CODEPINK Protesters Shutdown War Criminal John Brennan’s Opening Statement At CIA Director Nominee Hearing

Dandelion Salad

Updated Feb. 8, 2013 and Feb. 9, 2013

Witness Against Torture: John Brennan

Image by Shrieking Tree via Flickr

CODEPINK Action at Brennan’s Confirmation Hearing

codepinkaction·Feb 7, 2013

Watch CODEPINK’s demonstration outside Hart Senate Building before John Brennan’s hearing and afterwards, at the hearing itself. 8 CODEPINK members were arrested for speaking out and Senator Feinstein ordered all “CODEPINK” associates be “evicted” from the hearing.


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Protesters Shutdown War Criminal John Brennan’s Opening Statement At CIA Dir Nominee Hearing

TheOnlyIsz·Mar 13, 2013

February 07, 2013 C-SPAN

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Updated

Brennan Hearings: What is the Legal Basis for Drone Targeted Killings?

TheRealNews·Feb 8, 2013

Michael Ratner: There’s no reason why the legal argument defending targeted killing should not be made public

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Brennan Hearings – Who’s Overseeing Who?

TheRealNews·Feb 7, 2013

Ray McGovern: Hearing exposes how little oversight the Senate Intelligence Committee exercises over the CIA

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Jeremy Scahill: Assassinations of U.S. Citizens Largely Ignored at Brennan CIA Hearing

democracynow·Feb 8, 2013

DemocracyNow.org – President Obama’s nominee to run the CIA, John Brennan, forcefully defended Obama’s counterterrorism policies, including the increase use of armed drones and the targeted killings of American citizens during his confirmation hearing Thursday. “None of the central questions that should have been asked of John Brennan were asked in an effective way,” says Jeremy Scahill, author of the forthcoming book “Dirty Wars.” “In the cases where people like Sen. Angus King or Sen. Ron Wyden would ask a real question, for instance, about whether or not the CIA has the right to kill U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. The questions were very good — Brennan would then offer up a non-answer. Then there would be almost a no follow-up.” Scahill went on to say, “[Brennan has] served for more than four years as the assassination czar, and it basically looked like they’re discussing purchasing a used car on Capitol hill. And it was total kabuki oversight. And that’s a devastating commentary on where things stand.

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CODEPINK Repeatedly Disrupts Brennan Hearing Calling Out Names Of Civilians Killed in Drone Strikes

democracynow·Feb 8, 2013

DemocracyNow.org – Thursday’s confirmation hearing for CIA nominee John Brennan was briefly postponed to clear the room of activists from CODEPINK after they repeatedly disrupted Brennan’s testimony. One woman held a list of Pakistani children killed in U.S. drone strikes. Former U.S. diplomat Col. Ann Wright interrupted Brennan while wearing a sign around her neck with the name of Tariq Aziz, a 16-year-old Pakistani boy who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Wright and seven others were arrested. We speak to CODEPINK founder Medea Benjamin who also disrupted the meeting and recently visited Pakistan to speak with victims of drone strikes. “It’s not only the killing, it’s the terrorizing of entire populations, where they hear the drones buzzing overhead 24 hours a day. Where they’re afraid to go to school, afraid to go to the markets, to funerals, to weddings. Where it disrupts entire communities,” Benjamin says. “And we are trying to get this information to our elected officials, to say, ‘You are making us unsafe here at home,’ to say nothing about illegal, immoral and inhumane these policies are.”

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“He Was The Agency”: Ex-CIA Analyst Questions Brennan Claim He Couldn’t Stop Waterboarding, Torture

democracynow·Feb 8, 2013

DemocracyNow.org – CIA nominee John Brennan was repeatedly questioned about torture at his CIA confirmation hearing, including the use of waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques. He refused to say waterboarding was a form of torture, but said he has come to oppose the technique. Under George W. Bush, Brennan served as deputy executive director of the CIA and director of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. “Remember he was the cheerleader for some of these onerous policies — particularly renditions and extraordinary renditions. So for John Brennan, today, to say he read the Senate committee intelligence report on torture and he learned things he never knew before and that he was shocked with what he learned — this is a case of incredible willful ignorance,” says Melvin Goodman, former CIA and State Department analyst.

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CIA Director Nomination Hearing

C-SPAN
February 07, 2013

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held a hearing on the nomination of John Brennan to become director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Brennan, who had served in the CIA for 25 years. Mr. Brennan defended anti-terrorist attacks by unmanned drones and said lethal strikes were only used as a last resort. He also said that he was not certain the use of water-boarding in interrogations had produced valuable information. Other topics addressed included security leaks and counter-terrorism efforts against al-Qaeda.

Committee Chair Feinstein stopped the hearing for a few minutes to clear the room after several outbursts from protesters delayed the hearing. Members of the public wishing to return to the hearing had to be screened by Capitol Police.

watch via http://www.c-span.org/video/?310803-1/cia-director-nomination-hearing

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Updated: Feb. 9, 2013

Brennan Hearings: What is the Legal Basis for Drone Targeted Killings? Pt.2

TheRealNews·Feb 8, 2013

Michael Ratner: There’s no reason why the legal argument defending targeted killing should not be made public

see

Michael Ratner: Zero Dark Thirty, Manhunt and Obama Admin. Justify Use of Torture + Globalizing Torture: Ahead of Brennan Hearing, International Complicity in CIA Rendition Exposed

Daniel Ellsberg: NDAA Indefinite Detention Provision is Part of Systematic Assault on Constitution + Kill List Exposed

America’s Indefinitely Detained + Close GITMO Protest

CIA: World’s Biggest Terrorist Organization

Michael Ratner: Obama Orders Assassinations with No Oversight

Gitmo

Torture on Dandelion Salad