# Obama, Big Fan of Brennan **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 10, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771 "2013-01-10T17:38:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/21 "2013-01-15T00:33:14Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Ohhhhhhh, I forgot we shouldn’t criticize anything that’s been going on for a long time. If it’s been going on for a long time, how are they “particularly” secretive? Doesn’t “particularly” mean they’re more secretive than other administrations? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/22 "2013-01-15T00:37:14Z")
Just in case you think I’m making up Obama’s record of being [particularly](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/11/obama-administration-whistleblowers-paul-harris) secretive > [@](#): > > Danielle Brian, of the PGO, has said the US department of justice in the Obama administration “sent a clear of message of fear and intimidation” to whistleblowers in the national security field. This is how the GAP’s Jesselyn Raddack – herself a former whistleblower at the DoJ – put it: “While the Bush administration treated whistleblowers unmercifully, the Obama administration has been far worse. It is actually prosecuting them,” she wrote recently. > > To do that it is using the bluntest of tools: the Espionage Act, a first world war-era law intended to combat the threat from spies, not internal dissenters. So far six whistleblowers have been charged under the draconian law with the last one – CIA veteran John Kiriakou – being indicted on 3 April. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/23 "2013-01-15T01:02:53Z")
Not “making it up” so much as “saying one thing and then posting a cite about something else.” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/24 "2013-01-15T01:46:45Z")
This could be just the break the Romney campaign has been waiting for! ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/25 "2013-01-15T02:05:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Not “making it up” so much as “saying one thing and then posting a cite about something else.” Hm…prosecuting people for disclosing information is different than being secretive… Gotcha. How about fighting to keep the drone war [secret](http://www.businessinsider.com/alice-in-wonderland-ruling-allows-feds-to-keep-drone-program-secret-2013-1)? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/26 "2013-01-15T02:12:25Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Hm…prosecuting people for disclosing information is different than being secretive… Gotcha. Yes, it is. At least if it’s prosecuting people for leaking classified information. > [@](#): > > How about fighting to keep the drone war [secret](http://www.businessinsider.com/alice-in-wonderland-ruling-allows-feds-to-keep-drone-program-secret-2013-1)? The drone program isn’t secret. _We are talking about it right now and it was public knowledge before Obama took office_ They administration didn’t want to disclose information about someone who died in a drone attack. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/27 "2013-01-15T02:18:32Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Ohhhhhhh, I forgot we shouldn’t criticize anything that’s been going on for a long time. I guess I’m “silly”. No, you’re being disingenuous and changing the conversation to suit your agenda. If you don’t want to be challenged, then post elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/28 "2013-01-15T03:41:37Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > NDAA warrantless wiretapping. Drone strikes. Civil liberties … Obama could give a shit. There are a lot of center left things Obama could give a shit about. All of the things you described are “center left” in mainstream American politics. Democrats have never been what anyone would describe as liberal or progressive, unless contrasted to the frothing right. Obama may be a pro-kinetic action torturer, but he’s still to the left of Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/29 "2013-01-15T04:24:57Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Of course he’s a Democrat. It’s the Republicans who have the RINO and purity test issues; the Democrats are pretty much willing to accept anyone who wants to join them and work for the good of the country. They don’t all have to measure up to some “liberalness” standard. > > Yes, many of us would like to see an actual progressive/liberal President. But the current political climate makes that unlikely, and certainly Obama’s a lot more progressive than the alternative we were offered in the last election. The alternative to Romney was not much of an alternative. Obama, bleeding heart that he is, still has extraordinary renditions, still lets others torture people for us in secret, signed the NDAA with all its warrantless wiretapping provisions … he’s virtually a clone of Dubya on these issues, with the exception of waterboarding prisoners by US personnel. How far down this road of supporting the Dem because the Repub is a fucking monster and getting an only slightly less fucking monster in office are you willing to go? The progressive movement outside the Democratic party is at least TRYING to effect change. The dempublicans, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/30 "2013-01-15T04:26:57Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yes, it is. At least if it’s prosecuting people for leaking classified information. > > The drone program isn’t secret. _We are talking about it right now and it was public knowledge before Obama took office_ They administration didn’t want to disclose information about someone who died in a drone attack. What are your thoughts on the prosecution of Bradley Manning? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/31 "2013-01-15T04:37:29Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > No, you’re being disingenuous and changing the conversation to suit your agenda. If you don’t want to be challenged, then post elsewhere. You guys sound just like the Republicans and conservatives when they were defending Dubya for doing more or less exactly what Obama is doing. And may I say, you sound JUST as convincing as they did. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/32 "2013-01-15T16:07:42Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The drone program isn’t secret. _We are talking about it right now and it was public knowledge before Obama took office_ They administration didn’t want to disclose information about someone who died in a drone attack. I’m starting to think you just don’t know the meaning of secret. Yeah. That has to be it. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/33 "2013-01-15T16:09:01Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > No, you’re being disingenuous and changing the conversation to suit your agenda. If you don’t want to be challenged, then post elsewhere. What are you talking about? Challenged? By whom? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/34 "2013-01-15T16:56:18Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > What are your thoughts on the prosecution of Bradley Manning? I think Manning broke the law by passing on classified material. If you’re going to break the law to make your point, you have to expect prosecution. I think his treatment since his arrest has been harsh and unnecessary. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I’m starting to think you just don’t know the meaning of secret. I’m starting to think you have a complaint in search of a reason because you keep having to redefine your argument - so “particularly” means “the same as,” for example. That’s just abuse of the English language. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771/35 "2013-01-16T23:54:58Z")
Anyway, back to Obama and Brennan. I won’t be mired in another argument over the language I choose to present my opinion. This [article](http://m.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/a-senators-lonely-crusade-to-learn-the-cias-secrets/267180/) lays out how Obama is not only withholding information on his targeted killing program from the American people, his employers. He is also withholding information from the relevant oversight committee in the senate. Sen. Ron Wyden has written a letter highlighting areas of concern such as the “legal” justification for assassinations (disposition matrix) and the refusal of the CIA to reveal where it is targeting individuals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-big-fan-of-brennan/646771.md?page=1)