Salon.com > John Brennan http://www.salon.com Sun, 26 May 2013 01:38:09 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 John Brennan makes surprise Israel trip over Syria concerns http://www.salon.com/2013/05/17/john_brennan_makes_surprise_israel_trip_over_syria_concerns/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/17/john_brennan_makes_surprise_israel_trip_over_syria_concerns/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 15:10:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13301454 CIA director John Brennan has made a surprise visit to Israel in the wake of a series of Israeli airstrikes in Syria aimed at weapons stores believed to be Hezbollah-bound. According to Israeli media reports, Brennan met the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, and Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo. The visit was read by Israeli commentators as evidence of U.S. concerns about escalating tensions between Israel and Syria. A fullblown conflict between the two nations would risking further embroiling the U.S. in intervention in Syria. The Guardian reported:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/17/john_brennan_makes_surprise_israel_trip_over_syria_concerns/feed/ 1 Absolutely outrageous: Big Brother is watching http://www.salon.com/2013/05/15/absolutely_outrageous_big_brother_is_listening/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/15/absolutely_outrageous_big_brother_is_listening/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13298609 Over a six-week period last April and May, a flood of new information on our counterterrorism programs came out: a John Brennan speech and high-profile stories that claimed the drone killing program was narrowly targeted; stories revealing that Brennan had recently changed that process and adopted the use of strikes targeted at patterns, not known individuals, in Yemen; and news of a thwarted al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula operation that seemed to indicate AQAP remained a threat to the U.S. eight months after the U.S. had killed Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. It was a frenzy of administration-serving leaks and counter-leaks.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/15/absolutely_outrageous_big_brother_is_listening/feed/ 36 Yemeni activist: U.S. strikes “kerosene for insurgency” http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/yemeni_activist_u_s_strikes_kerosene_for_insurgency/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/yemeni_activist_u_s_strikes_kerosene_for_insurgency/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 19:08:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13292946 Delivering video testimony from Yemen to a congressional hearing Wednesday, Yemeni youth and human rights activist Baraa Shiban made clear what's at stake with the U.S.'s ongoing shadow drone war. Speaking of Yemenis who had witnessed, either directly or through video footage, the carnage wrought by a recent strike that killed at least 12 civilians, Shiban said, "What does the U.S. mean to these people now? A blasted car, and gruesome footage of dead families?"

Wednesday's ad hoc drone hearing, called by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is a dim flicker of light shed against dense shadows surrounding the Obama administration's lethal drone strike program. While lawmakers including Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have made dubious claims about the precision of drone strikes and limited civilian casualties, and while CIA Director John Brennan has vowed that reports of civilian death are seriously investigated, rarely is testimony from those who've seen the first hand plight of drone struck regions heard on Capitol Hill. Written and video testimony was released to Salon in advance of the hearing.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/yemeni_activist_u_s_strikes_kerosene_for_insurgency/feed/ 10 Brennan passes over CIA woman tied to torture for top spy job http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/brennan_passes_over_cia_woman_tied_to_torture_for_top_spy_job/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/brennan_passes_over_cia_woman_tied_to_torture_for_top_spy_job/#comments Tue, 07 May 2013 18:58:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13291909 As Salon noted earlier this year, the top-ranking female agent in the CIA, who helped run the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, and oversaw the destruction of videotapes of prisoners being subjected to torture, had been tapped for the top position of director of clandestine services. However, as the AP reported Tuesday, CIA director John Brennan has passed over the agent -- who remains undercover -- for the position, although she has been serving as acting director of clandestine services for a number of months.

The agent's potential promotion angered human rights advocates who have long noted that CIA leaders overseeing torture programs have not only faced no recriminations under Obama, but have maintained high-ranking positions in the government agency. It was thus politically expedient for Brennan to choose an agent with a past less muddied with Bush-era CIA counterterror practices.

According to the AP, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, personally "urged" Brennan not to promote the woman, given the agent's history entrenched in extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation. Via the AP:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/brennan_passes_over_cia_woman_tied_to_torture_for_top_spy_job/feed/ 5 Why is Obama withholding secret torture report from Americans? http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/why_is_obama_withholding_secret_torture_report_from_americans/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/why_is_obama_withholding_secret_torture_report_from_americans/#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 18:08:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13290861 Much of what you’ve been told (or seen in movies) about George W. Bush’s supposedly effective torture program is false and overhyped. At least, that’s one of the conclusions of the 6,000-page review of the program the Senate Intelligence Committee completed last year.

Yet, right now, President Obama is preventing you from learning any of this, by keeping the report classified.

