Reply #11: Along with Brennan pressuring Obama, and bet me, with Panetta's blessing.

[chill_wind]

Brennan:

Ex-CIA Officials Tied to Rendition Program and Faulty Iraq Intel Tapped to Head Obama’s Intelligence Transition Team

(Democracy Now)
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/17/obama_taps_ex_cia_officials_tied

Tuesday Nov. 25, 2008 15:00 EST
Exceptional news: John Brennan won't be CIA Director or DNI

(Glenn Greenwald)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/25/john_brennan/

April 1st, 2009

"Back in November we opposed former CIA official John Brennan for CIA Director. Our Open Letter was credited with playing a role in Brennan’s withdrawal. Despite what some believed, we never claimed that Brennan played a key role in the Bush administration torture program. Rather, we were concerned that he had, when it mattered, never taken any position critical of that program. We needed someone who did not have such an equivocal history, we argued.

Afterward there was considerable criticism of those of us who opposed Brennan. We didn’t realize that Brennan was really opposed to the policies he could never get himself to publicly criticize, we were told.

Today the New York Times reports that the Obama administration is still debating whether to follow through with their committment to release all the Bush administration’s torture memos. In the article is the news that Brennan is among those opposing the release of the memos. It seems that some of those in the CIA who carried out the torture program might have their feelings hurt if those in whose name they tortured know what they actually did.

Some administration and Congressional officials said John O. Brennan, a C.I.A. veteran who now serves as President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, has urged caution in disclosing interrogation documents.

Sadly, after Brennan withdrew his name for CIA director, he was kept on as a top Obama counterterrorism adviser. This helped signal the intelligence community that Obama understood their concerns about having the past unearthed. Obama has also signalled this message with his refusal to endorse any investigation of Bush-era abuses and his rhetoricabout “looking forward.”

more: http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/2009/04/01/john-brennan-and-the-administration-stalling-on-bush-torture-memos/