Life and death

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Letter: Life and death

February 16, 2013, 05:00 AM



 

Editor,



During his confirmation hearing, President Obama's nominee for CIA director, John Brennan, forcefully defended the president's counterterrorism policies, including the increased use of armed drones and targeted killings of American citizens. He also refused to say that waterboarding was a form of torture, and he admitted that he did not try to stop waterboarding while he was a top CIA official under President George W. Bush.



Four years ago, Brennan was a rumored pick for the CIA job when Obama was first elected, but he was forced to withdraw from consideration amid protests over his public support of the CIA's policies regarding so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."



Ron Wyden asked him about the extent of the CIA's lethal authority against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and abroad. President Obama's Brennan — hit man or assassination czar? This guy has been at the center of a secret process in which the White House decides who lives and who dies around the world every day, and yet the conversation that took place was as though they were, you know, sort of talking about whether or not they're going to add a wing onto a school in Idaho or something. They were talking about life-and-death issues for people who, not only are U.S. citizens, but also live around the world.







Ted Rudow III



Palo Alto











 





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