Before the end of the Bush administration, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. — then the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee — started investigating the torture program. When Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., took over as chairwoman of the committee in 2009, she intensified the investigation and negotiated with the CIA to get access to its files. After almost four more years of work and reviewing 6 million pages of documents, the committee voted out the report in December on a mostly party line vote.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/06/why_is_obama_withholding_secret_torture_report_from_americans/feed/ 16 When drone strike victims receive condolence payments http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/what_do_we_know_about_condolence_payments_for_drone_strike_victims_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/what_do_we_know_about_condolence_payments_for_drone_strike_victims_partner/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:07:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13262815 ProPublica The U.S. drone war remains cloaked in secrecy, and as a result, questions swirl around it. Who exactly can be targeted? When can a U.S. citizen be killed?

Another, perhaps less frequently asked question: What happens when innocent civilians are killed in drone strikes?

In February, during his confirmation process, CIA director John Brennan offered an unusually straightforward explanation: “Where possible, we also work with local governments to gather facts, and, if appropriate, provide condolence payments to families of those killed.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/what_do_we_know_about_condolence_payments_for_drone_strike_victims_partner/feed/ 4 Woman who helped run CIA torture may get major promotion http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/woman_who_helped_run_cia_torture_may_get_major_promotion/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/woman_who_helped_run_cia_torture_may_get_major_promotion/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:10:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13253299 A woman who helped run the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, and oversaw the destruction of videotapes of prisoners being subjected to torture, may be appointed director of clandestine services under new CIA chief John Brennan.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the woman has been acting director of clandestine services -- a top appointment in the agency --  since last month. Now Brennan must decide whether to make permanent the promotion of the agent -- who is undercover and cannot be named -- with a past entrenched in the CIA's controversial post-9/11 activities. Brennan came under scrutiny during his confirmation process over his role in the Bush-era CIA practices. Although the counterterror czar insisted that he had long objected to waterboarding, his longtime colleagues at the agency have questioned the history of his disavowals -- Brennan was a senior CIA official when waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques became widespread practice.

Via WaPo:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/woman_who_helped_run_cia_torture_may_get_major_promotion/feed/ 6 Hackers leak John Brennan’s financial records http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/hackers_leak_john_brennans_financial_records/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/hackers_leak_john_brennans_financial_records/#comments Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13242502 As Salon noted earlier this week, Russian hackers have been leaking personal information of U.S. celebrities and public figures including Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and Beyoncé on the site Exposed.Su. On Friday afternoon, the hackers added John Brennan to their list of targets, leaking what they say are his personal financial records.

Russia Today reported:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/hackers_leak_john_brennans_financial_records/feed/ 11 Are Hugo Chávez and Rand Paul anti-imperialist BFFs? http://www.salon.com/2013/03/09/are_hugo_chavez_and_rand_paul_anti_imperialist_bffs/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/09/are_hugo_chavez_and_rand_paul_anti_imperialist_bffs/#comments Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13223589 It might sound facetious to draw comparisons between Hugo Chávez and Rand Paul, beyond the fact that they both made headline news this week. They’d have made a great sitcom duo, somewhat in the Harold and Kumar vein: the Latin loudmouth and the unctuous Kentuckian! They bicker endlessly about privatization vs. nationalization and, boy, do things get wild when their respective pals Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu come over! But then comes the heartwarming season-ender when they get baked on decriminalized Mexican sinsemilla, march against United States militarism and chain themselves to the doors of the World Bank! (And don’t you get the feeling they’re both deadly when it comes to the ladies?)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/09/are_hugo_chavez_and_rand_paul_anti_imperialist_bffs/feed/ 61 The submissive, indifferent Democrats http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/the_invisible_shrinking_democrats/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/the_invisible_shrinking_democrats/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:59:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13222996 If you noticed that there was a lot of news this week in the Senate, but hardly any mention of Democrats, you weren't alone. By mid-afternoon Thursday, after a 12-hour filibuster by Sen. Rand Paul, John Brennan was confirmed to be the next CIA director by a vote of 63-34. The "nay" votes were clearly short of a successful challenge to Brennan’s confirmation (whose nomination to the same office was undermined four years ago).

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/the_invisible_shrinking_democrats/feed/ 68 How to think about drones http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/how_to_think_about_drones/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/how_to_think_about_drones/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13221543 It's not unusual to hear the debate on targeted killings reduced to whether one is "for" or "against" drones. But such a reductive dichotomy over a technology makes little sense and conflates a vortex of issues from executive authority, secrecy, civil liberties, constitutionality and militarism to privacy and personhood. So, what are we really talking about when we talk about drones?

