Sunday, June 3, 2018

A MUST-READ op ed by John Brennan

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 23:  Former Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Brennan testifies before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill, May 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Brennan is discussing the extent of Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible ties to the campaign of President Donald Trump.  (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
that went live at the Washington Post  website at 7:42 this morning.  Titled John Brennan: I will speak out until integrity returns to the White House, it is written from the perspective of someone who was a career intelligence official, who was in the Oval Office multiple times in the presidencies of Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama, and who views himself as not at all a partisan.
After starting with his first experience of visiting the Oval as a 35 year old CIA officer in 1990, and explaining his respect for the office of the Presidency, Brennan offers this paragraph:
Over the next quarter-century, I returned to the Oval Office several hundred times during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The jitters that accompanied my first Oval Office visit dissipated over time, but the respect, awe and admiration I held for the office of the presidency and the incumbents never waned. The presidents I directly served were not perfect, and I didn’t agree with all of their policy choices. But I never doubted that each treated their solemn responsibility to lead our nation with anything less than the seriousness, intellectual rigor and principles that it deserved. Many times, I heard them dismiss the political concerns of their advisers, saying, “I don’t care about my politics, it’s the right thing to do.” READ MORE  OR ENTIRE OP ED PIECE HERE 

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