Open thread for night owls: John Brennan''angel of death' or 'wet nurse' of terrorism?

 

At the Danger Room, Spencer Ackerman writes You Can Order Hundreds of Drone Strikes and Still Be Called 'Wet Nurse' of Terrorism:

To some, John Brennan, President Obama's nominee to head the CIA, is the bureaucratic equivalent of the angel of death. As Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, Brennan presides over the secret rules that authorize the CIA and the military to kill suspected terrorists. Yet there's a small but vocal contingent of self-appointed counterterrorism experts who consider Brennan the 'wet nurse' of Islamic extremism ' despite all the terrorist deaths he's helped authorize. Brennan has been Obama's single most important adviser for shaping the campaign of drone strikes and commando raids that have become the centerpiece of the president's national security strategy. He operates the so-called 'disposition matrix,' a secret list compiling intelligence on terrorism suspects and options for killing or, less often, capturing them. Brennan, a former top CIA official, is the one who brings Obama the names of specific suspects for presidential approval. He's also acted as a de facto ambassador to Yemen, a crucial battlefield for the drone campaign. Privately, Brennan has expressed doubts about the long-term efficacy of the drone war ' even as it spreads from Pakistan to Yemen and perhaps elsewhere. But publicly, not only has Brennan defended the drone program, he's claimed that 'there hasn't been a single collateral death' from drone strikes, which is difficult to square with what little evidence from the drone campaign is on display. Accordingly, Brennan's nomination is attracting criticism even before Obama announces it on Monday afternoon. Mary Ellen O'Connell, an international law expert at the University of Notre Dame, sent out a statement urging the Senate to vote against sending Brennan to the CIA on the grounds that the drone program is among 'the most highly unlawful and immoral practices the United States has ever undertaken.' Council on Foreign Relations scholar Micah Zenko doesn't explicitly oppose Brennan's nomination, but called the claim that the drone strikes haven't killed civilians 'preposterous and in no way supported by reality.' Brennan withdrew as Obama's choice to head the CIA once before, in 2008, when he came under criticism for alleged involvement in the CIA's Bush-era torture efforts. But as much as Brennan has become synonymous with the drone strikes, in some quarters, he's considered a terrorism apologist. [...]

High Impact Posts. Top Comments. Overnight News Digest.