In the wake of former Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus’ resignation over committing adultery with biographer Paula Broadwell, Barack Obama has decide to appoint his counterterrorism adviser and assassination czar John Brennan as his replacement on Monday.According to the London Telegraph, Brennan was the “mastermind of Barack Obama’s secret drone war.”
Unlike John Kerry, who was appointed to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brennan actually spoke at his appointment announcement.
“I will make it my mission to ensure the CIA has the tools it needs to keep our country safe,” the fifty-seven year old said.
The Telegraph reports,
White House colleagues have described him as “a priest whose blessing has become indispensable” to the president in their selection of targets for drone strikes from a so-called “kill list”.Apparently that doesn’t apply to the values of the sixth amendment for Mr. Brennan. In May of 2012, Brennan was appointed to be an advisor to Barack Obama to determine who and who would not be assassinated by the administration under the cloak of calling it “counterterrorism.” Thus he became the first appointed assassination czar in the United States. Now he heads the CIA.
A career spy who served as CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia, Mr Brennan was also accused of being complicit in the agency’s torture of terror suspects under former president George W. Bush.
Controversy over his involvement in the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” is believed to have prevented Mr Obama from nominating Mr Brennan to lead the CIA after his 2008 election win.
He promised to ensure the work of the CIA “always reflects the liberties, the freedoms, and the values that we all hold dear”.
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