2010 Complete Election Coverage: W.H. stands by watch list probe pick
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- According to financial disclosures forms released by the White House, Brennan served as president and CEO of TAC from November 2005 until January 2009. AP Photo
POLITICO 44
President Barack Obama promised a “thorough review” of the government’s terrorist watch list system after a Nigerian man reported to U.S. government officials by his father to have radicalized and gone missing last month was allowed to board a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit that he later allegedly tried to blow up without any additional security screening.
Yet the individual Obama has chosen to lead the review, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, served for 35 years in the CIA, helped design the current watch list system and served as interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center, whose role is under review.
In the three years before joining the Obama administration, Brennan was president and CEO of The Analysis Corp., an intelligence contracting firm that worked closely with the National Counterterrorism Center and other U.S. government intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security agencies on developing terrorism watch lists.
“Each and every day, TAC makes important contributions in the counterterrorism (CT) and national security realm by supporting national watchlisting activities as well as other CT requirements,” the company’s website states.
According to financial disclosures forms released by the White House, Brennan served as president and CEO of TAC from November 2005 until January 2009, when Obama named him to the White House terrorism and homeland security job. The disclosures show that Brennan reported earning a $783,000 annual salary from The Analysis Corp. in 2008.
The forms also show that Brennan sat on the board of directors for TAC’s parent company, Global Strategic Group, from August 2007 until January 2009. Brennan’s ties to the system he is now charged with reviewing could raise questions about the independence of Obama’s review. One former senior intelligence official told POLITICO it is “unsavory to see Obama put Brennan in charge of a review of this matter, since it is possible that NCTC or TAC could have failed in their responsibilities.”
Senior administration officials said that for the past few days, the White House’s legal and ethics counsel has been reviewing Brennan’s ties and determined that given Brennan’s knowledge of and experience with the intelligence community, any conflict was outweighed by the need for Brennan’s expertise on the issue.
“By virtue of his experience, John brings a unique mixture of know-how and understanding to this assignment,” said Denis McDonough, National Security Council chief of staff. “The applicable ethics rules recognize that when the public interest outweighs other issues, an official should be authorized to proceed with an assignment, particularly in the national security arena. Our counsel have determined that to be the case here and have authorized John to proceed — with the understanding that others will review specific issues relating to TAC should any arise."
If a scenario arises where Brennan has to deal with an issue concerning TAC, White House officials said that someone else involved in the interagency review without those ties will handle it. The officials said that at this point no one outside the government is involved in the review.
The White House has posted a blog item written by Norm Eisen, special counsel for ethics and government reform, noting the ethics waiver for Brennan and explaining why Obama believes he is the right person to head this review and how its legal counsel determined that it was in the public’s interest.
Readers' Comments (51)
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Dec. 30, 2009 - 7:11 PM EST
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Read all 51 comments in our forumSorry , even though Brennan looks like he bites the heads off of puppies ,
an individual with background in the Israeli terrorist system that can spot
a radical Islamic Jihadist is the best person for the job .
Does this Obama butt licker speak Arabic ?
,
U N S A V O R Y ?
________________
Obama can not even protect his wife from party crashers in the WH .
Didn't ACORN just investigate themselves and proved their innocence ?
____________________________________________________________
As Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney requested the Federal government to devote more
time and money to gathering radical Islamic Jihadist intelligence . Romney's remarks still alarm
the ACLU and Progressive Liberals like Obama . Romney says that we need to radically rethink
how America needs to gaurd against terrorism .
" How many individuals are coming to our state ? Who have come from terrorist sponsored
countries ? Do we know where they Are ? Are we tracking them ? How about the mosques that
are teaching hate and terrorism ? Are we following what's going on ? " , Mitt Romney
,
THREE STOOGES! tHIS ADMINSTRATION IS AN EMBARASSMENT!
Only in Obamaland is there an expectation of unchallenged acceptance of an executive ethics waiver for a conflict of interest.
Emblematic of the OBama administration is putting a guy who was the CEO of the company running the terror watch list until Jan 09 in charge of the review.
pathetic. Indeed, it is “unsavory to see Obama put Brennan in charge of a review of this matter since it is possible that NCTC or TAC could have failed in their responsibilities.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/s... />
You want to know how the terroist got on the plane. It's because everyone that protected us under President Bush are afraid to do anything under obama bacause he will just throw them under the bus the first sign that the lame stream media doesnt like the way they did thier job.
