President Obama's counter-terrorism chief has "seized the lead" in secretly determining who will die
In November, 2008, media reports strongly suggested that President Obama intended to name John Brennan as CIA Director. But controversy over Brennans recent history he was a Bush-era CIA official who expressly advocated enhanced interrogation techniques and rendition forced him to withdraw from consideration, as he publicly issued a letter citing strong criticism in some quarters of his CIA advocacy.
Undeterred by any of that unpleasantness, President Obama instead named Brennan to be his chief counter-Terrorism adviser, a position with arguably more influence that he would have had as CIA chief. Since then, Brennan has been caught peddling serious falsehoods in highly consequential cases, including falsely telling the world that Osama bin Laden engaged in a firefight with U.S. forces entering his house and used his wife as a human shield, and then outright lying when he claimed about the prior year of drone attacks in Pakistan: there hasnt been a single collateral death. Given his history, it is unsurprising that Brennan has been at the heart of many of the administrations most radical acts, including claiming the power to target American citizens for assassination-by-CIA without due process and the more general policy of secretly targeting people for death by drone.
Now, Brennans power has increased even more: hes on his way to becoming the sole arbiter of life and death, the unchecked judge, jury and executioner of whomever he wants dead (of course, when Associated Press in this report uses the words Terrorist or al-Qaida operative, what they actually mean is: a person accused by the U.S. Government, with no due process, of involvement in Terrorism):
White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in choosing which terrorists will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for both military and CIA targets.http://www.salon.com/2012/05/22/john_brennans_new_power/singleton/
leveymg
(36,418 posts)The Government has charged them as "terrorists." Execution on the spot?