Clearly, we're not just talking about the technology of unmanned flying machines. The fundamental questions concerning the use of drones are about more than this. They are about who can be killed by the U.S. government, where, with what justification and with who else knowing. They are about what activities can be watched by whom and from which skies. They are stories about citizenship and foreignness, property and privacy; they tell of unidentified robots flying near JFK airport and human meat hanging from trees in Southern Yemen.

In short, when we talk about drones we are talking about complex configurations and arrangements of bodies, spaces, objects and subjects. Instead of embracing a knee-jerk polemic that either celebrates or condemns drones, it's important to parse out some of the issues that drone technology has brought to the fore. Then we can ask how it is that drone technology shapes and determines these narratives.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/08/how_to_think_about_drones/feed/ 30 White House: Obama would not use drones on U.S. soil http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/white_house_obama_would_not_use_drones_on_u_s_soil/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/white_house_obama_would_not_use_drones_on_u_s_soil/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13222087 Two messages came from the White House today intended to assuage concerns about the president's authority to kill Americans with drones on U.S. soil -- which, the attorney general wrote this week, is hypothetical but technically sanctioned.

Following Rand Paul's 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's CIA directorship confirmation over this issue, Eric Holder followed up with another letter to Paul. Only two sentences long, the missive read, "It has come to my attention that you have asked an additional question: 'Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?' The answer that question is no."

Paul has said he is "quite happy" with this message and ended his objection to moving ahead with the nomination of John Brennan -- who was confirmed by a Senate vote as CIA director Thursday.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/white_house_obama_would_not_use_drones_on_u_s_soil/feed/ 4 McCain and Graham rush to defend drones from mean Rand Paul http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/mccain_and_graham_rush_to_defend_drones_from_mean_rand_paul/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/mccain_and_graham_rush_to_defend_drones_from_mean_rand_paul/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13222132 In case you were feeling conflicted about Rand Paul's epic filibuster of CIA director nominee John Brennan -- and there is some stuff to feel conflicted about! -- Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham today did their best to make sure that all right-thinking people made up their minds to be on Team Rand on this one.

John McCain and Lindsey Graham actually had planned on holding up the Brennan nomination the usual way, with aggravating delay tactics based on the abuse of Senate rules, a once-rare tactic that is now standard minority practice for just about everything the Senate debates, but Paul's talky filibuster seems to have offended McCain personally (which, I know, not hard to do), because he brought up Jane Fonda and because it is much more gentlemanly to just block all Senate business and explain your reasons on the Sunday shows than it is to hold stuff up for a while with a really long floor speech. McCain even said that Paul's filibuster is going to "give ammunition to those who say the rules of the Senate are being abused,” which is just amazingly wrong. People (and the press) love talky filibusters, because of Jimmy Stewart. Lots of Americans who don't follow news and debates about the Senate closely -- which is to say probably most Americans -- think filibusters are great, because they think that is how they still work! Only senators like the kind of "filibuster" where you just tell Harry Reid you're filibustering and then you go get a drink or go home for the night. The thing where every bill and nomination now requires 60 votes -- which was not how the Senate was designed to function -- is why people think the rules are being "abused." Because John McCain and his friends are abusing them, routinely.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/mccain_and_graham_rush_to_defend_drones_from_mean_rand_paul/feed/ 9 Republicans rally around Rand http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/republicans_rally_around_rand/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/republicans_rally_around_rand/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:06:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13221606 By the time he ended his nearly 13-hour filibuster around 1 a.m. Thursday morning, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had turned his opposition to John Brennan's nomination to the CIA into a rallying point for Republicans.

From the New York Times:

At a certain point, as the hour edged closer to midnight, participating in the filibuster seemed to become the gold standard among Senate Republicans, with a parade of Republican senators — Jeff Flake of Arizona; Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader in the Senate; and Tim Scott of South Carolina — emerging for the first time to show their support for Mr. Paul’s cause, not to mention the C-SPAN cameras.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/republicans_rally_around_rand/feed/ 4 Rand: Craftier than his dad http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/craftier_than_his_dad/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/craftier_than_his_dad/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:40:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13221373 Rand Paul has made plenty of noise since his election to the Senate in 2010, but he’s standing out more than usual right now, thanks to his marathon filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to run the CIA. The filibuster itself, as Paul himself acknowledged, was doomed from the start. There were already more than 60 votes to bring Brennan’s nomination to the floor and well more than 50 to confirm him, and nothing he said was going to change that. So he was essentially putting on a show, and the question becomes: Why?

