John Brennan and the engine of death

"The “playbook,” as Brennan calls it, will lay out the administration’s evolving procedures for the targeted killings that have come to define its fight against al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It will cover the selection and approval of targets from the “disposition matrix,” the designation of who should pull the trigger when a killing is warranted, and the legal authorities the administration thinks sanction its actions in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond. “What we’re trying to do right now is to have a set of standards, a set of criteria, and have a decision-making process that will govern our counterterrorism actions — we’re talking about direct action, lethal action — so that irrespective of the venue where they’re taking place, we have a high confidence that they’re being done for the right reasons in the right way,” Brennan said in a lengthy interview at the end of August." Karen de Young



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"a lengthy interview..."  What are they playing at?  Interviews are not granted on subjects like this without a specific goal.   Ah, the election, yes that is what they are playing at.   Given the president's apparently desparate situation it seems likely that the Post was encouraged to get this series out on the street NOW!

I knew Brennan when he was a very junior CIA analyst working in Saudi Arabia for Alan Fiers.  Remember him? He seemed incredibly solemn and resolute.  What he was resolute about was unclear (to me).  The women in the embassy had aerobic dance classes in a little building on the embassy compound.  I remember seeing him in there running and hopping with them (and his wife).   My, how people do rise in the world!  Apparently he is quite religious?

I have to say that I agree with much of what he is said to be doing.  The neocon imperial wars are ending (unless Romney is elected).   The war against foreign terrorists of every stripe who seek to attack us must continue.  Brennan's plan is to consolidate and systematize procedures so that the anti-terrorist war is both effective and controlled by centralised authority.  At the same time he wants to get CIA DO out of the business of executing violence and back altogether in the business of espionage and black propaganda.  He wants to return all policy driven external violence performed by the US Government to the department of Defense.  IMO, this is a good idea.  CIA is too "loose" an organization to have that kind of function.  The complex bureaucracy of the military and the civilian world of OSD are better places for that function to reside.  Supervision is a lot tighter.

In one of the debates,  BHO said "people like me should be reined in."  He is right.  It looks like Brennan in trying to do that on an institutional basis.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-veteran-john-brennan-has-transformed-us-counterterrorism-policy/2012/10/24/318b8eec-1c7c-11e2-ad90-ba5920e56eb3_story.html