President Donald Trump’s removal of security clearance from former CIA Director John Brennan spurred a bevy of comments. They ranged from defending Brennan, condemning the president, and even airing reasons why such action was merited. It is these reasons, some of which were cited by Trump, that should have been the main focus of reports about the action taken by the president.
Appointed CIA director by President Barack Obama, John Brennan served in that highly sensitive post from March 2013 to January 2017, the end of Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House. He had previously served at the CIA in ascending positions for 25 years. During hearings leading to Brennan’s Senate confirmation as CIA director, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) conducted a 13-hour filibuster in which he linked Brennan to the use of drones that killed civilians in several Asian and African countries. Prior to becoming CIA director, Brennan had insisted during questioning in June 2011 that the drones had not caused a “single collateral death” (meaning civilians) during the previous year. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism disagreed and claimed that there were 76 deaths of non-combatants, including eight children and two women. And The Atlantic concluded, “Brennan has been willing to lie about those drone strikes.” Defending the deadly effect of drone usage with lies should have marked Brennan as unfit to serve as the CIA’s leader or in any other federal post.
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During his filibuster, Senator Paul expressed deep concerns about the use of drones as a new weapon. In addition to drones killing civilians while targeting someone else, he stated: “No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual.” His objections didn’t stop the Senate from approving Brennan’s nomination with a vote of 64 to 34. Using drones that do cause “collateral damage” continued.
During questioning when he applied for employment with the CIA soon after completing his collegiate studies, Brennan admitted that he had voted for Gus Hall for president in 1976. Hall was the well-known leader of the U.S. Communist Party and the Communist Party’s 1976 candidate for president. Brennan, therefore, would not be Obama’s only appointee to favor communists or communist sympathizers.
After President Trump’s Helsinki meeting with Vladimir Putin and follow-up press conference, Brennan called the president’s action “treasonous.” He said Trump’s performance was “imbecilic” and used the constitutional phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” to describe what he knew of the confab. He provided no facts, no smoking gun, and no evidence of selling out America’s interests. On August 15, 2018, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee announced the removal of Brennan’s security clearance, accusing him of sowing “division and chaos — the very aim of our adversaries.” She was correct about that.
Then, a curious entry into the fray saw Retired U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven pen an op-ed piece defending Brennan as “one of the finest public servants I have ever known,” even going so far as to suggest that the former CIA director was a cross between George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa. Like a new star in the heavens, his column disparaging Trump and lauding Brennan appeared in newspapers all across the nation.
Admiral McRaven had a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy. But somewhere along the way, he accepted membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, the seat of Deep State power. Donald Trump has never been a member of this semi-secret promoter of world government and the steps it regularly recommends to achieve that goal. Many of Trump’s moves as president have run counter to the CFR’s objectives. Immediately after the admiral’s overblown gushing about Brennan, liberals began pointing to McRaven as a potential GOP candidate to unseat Trump in 2020, or to succeed him in 2024. As a member of the CFR, the retired admiral can expect to receive backing from a lengthening line of high-ranking military veterans who have disgraced the uniforms they wore by accepting the CFR credential.
In his rant after having his security clearance cancelled, John Brennan had the audacity to charge President Trump with impeachable offenses. The day can’t come soon enough for the American people to repudiate the likes of Admiral McRaven and his world government partisans within the Council on Foreign Relations. As for Brennan, if we never hear of him again, that will be wonderful.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
