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The Feckless Mismanagement Of John Brennan, CIA's Captain Unreality
[Business Insider] Hotels.com has an amusing TV character called "Captain Obvious" who makes humorous commercials by saying clearly obvious things. The CIA has a director who is the exact opposite -- a "Captain Un-Reality" -- who constantly makes absurd claims contrary to facts and common sense.During an National Public Radio interview last month, for example, CIA Director John Brennan made what may be the most bizarre statement ever by an U.S. intelligence official: "We don’t steal secrets," he said. "Everything we do is consistent with U.S. law. We uncover, we discover, we reveal, we obtain, we elicit, we solicit." This was a ridiculous statement. Although the CIA is required to comply with U.S. law, one of its core missions is stealing secrets abroad through a variety of means that blatantly violate the laws of other nations. This is the nature of intelligence collection. That this CIA director would say something so preposterous is symptomatic of the damage the Obama administration has done to our national security with his assistance. It also is not the only example of Mr. Brennan’s denying the obvious. He has repeatedly echoed President Obama’s refusal to use the terms "jihadist" or "Islamist" to describe members of Islamic terrorist groups like al-Qaida and ISIS. He explained this in a 2010 CSIS speech by disputing ties between these groups and Islam. Brennan also said in this speech that we should not label "our enemy as jihadists or Islamists because jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself of one’s community." Brennan had a controversial tenure as President Obama’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism in the National Security Council. He played a role in the administration’s decision to read Miranda rights to Umar Abdulmutallab, the so-called "underwear bomber" who tried to destroy a civilian airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Brennan also was widely criticized for defending this decision by falsely claiming that the Obama administration had continued a Bush administration policy. While at the NSC, Brennan also was involved in editing talking points drafted by the CIA on the 2011 attacks on the U.S. consulate Benghazi which said, contrary to available intelligence and State Department reporting, that the attacks were in response to an anti-Muslim video and were not a pre-planned terrorist attack. Reports of Brennan’s ineptitude have grown since he became CIA director in 2013. Posted by: Besoeker 2016-03-19 |
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