Proposed CIA Director Supported Censorship, Denied Absolute Human Rights
Charles C. Johnson (the good Charles Johnson) at the Daily Caller:
In his 1980 graduate thesis at the University of Texas at Austin, John Brennan denied the existence of “absolute human rights” and argued in favor of censorship on the part of the Egyptian dictatorship.
“Since the press can play such an influential role in determining the perceptions of the masses, I am in favor of some degree of government censorship,” Brennan wrote. “Inflamatory [sic] articles can provoke mass opposition and possible violence, especially in developing political systems.”
Brennan serves as President Barack Obama’s national security advisor. Obama has nominated him to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
How reassuring.
Ding.
Patterico (8b3905) — 1/23/2013 @ 7:53 ameverybody in America has been a big rah rah supporter of soul-crushing middle east dictatorships at some point in their lives
it’s a thing
egyptians are nasty pigs anyway ask lara logan
happyfeet (ce327d) — 1/23/2013 @ 7:59 amFascists know their own.
SPQR (768505) — 1/23/2013 @ 8:05 amSeems that this Administration is a celebration of shoddy scholarship.
Libertarian Advocate (206681) — 1/23/2013 @ 8:33 amSince government duplicity can play such an influential role in manipulating the perceptions of the masses, I am in favor of an advanced degree of press censorship, Brennan might as well have acknowledged.
Manufactured news articles or multiple appearances by Administration con artists on Sunday news shows can effectively deflect or minimize mass opposition and possible exposure of government malfeasance especially in clandestinely controlled political systems.
ropelight (aae05a) — 1/23/2013 @ 9:02 amI’ll play Devil’s Advocate and go along with happyfeet here. Maybe some cultures are incapable of supporting freedom and democracy, and need a strongman in charge in order to keep radical elements in line. I found that line of argument quite obnoxious when liberals were quietly making it back in 2003-2004, but from what we have seen recently in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, “Palestine,” Libya, and Syria (not to mention Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey) maybe liberals were on to something after all.
[I’m not really sure that I buy my argument above, but I am certainly more willing to consider it than I would have been ten years ago.]
JVW (4826a9) — 1/23/2013 @ 9:08 amI’m not a “mass” dickweed, I’m a person.
mojo (8096f2) — 1/23/2013 @ 11:19 amWill this mean there won’t be any more leaks from within the CIA to the NYT/WaPo?
askeptic (b8ab92) — 1/23/2013 @ 11:39 amIs it legal to rendition U.S.Gov’t employees for interrogation over unauthorized disclosures?
Odd. If they had censorship, how did all those anti-Semitic blood libels get printed in Egyptian newspapers? Did Brennan advocate that, too?
Kevin M (bf8ad7) — 1/23/2013 @ 11:46 amThere is a sad precedent here, back in the 50s, two CIA officials, a former Glenn Miller orchestra associate, Miles Copeland, and an ad exec, James Eichelberger, were the ones who aided Nasser, and help set up their secret police, Nasser turned against the US, and they got the idea, to replicate
narciso (3fec35) — 1/23/2013 @ 12:56 pmthe idea with Iraqi Baathist exiled in Cairo, and you know how that turned out
#9, LOL. Makes ya wonder.
Rodney King's Spirit (951136) — 1/23/2013 @ 1:17 pmSeems which ever party is in power they’d rather play the grand game than tell the world the USA is coming home for the long term. We gain really nothing from all this meddling.There’s a difference between being noninterventionist and isolationist. The only good reason to vote for Obama in 2008 was the now forlorn hope he would in fact end the wars. Instead we have expanded them and engaged in more intervention. Instead we got Brennan going over lists of targets for drone attacks.
An Africa Command, Gobs of cash, F16s and Abrams tanks to Egypt-why?
Trivia-Copeland’s son,Stewart, was the drummer for The Police.
Bugg (ba4ca9) — 1/23/2013 @ 2:10 pmYes, Robert McCall, ‘the Equalizer’ was in part based on him, the problem with Brennan, among many, is that the First Amendment seems to be a flexible
narciso (3fec35) — 1/23/2013 @ 2:19 pmthing with him,
I’m not too worried about F-16s to Egypt. Arab pilots are no good, the American pilots (probably) won’t fly the Egyptian planes against Israel, and if we stop upkeep on the planes they’ll be useless pretty quick.
luagha (5cbe06) — 1/23/2013 @ 3:11 pmThe Obama Administration has solved the unemployment problem for fascisty fascists in this country.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/23/2013 @ 3:42 pmYou’re talking about something he wrote 30 years ago, when he was young and inexperienced. I know that my own attitides have changed a lot in the last 30 years.
I don’t think this means anything.(It’s like that stuff they dragged out of the graveyard about Romney when he was a schoolboy.)
Steven Den Beste (99cfa1) — 1/23/2013 @ 4:33 pm“I don’t think this means anything.”
Steven Den Beste – I don’t know whether it means anything, but Brennan has said enough troubling things during his tenure with the Obama Administration that there is no need to go back 30 years to find items over which to be concerned about his nomination as head of the CIA.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/23/2013 @ 5:06 pmBTW, Brennan is Obama’s Counter-Terrorism Advisor;
askeptic (2bb434) — 1/23/2013 @ 11:32 pmTom Donilon is the National Security Advisor.
Both are Richard-Craniums.
He SHOULD have said to her, “Excuse ME,Ms. Smirk-On-Your-Face, I represent the people of Kentucky, and they want ANSWERS! The last time I looked, YOU’VE never been elected to . . . ANYTHING!”
Johnny Alamo (3e8a2c) — 1/24/2013 @ 10:21 amI remember some supreme court nominees that got raked over the coals for much less and not just Bork. One Hispanic finally asked that his name be withdrawn.
dunce (15d7dc) — 1/24/2013 @ 7:51 pmMiguel Estrada, they sacrificed him, so as they could nominate their own Hispanic.
narciso (3fec35) — 1/24/2013 @ 8:04 pmBrennan is baldly pro-Death Cult, er Islam.
But Michele Bachmann is the crazy one:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/01/reconsidering-michele-bachmann.php
gary gulrud (dd7d4e) — 1/24/2013 @ 9:14 pm