The New York Times‘ Scott Shane (1/7/13), reporting on the news that President Barack Obama plans to nominate his terrorism adviser John Brennan to be head of the CIA, writes:
John Brennan (photo: CSIS)
The president had considered naming Mr. Brennan to head the CIA when he took office in 2009. But some human rights advocates protested, claiming that as a top agency official under President George W. Bush, Mr. Brennan had supported, or at least had failed to stop, the use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding that are widely considered to be torture. Mr. Brennan denied those accusations but withdrew from consideration, and Mr. Obama gave him the advisory position, which did not require Senate confirmation.
That Brennan was a supporter of torture is not a claim or an accusation, though–it’s a matter of public record. As we pointed out after Brennan’s name was withdrawn in 2009, here’s what he had to say to CBS News in 2007 (Early Show, 11/2/07):
The CIA has acknowledged that it has detained about 100 terrorists since 9/11, and about a third of them have been subjected to what the CIA refers to as enhanced interrogation tactics, and only a small proportion of those have in fact been subjected to the most serious types of enhanced procedures…. There have been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives. And let’s not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse at all for the deaths of 3,000 innocents.
If the words “support” and “torture” have any meaning, then Brennan is supporting torture there. This is another example of how in order to be an “objective” reporter, you have to deny that there’s any such thing as objective reality.
Here’s another example of “objective” reportage:
” … Mr. Brennan had supported, or at least had failed to stop, the use of interrogation techniques like waterboarding that are widely considered to be torture.”
So I would guess that the absence of a heartbeat is only “widely considered” to be death?
Well, it’s better than “Some say … “, or “There is a controversy about whether … “, I suppose.
That’s not Brennan in the photo.
UPDATE: Photo replaced with correct subject.
Bravo FAIR for getting the story straight on John Brennan. His November, 2007, quote on CBS’s Early Show understates both the number of people the CIA tortured and the extent of their torture, and it contains two obvious lies, one that all those tortured were responsible for 9/11 and two that the CIA’s despicable treatment of prisoners produced information that saved lives.
Brennan is the worst possible candidate to become head of the CIA, and his nomination is yet another indication that President Obama is incapable of dealing with the major issues of the day and doesn’t even understand them.
You’re getting there, Jim, but the old/wrong photo still appears on the blog’s front page.
What a guy that Obama is, eh?
How about the self-serving lie at the end of Brennan’s excuses for CBS? “And let’s not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse at all for the deaths of 3,000 innocents.” Even if that were true, it wouldn’t make torture legal. He uses that witless euphemism–“enhanced interrogation tactics”–because he knows that to call torture torture would be a bad idea. Why, someone might actually think that perhaps it was time to start putting these criminals in the docket at the Hague. I expect Brennan will be confirmed–the Obama Administration has made the formerly outrageous and lawless almost respectable, and media shills go right along with it. It’s not “torture,” but always and only “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
In the interest of balance, Brennan was the guy who tried, in vain, to warn us that something like 9/11 was imminent. The outgoing Clinton Administration advised the incoming Bush Administration, Cheney in particular, to pay attention to what John Brennan had to say about terrorists, but Cheney ignored the advice and terrorism in general. Within a few months we had the event that largely shaped modern American foreign policy. I am not afraid of terrorists, and oppose the Patriot Act and any and all torture, but John Brennan’s knowledge of terrorism is likely why Obama likes him for the job.
Has Brennan’s stance changed since ’07?
I have always been troubled by the “advanced techniques”,now accepted by many and how it reflects on this country.Put aside the fact that it works.I envision a world where other countries use water boarding as a way to extract information from Americans as an excepted practice.After all…..its not torture.What next as we incrementally(or not) rise to the level of the next level of “not torturing”.This country is supposed to set moral guideposts for humanity.This one is definitely painted black!
Torture as we know it (or enhanced interrogation) was designed to elicit confessions during the Inquisition, not to get usfeul information. US military studies foorm WWII, as reported by Alfred McCoy, indicate that sympathetic interrogation is what works best, and this jives with the FBI side of the FBI/CIA accounts of high value suspects passed between them. Furthermore, torture is against US law, against international treaty, and is immoral and wrong.
Tishido I dont think we agree on many things, but when you are right…you are right!
I was tortured for almost 3 years by the FBI and their friends only
because 85 years old man, Roland Sibens(chicago) convinced them that I
am a terrorist. I was tortured for working on my prosthetic legs in
the basement. I done absolutely nothing illegal or wrong. They thought
that in theory it is possible to hide bomb in them. They saw an
opportunity to get famous, so they were trying to torture me till I
sign their insane story. They tortured me using more than 100
different torturing methods and trust to me waterboarding is not how
they torture nowadays. I dont know where to find justice.
I think that after 9/11 things got out of control. Freedom fighters
became tyrants. In 1945, most Germans had an opportunity to learn about Nazis death
camps. I hope that one day American citizens will get chance to learn about people
like me, who were tortured with no reason for years.