The writer is a Canada-based editorial cartoonist and his work has appeared in several international publications
The New Yorker Magazine has described Brennan as a ‘supporter’ of the CIA’s torture programme, including but not limited to slamming detainees’ heads against walls while beating and kicking them. Brennan is also a strong supporter of extraordinary rendition — the practice of seizing suspects from one country and secretly shipping them to another for interrogation and torture. Rendition delivers suspects to unaccountable Third World governments where they are tortured at the bidding of the United States. Innocent people are caught up in the process. Maher Arar is a prime example of how wrong such a programme is. A Canadian citizen, Arar was detained by the US in 2002 and sent to Syria where he was tortured on suspicion of being an al Qaeda terrorist. Since his release, the Canadian government has apologised to Arar. His lawyers are currently seeking a deposition from the US government that their actions were illegal and violated Arar’s constitutional and charter rights.
I met Arar a few years ago. When I saw him last he was fidgety — jumping at the smallest sound. I have met many others who have been tortured and they share a similar trauma — manifesting itself as severe anxiety, depression and lapses in memory. Such symptoms are only normal responses to very abnormal treatment. Republican Senator John McCain has always been a vocal torture critic. In a recent statement, he said he had serious concerns regarding Brennan’s nomination, especially in “what role he played in the so-called enhanced interrogation programmes ... as well as his public defense of those programmes”.
President Obama has been quiet on the matter of torture but then denial is so often the precursor to justification. His nomination of Brennan raised red flags with the American Civil Liberties Union. The Union called on the Senate to “assess the role of the CIA — and any role by Brennan himself—in torture, abuse, secret prisons, and extraordinary rendition during his past tenure at the CIA, as well as review the legal authorities for the targeted killing programme that he has overseen in his current position”. It is time for the real President Obama to step up. It was he, who once said, “Today, we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.”
Brennan is certainly not the keeper of this moral compass.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 10th, 2013.
COMMENTS (14)
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@JSM: What the has to say is not IMPORTANT what he has said is..
@Kanwal: I wish to live in a world of paradise where the lions and the lambs cuddle each other!
The distinguishing character of a leader is to make tough choices on a trying situations. It is the same justice loving people of the US who is asking why we need Gitmo and the president and sec of state of this administration are ACLU members also.
It is natural to feel sympathetic to Arar at the expenses of others but who is going to answer the families of NY, Mumbai, London, Madrid, CopenHagen, Delhi, Bali?
I wonder who dropped Arar at US doorstep and collected the booty?
Nothing good comes out of a war. I like to play by the rules but if you change the rules in the middle of the game, I am not going to quit but will stay in the game to finish it.
Hope you understand now how frivolous the whole exercise is. I want love, peace, and kiss as much as you do with everyone, but I am living in a real world where you and I have to lock the doors when we go out.
What does the author have to say aboout beheading of enemy soldiers?
@John B: then why this holier than thou attitude?
@John B You are almost completely taking the argument out of context. Problem is not what american and pakistani public wants (the majority of americans wont be able to pin point pakistan and afghanistan correctly on a map; majority of pakistanis will not let go staying drunk on religious stupidity). Problem is what the justice-loving people of this whole world deserve. I hope i am one of them and I am sure i do not deserve John Brennan and his justifications of the torture methods.
@Vikas: Wow, I didn't know there was a quota for arresting a non Muslim for every Muslim arrested on terrorism charges. Please tell us that all those Muslims arrested on terrorism charges were innocent and that the ever convenient "foreign hand" is really responsible for all terrorist attacks in the world!
@Author: " He has the expression of an individual who has lost his moral compass." Stating opinions as fact is classic Pakistani journalism. No qualifying...no 'in my opinion', no 'it looked like'...nothing just go ahead and state your opinion as a fact. Bad journalism.
@kanwal: The author is worried more about Brennan's moral compass than the PAK issues. As for as Americans are concerned, he did the right job on a changing war ideology imposed upon Americans and he is the right man for the job for this time, and whether he shows emotions on a 1/400 sec film shutter speed is immaterial. Americans would rather prefer a level headed chair to head the CIA than a passionate individual whose emotions cloud the facts on the ground and make a perilous judgement for all.
Brennan is coming to the level of terrorist and dealing. You deal with humans with dignity, rights and so on..and not with the terrorist. And collateral damage is part of the game. One more important question is as to why only Muslims were captured? Why no Buddhist, Sikhs, Jains, Jews, and so on.
Brennan is just the right man. He planned meticulously and accomplished the end of a religious fanatic who knew nothing about morals. His tenacity and detachment are admirable. He is protecting his country. Hope he is confirmed without any sentimentality.
I feel sad for Arar. I didn't know that people who go through torture have to live through life lasting physical and psychological impact
May be so, but so is any one in any country's intelligence division.
Churchill ordered the bombing of French navel fleet with its sailors to prevent the fleet going into German hands. And Brits and French were allies.
Brennan's argument is that he supervised the renditions and methods, and where there were errors he corrected them, received his command authorization from the president and he saved American lives, and hunt down the most wanted man with the approval of cabinet and that was his job and if confirmed it will be his job as the agency director and he sees no contradiction.
Well, Herman Goering also said the same thing in his trial, but he lost the war!
Pak should worry about disappearing civilians and journalists rather than Brennan's nomination.