A prominent US civil rights group has censured President Barack Obama’s nomination of John Brennan as the next CIA director, citing his past role in instituting torture tactics by the spy agency and his current role leading the Obama administration’s targeted killing program, Press TV reports.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the US Senate in a Tuesday press release not to confirm Brennan until assessing the “legality” of his actions in previous leadership posts in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during George W. Bush administration as well as his current role in heading the ongoing assassination drone program, also referred to as targeted killing.
“The Senate should not move forward with his nomination until all senators can assess the role of the CIA – and any role by Brennan himself – in torture, abuse, secret prisons, and extraordinary rendition during his past tenure at the CIA, as well as can review the legal authorities for the targeted killing program that he has overseen in his current position,” said Director of ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office Laura Murphy.
“This nomination is too important to proceed without the Senate first knowing what happened during Brennan’s tenures at the CIA and the White House, and whether all of his conduct was within the law,” she added.
Obama originally intended to nominate Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran, as director of the notorious spy agency back in 2009, but wide criticism and controversies over his active involvement during Bush administration in endorsing torture tactics such as waterboarding as well as the establishment of secret prisons overseas, extra-ordinary renditions and eavesdropping programs led the US president against the move at the time.
Instead, Obama appointed Brennan as his chief “counterterrorism” advisor.
In April 2012, Brennan became the first US official to officially confirm the use of assassination drone strikes against presumed American enemies.
“Yes, in full accordance of the law and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and to save American lives, the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaeda terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft often referred to publicly as drones,” he proclaimed.
Despite worldwide condemnation of the huge civilian casualties caused by American terror drones, Brennan further claimed last year that such aerial strikes never led to civilian deaths in Pakistan over the previous year, leading to tense relations between the two allied countries.
Furthermore, former top CIA analyst David MacMichael has described Brennan’s denial of civilian fatalities inflicted by US assassination drones as “absolutely false.”
Even mainstream US dailies, including the New York Times and the Washington Post have published editorials in recent months, blasting Obama administration’s arbitrary institution of targeted killing program in Muslim countries overseas as illegal and in violation of international human rights conventions, pointing to thousands of widely reported civilian casualties attributed to such attacks in several countries, including Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
MFB/MFB
