ago and the supposed Christian Right took over,..... hope GOD Wakes Up soon before the World is Controlled completely by the Fascist Tea Party, the Zionists and the CIA.
Shut the blinds and unplug the phone Marta....they're listening and can see everything you do.........lunatic.
Marta is on it. Not a lunatic. You can put the pieces together yourself if you look at the last 30 years of our various administrations. Al Qaeda was used by the CIA during the Russian/Afghan war. The CIA does nothing but stir up trouble in other countries where the US has interests. They make the indigenous population look like the enemy because they are sitting on what the US wants. Happens all the time. Heck, it happened here to the Native Americans.
Isn't Brennan's claim to fame torture and summary executions from 30K feet?
Have you thought about why we have to have a level of government that oversees the next level of government that oversees the next level of government? We seem to oversight our way into more and more debt, because we do not select/hire the right person for the original job. Perhaps we need to revamp the Executive hierarchy so that there is less bureaucracy and more productivity. Do we need so many Czars to do what we elected a president to do? Do we need so many aids to do what we elected our representatives to do? Perhaps the way to balancing our budget is from within.
It's easier to cover your tracks if everything is compartmentalized from other levels.
This is the same obamaite idiot that did not know about the attacks in the London Subway, the diaper bomber, etc. Completely clueless, sounds like he will fit well in this abomination.. errrr I mean administration. Besides, he will sell his opinion to the highest bidder so he definitely knows D.C.
A person can't work in a sewer without getting @!$%# on him. When I need plumbing work done I hire a plumber.
Something smells,....there is not an ounce of differenct between the Bush group and the Obama group,...... they are all internationalists. WHY should we care about the "mid-east" ?
Internationalists?
Crawl back under your rock, Freddy!
Freddy is catching onto the fact that we are ruled by a 2 party fascist dictatorship already. He can smell it and you could too if you could pull your head out.
He is a well educated, very experienced intelligence operative, also fluent in Arabic with many years experience dealing in Middle East issues, in addition to being a war hero... but has he sworn allegiance to Israel and AIPAC? If not, it will be an extremely uphill battle to confirm him, as nowadays that appears to be the one indispensable qualification.
Is he known as #1 in the agency?
some are saying Brennan is angry jew with saggy balls...reports in asia and africa
are saying countries are now buying lasers to shoot down airplaes,drones..reports
said lasers can be bought from many countries really cheap.. anyone the seen reports
r
There's probably an article on FOX about that.
Probably lasers, drones etc provided by the NRA under the Second Amendment provisions
Anyone thinking a CIA operative, much less one with "deep roots" at the a gencyis clean as a whitle....has been smoking something powerful.
See other reports about how America creating more enemies
by the over use of the drones.. waging wars on any county anytime
other countries are buying chines ,german anf french made drones
AND Even Lasers to other drones down damn.
He camped out with some Bedouin's- he's an Arab expert. hire him!
Saudi Arabia is using America to gain Muslim territory (Iraq, Egypt, & Libya) and is diverting attention from it's homegrown al-Qaeda terrorism group to make Iran look to be the threat. CIA needs to realize the Saudi Royals are controlling al-Qaeda & the Taliban (CIA trained Osama bin Laden is prime example). Arab Muslim Terrorist receive their directives in Mecca & Medina (only Muslims are allowed). Tap the Saudi Royals for intelligence instead of being used by them (Bush Sr. & Jr. were their puppets).
Not to mention Israel.
Maybe he can start by cleaning up the Obama administration!
Egyptian Magazine: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltrates Obama Administration
by John Rossomando • Jan 3, 2013 at 1:10 pm
An Egyptian magazine claims that six American Islamist activists who work with the Obama administration are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who enjoy strong influence over U.S. policy.
The Dec. 22 story published in Egypt's Rose El-Youssef magazine (read an IPT translation here) suggests the six turned the White House "from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood."
The story is largely unsourced, but its publication is considered significant in raising the issue to Egyptian readers.
The six named people include: Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development; Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council; Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference; Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC); Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); and Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships.
Alikhan is a founder of the World Islamic Organization, which the magazine identifies as a Brotherhood "subsidiary." It suggests that Alikhan was responsible for the "file of Islamic states" in the White House and that he provides the direct link between the Obama administration and the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.
Elibiary, who has endorsed the ideas of radical Muslim Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb, may have leaked secret materials contained in Department of Homeland Security databases, according to the magazine. He, however, denies having any connection with the Brotherhood.