It is usually best to assign people to positions of authority based on their qualifications rather than their sexual orientation, gender, or skin color.
Obama and his cronies are learning this the hard way, and it will cost them many American lives because of their incompetence.
Who do you think is the most corrupt politician? (4311 votes)
Barack Obama 59% (2522) Nancy Pelosi 11% (475) Barney Frank 8% (366) Harry Reid 7% (313) Charles Rangel 5% (210) John Murtha 4% (153) Chris Dodd 2% (100)Brennen has been put in charge of scrutinizing a system he helped design and has a political interest in leaving exactly the way it is. I think those of us who can stand above finger pointing can agree that whatever this guy reports will be about as useful as the toilet paper I just used to wipe my rear with.
Here comes the whitewash
Who is he suppose to pick? - Rush is in the hospital.
ok, so is this like more water carrying for the party out of power by the MSM. if i'm understanding correctly what i've read in news reporting and heard the president speak of, i don't see what TAC's role as a watch list maintainer presents a conflict of interest. they maintain the watch list- they're not responsible for conducting field interviews, gathering intel, they don't work in our embassies. Politico, this is from your site; Critics bemoan 'familiar' intel issues snips;
President Barack Obama’s announcement that intelligence agencies had information that could have headed off the attempted airplane bombing on Christmas Day but failed to share it has left many of those who have urged a dramatic overhaul of the intelligence community exasperated.
“It’s discouragingly familiar,” said Tom Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who co-chaired the 9/11 Commission. “It’s exactly the language we heard when we were making recommendations for the 9/11 report. That was five years ago. We made our recommendations based on the fact that agencies didn’t share information and it seems to be the case that, once again, they didn’t share information. It’s very discouraging.”
“We thought that had been remedied,” the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond (R-Mo.) told POLITICO. “If they’re not talking with each other, that’s a problem that we’ve been tearing out our hair out over for a long time, demanding that they talk to each other…..I’m very upset."
Since 2001, the federal government has invested tens of billions of dollars and untold man-hours in a massive reorganization of the intelligence gathering and security apparatus. Two new agencies, the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, were created out of whole cloth. The Terrorist Threat Integration Center, later renamed the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), was set up to make sure that agencies like the FBI and CIA no longer “stove-piped” critical information needed to protect the country.
i don't see a conflict of interest here nor a potential one. brennan's former company TAC isn't responsible for what's been cited as the break down.
I worked under Mr. Brennan at the NCTC for over two years. I cannot think of a better person to conduct this review. Mr. Brennan has the inside information necessary to ask critical questions and recognize when someone is trying to obscure the data. Anyone questioning his objectivity clearly doesn't understand what it takes to be a career intelligence analyst. This is Mr. Brennans opportunity to fix a system that, while much better than it was pre 9/11, is still evolving.
This president doesn't know anyone who isn't in an ethics conflict somewhere or considers themselves better than the average citizen and doesn't need to pay taxes. It is even worse when he won't recognize why Americans don't trust him, question his motives and dish on his appointees. The Imperial court of Barack the 1st is similar to that of pre revolutionary France and just as crooked.
Once again the stenographers (Politico and the rest of MSM) dutifully report what they are told by Obama, Big Sis, Gibbs and company. If there is anything that defines this decade and to use Barry's favorite word "unprecedented" it is the loss of journalism and journalists in this country. It is ironic to watch a profession that is intent on destroying itself.
the obvious missing participants in all this is the congress, excepting those that began the finger pointing immediately following this event on xmas day. chairs and ranking members of intel committees & DHS are to provide oversight. they're supposed to ensure what was fixed actually got fixed and remains that way. they're suppose to ask the probing questions to discover deficiencies before they become failures- neither party is without blame here. the partisan finger pointing of the last few days has been despicable to say the least.
Is this guy from Chicago?
Is he a Obama Supporter and Contributor?
Does he lobby Congress and Obama with nice donations?
Is he owed Payola?
Why was he really chosen?
Dear Josh,
How come everyone Obama picks for anything is suspect of being hired for payola of one sort or another?
Obama, Chicago Community Organizer is best known as a bag man and is not among the highest of financial credibility. As a flim flam artist, Obama brought us Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, Valerie Jarrett and a host of crooked, twisted officials.
So, Mr. Josh, why should we trust him with this pick?
UGH!