Repost: John Brennan and Bush’s interrogation/detention policies [View all]

[EFerrari]

Yesterday, the administration sent John Brennan out to defend its drone prolicy.

Obama's counter-terrorism advisor defends drone strikes

Counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan says drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have saved American lives and that civilian casualties have been rare.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-brennan-drones-20120501,0,4232369.story

Here's Greenwald on Brennan in 2008

Sunday, Nov 16, 2008 06:29 AM PST
John Brennan and Bush’s interrogation/detention policies
Examining the actual record of Obama's top adviser for intelligence policy
By Glenn Greenwald

Last Wednesday, I wrote:

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.

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:

Without more transparency, the value of the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program is impossible to evaluate. Setting aside the moral, ethical, and legal issues, even supporters, such as John Brennan, acknowledge that much of the information that coercion produces is unreliable. As he put it, “All these methods produced useful information, but there was also a lot that was bogus.

Mayer explicitly identified Brennan –with whom she spoke concerning these programs — as a “supporter.”

http://www.salon.com/2008/11/16/brennan/