Elibiary also played a role in defining the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy, and the magazine asserts that Elibiary wrote the speech Obama gave when he told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave power but offers no source or evidence for the claim.
According to Rose El-Youssef, Rashad Hussain maintained close ties with people and groups that it says comprise the Muslim Brotherhood network in America. This includes his participation in the June 2002 annual conference of the American Muslim Council, formerly headed by convicted terrorist financier Abdurahman Alamoudi.
He also participated in the organizing committee of the Critical Islamic Reflection along with important figures of the American Muslim Brotherhood such as Jamal Barzinji, Hisham al-Talib and Yaqub Mirza.
Regarding al-Marayati, who has been among the most influential Muslim American leaders in recent years, the magazine draws connections between MPAC in the international Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure.
Magid heads ISNA, which was founded by Brotherhood members, was appointed by Obama in 2011 as an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security. The magazine says that has also given speeches and conferences on American Middle East policy at the State Department and offered advice to the FBI.
Rose El-Youssef says Patel maintains a close relationship with Hani Ramadan, the grandson of Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, and is a member of the Muslim Students Association, which it identifies as "a large Brotherhood organization."
Surprise! Egyptian Magazine must be an FOX affilliate. I still say give Obama whoever he wants in his administration, wait and watch.
A piece of this is confirmed in Henry A. Crumpton's book, that I am in the middle of reading, "The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service." On page 135, he admits that the CIA wanted Muslims as CIA staff officers. They said this was needed because the white guys could not penetrate Muslim places. (Rustmann disagreed in his book "CIA INC." with such an idea.) My cousin, who read the whole book before handing it to me, says that one of these Muslims got up as far as second in command in the Counter terrorist Center.
It does not take much of a leap to conclude what can happen when such persons are allowed so close to our secure areas. They could be working for the other side as they get to stick their noses into our secrets and manipulate things to their own ends. Yeah, maybe it is hard to penetrate their lairs, but would this risk be worth it? Letting the fox guard the hen house?
As to Muslim radicals worming their way in other places as that article alleges. It somehow would not surprise me considering how confused and muddled our foreign policy has become.
I do not know all about this Brennan guy, but I hope he does some house cleaning and gets the Muslim moles out (and any other moles for that matter).
Allie F, no surprises here. When your own politicians destroy the organization that was designed to serve them since 1970 there is no wonder that we are infiltrated. Fred W. Rustmann, Elite Senior Intelligence Service CIA, wrote an article called "CIA Harmed By Reorganization". Here Mr. Rustmann describes what happened during these reorganizations.
http://www.ctcintl.com/harmed.html
The above link is the article written by Mr. Rustmann. During this time period that Mr. Rustmann covers, the The entire media, which includes Holly Wood, demonized the CIA making the people hate them. This only served our enemies. So now we are a little nation begging for our right to exist thanks to our own wrong attitude of not defending or protecting the organizations that protects us. Now the American "Holy Place" has been breached. This point is well illustrated in a book called "The HARBINGER". So since the CIA has been breached and they served us more than anyone knows or wants to admit this certainly fits; "Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place (Let the reader understand)... Matt. 24 Vs. 15. And similar to this statement is another example but from another view point. "Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff and someone said "Get up and measure the Temple of God and the alter, and those who worship in it Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread underfoot the holy city for forty two months". Revelation Ch. 11 Vs.1 and 2. These two Bible chapters and Verses are both referring to the breach in something which is central to the people and there existence. The Bible uses what is central to Israel but according to "The HARBINGER" it could be something else in another nation, like America. 42 months is an interesting number since it is close to a Presidential term. Well with "the nations" running our vital government institutions we are going to be tread under foot. We are not treated well and things only promise to get worse. We can either continue to ignore such breaches or we can wake up, unite and fight such an invasion. Doing nothing is not an option.
As Secretary Gates said..."it's the President's choice". Since when do petty Senators have the right to block and bitch about every apointee by the President......seldom, unless the President is "colored"
There it is! Didn't take long today. You must be really pissed BHO is appointing old white crackers.
Actually, I believe those government positions are nominated by the President & approved by the Senate. It's always been that way, regardless of what color the President is.
Oops! Bruning, You are right, good job! Let me restate. There it is! Didn't take long today. Yhbua, You must really be pissed BHO is nominating old white crackers and waiting for the approval by the same.
bua is a bigot and a racist!!
I camped out with a couple of drunk whores at Big Bear Lake...therefore I know all about Californians.
"As for his toughness, one former colleague recalled that while working at the White House, Brennan had a hip replaced on a Monday and was back at work on Thursday." Tough? how about....idiot?