The obvious answer is that Paul has a genuine and principled objection to Brennan, the architect of the Obama administration’s drones program. Until Brennan’s nomination, there hadn’t exactly been an abundance of news coverage of the drones issue, which figures to recede from the headlines once Brennan’s nomination clears. And even though he did face some pointed questions during his confirmation hearings, Brennan didn’t exactly face the sort of withering examination drone critics were hoping for.  So the filibuster was Paul’s last, best chance to shine a light on an issue that matters to him before the media moves on to something else.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/craftier_than_his_dad/feed/ 28 Paul ends filibuster after nearly 13 hours http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/rand_paul_filibustering_brennan/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/rand_paul_filibustering_brennan/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2013 05:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13220727 Escalating his war with the administration over civil liberties and drone strikes, Sen. Rand Paul took to the Senate floor today to engage in a rare talking filibuster in opposition to CIA nominee John Brennan.

"I will do everything I can to stop him, and I told him I will filibuster it," Paul said Sunday night. "Unfortunately, I am not enough. You know, it takes 41. And we could not hold 41 together on the Hagel nomination. So my guess is I will not get 41."

This afternoon, he made good on that promise, declaring on the floor that he is filibustering Brennan and would speak at the podium as long as he could. In the modern era, senators don't actually need to speak on the Senate floor to filibuster, but some do it as an added protest, most famously Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2010.

Attorney General Eric Holder told Paul in a letter released this week that the U.S. government theoretically has the power to kill people on American soil, but only in extraordinary circumstances.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/07/rand_paul_filibustering_brennan/feed/ 22 A very modern filibuster http://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/a_very_modern_filibuster/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/a_very_modern_filibuster/#comments Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:34:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13220966 At the time of writing, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is still holding the Senate floor with a good old-fashioned filibuster to block John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director. Although a traditional tool for parliamentary intervention, Paul's filibuster based on (well-founded) civil liberties concerns about the president's reserved ability to execute U.S. citizens with drone strikes on U.S. soil, is a particularly modern affair.

It's certainly the first filibuster with a Twitter hashtag -- #filiblizzard (in reference to the D.C. snowstorm today, in case you were wondering). And not only did viewers watching live on C-SPAN broadcast Paul's comments, he sent out tweets himself (at least whoever operates his Twitter account did):

[embedtweet id="309377944193728512"]

[embedtweet id="309361851181957120"]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/06/a_very_modern_filibuster/feed/ 35 Senate Intelligence Committee pushes Brennan forward http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/senate_intelligence_committee_pushes_brennan_forward/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/senate_intelligence_committee_pushes_brennan_forward/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13219984 John Brennan is one step closer to becoming director of the CIA.

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted Tuesday to approve President Barack Obama's pick to lead the spy agency, setting the nomination up for consideration by the full Senate.

The vote came after the White House agreed to provide the committee with access to the secret legal opinions written by the Justice Department that justify the use of lethal drone strikes against terror suspects, including American citizens.

Senate Republicans also are using Brennan's nomination to push for classified records about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya.

Brennan is currently serving as the top counterterrorism adviser in the White House.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/senate_intelligence_committee_pushes_brennan_forward/feed/ 1 Yes, the president can kill Americans on U.S. soil http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/yes_the_president_can_kill_americans_on_u_s_soil/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/yes_the_president_can_kill_americans_on_u_s_soil/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13219941 Just so we're all clear -- and mainly  just so Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., will stand down on his threat to block John Brennan's confirmation -- Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed in writing that the president can kill U.S. citizens in a drone strike on U.S. soil, in "an extraordinary circumstance."

In a Google+ Hangout last month, President Obama refused to answer whether or not he had the authority to use lethal force on Americans inside the borders. And John Brennan has said that the CIA does not "have any authority" to carry out lethal strikes on U.S. soil. But Paul had threatened to block Brennan's nomination "until he answers the question of whether or not the President can kill American citizens through the drone strike program on U.S. soil."

Holder thus wrote to the senator with a more expansive answer Tuesday (h/t Mother Jones):

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/yes_the_president_can_kill_americans_on_u_s_soil/feed/ 128 Senate Intelligence Committee to get kill list opinions http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/senate_intelligence_committee_to_get_kill_list_opinions/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/senate_intelligence_committee_to_get_kill_list_opinions/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:35:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13219590 The White House has agreed to meet demands of the Senate Intelligence Committee and provide access to all Justice Department legal opinions justifying the use of targeted killing. The Obama administration had resisted releasing seven of a total 11 opinions to senators after four were made available (with restrictions) last month around CIA director nominee John Brennan's confirmation hearing.

The intelligence committee is expected to confirm Brennan's directorship with a vote Tuesday afternoon. Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, as well as Kentucky's Rand Paul, had threatened to block his confirmation over White House resistance to releasing the drone memos.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the intelligence committee, announced in a statement, "I am pleased the administration has made this information available. It is important for the committee to do its work and will pave the way for the confirmation of John Brennan to be CIA director."

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