Skip Navigation

The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

No Way. No How. No Brennan

By The Daily Dish
Nov 25 2008, 2:43 AM ET

Scott Horton:

The problem isn’t John Brennan’s lack of credentials. He was a career intelligence operative who gets consistently strong marks for his effectiveness and intelligence from people who have worked with him. But he has a critical shortcoming: his completely ambiguous and inconsistent views about the CIA’s use of torture and torture by proxy as techniques. As a company man, Brennan was quick to justify and support what was done. As an “independent” analyst for broadcast journalists, he also provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs. As an adviser to the Obama campaign, Brennan experienced an unconvincing epiphany and came to reject President Bush’s “program” along the same lines as his boss. The timing and circumstances of Brennan’s conversion suggest that it was dictated by political expedience and not ethics.

Does one have to remind the Obama peeps of their campaign slogan: change we can believe in?



Presented by

More at The Atlantic

The Myth of Energy Independence: Why We Can't Drill Our Way to Oil Autonomy Why We Can't Drill Our Way to Oil Autonomy
The Weakening of Nations: How Tax Work-Arounds Undermine Our Society Those Cayman Islands Accounts Will Undermine Our Society
The Implications of the Military Opening More Positions to Women The Implications of Adding More Women to Our Armed Forces
Whitney Houston Has Died Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits
A Western Diet High in Sugars and Fat Could Contribute to ADHD A Sugary, Fatty Western Diet Could Be Contributing to ADHD
Special Report
The Civil War National Portrait Gallery The Civil War
A 150th-anniversary commemorative issue, with Atlantic work by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and others. Read more ›
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

The Civil War, Part 3: The Stereographs

Feb 10, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)