Democracy Betrayed by William W. Keller

Author:William W. Keller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619028906
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2016-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

In response, John Brennan contradicted the senator, disseminating what can only be interpreted as an outright lie or, at best, disinformation: “We are not in any way, shape, or form trying to thwart this report’s progression [or] release,” he told an MSNBC anchor at a Council on Foreign Relations event later that day. He continued, “As far as the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into, you know, Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn’t do that. I mean, that’s—that’s just beyond the—you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we would do.”287 Clearly, Brennan was playing it fast and loose with the facts. Perhaps his training and indoctrination rendered him incapable of distinguishing the truth from political expediency.

A preliminary report by the CIA’s inspector general concluded that “[f]ive Agency employees, two attorneys, and three information technology (IT) staff members improperly accessed” the committee’s computers looking for evidence of criminal wrongdoing.288 The CIA’s Office of the Inspector General confirmed these findings, affirming that CIA officers sought to bring criminal charges against Senate staff.289 Senator Saxby Chambliss, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a staunch supporter of the agency, commented, “I am extremely disappointed in the actions of the agents of the CIA who carried out this breach of the committee’s computers.”290

Four months after Senator Feinstein’s speech, Brennan slunk back to the Senate Intelligence Committee to “apologize.” He admitted that the agency had improperly “penetrated” the computer network set up by the Senate to investigate the agency’s torture programs and had attempted to intimidate Senate staff with threats of prosecution.291 But how is such misconduct interpreted in the context of Secure Democracy? Was Brennan fired for his intransigence and deliberate obfuscation of the truth about torture? No. He was able to block the release of more than 90 percent of the Senate report, redacting information from what was released and providing a rebuttal of the report at the same time.

The Obama White House mounted a spirited defense. The spokesman said of Brennan, “He is somebody who has a very difficult job, who does that job exceptionally well.” When asked if this episode created a credibility issue for Brennan, the White House spokesman replied, “Not at all.”292 Such is the power wielded in Washington by the unelected leaders of the surveillance security state.

In December of 2014, nearly six months after Senator Feinstein castigated Brennan and his agency for illegally hacking the Senate’s computers, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a 500-page summary, with redactions, of the 6,300-page Senate torture report amid political confusion and controversy. The summary is monumental, uncompromising, and unequivocal. While it presents 20 major findings and conclusions, its central import can be summarized as follows. First, the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” program was not an effective intelligence-gathering operation and did not elicit cooperation from the detainees. Second, the program was far more brutal than the CIA reported. Third, the CIA misrepresented the program to political authorities including the Congress, the White House, and the Department of Justice, as well as to the media and the public.

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