"I think the president has tried to make sure that we're able to push the envelope when we can to protect this country. But we have to recognize that sometimes our engagement and direct involvement will stimulate and spur additional threats to our national security interests."
But as John Schwarz of the Intercept points out, that statement by Brennan contrasts comments he made five years ago - as the White House counterterrorism adviser - in an interview with the late reporter Helen Thomas about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man who tried to blow up a US flight over Detroit:
Thomas: And what is the motivation? We never hear what you find out on why.At his sentencing hearing the following year, Abdulmutallab explained his motivations:
Brennan: Al Qaeda is an organization that is dedicated to murder and wanton slaughter of innocents ...
Thomas: Why?
Brennan: I think this is a - this is a long issue, but al Qaeda is just determined to carry out attacks here against the homeland.
"I [attempted] to attack the United States in retaliation for US support of Israel and in retaliation of the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Palestine, especially in the blockade of Gaza, and in retaliation for the killing of innocent and civilian Muslim populations in Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and beyond, most of them women, children and noncombatants."In fact, the government's own sentencing memorandum for Abdulmutallab cites this statement, and points out that trying "to retaliate against government conduct" is part of the legal definition of terrorism.
According to Schwarz, of the Intercept:
"So Brennan well understands that our foreign policy causes attacks against Americans. And our legal code specifies that attempting to retaliate against US actions is what makes you a terrorist. Nonetheless, this obvious reality is almost never said out loud by government officials."That certainly was not laid out by former President George W. Bush who, while addressing Congress after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said the country had been targeted by "enemies of freedom."
Al Qaeda leaders, he said, "hate ... our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."
Time to roll-the-dice:
What are the odds of actually getting 7-11?
The first thing you need to understand is that the old USA bears a very strong resemblance to the Humpty Dumpty of folklore. In our case we’ve already been thrown off the wall, and all that’s left of the U.S. are some splintered fragments and a whole lot of smoke that’s finally beginning to clear ~ which means as a nation we died a very long time ago, and now our rotting corpse is beginning to smell up the universe.
How do we know this?
Just look at the numbers in the world today. The EU is not nearly as large as the US, and while the numbers of our illegal-immigrants continue to dwarf the numbers of the same war-ravaged victims trying to flee into the same nations that blew the now fallen nations, that had been theirs, into nothing but scorched earth for millions of dead civilians.
In addition: American’s still haven’t realized that the USA no longer has any borders at all, and the forces in Mexico have already shot down US helicopters from Mexico. That’s just the beginning as the cartels are just readying themselves for the cross-border fire-fights that are due to begin in about ten days. The same ‘Amerikans’ have been approving of this treachery since the 1980’s under Reagan who wanted to give the filth that put him in office ‘nearly-free-labor’, despite the fact that there were then immigration laws against everything those traitors did from the 80’s until now – roughly that means that this has been going on for about 35 years: And people don’t tend to get arrested or deported for the current form of illegal invasion that just passed the 52 Million mark recently.
The EU is a pitiful handful of pretend nations, when they come together as the G-7 - that all-together only accounts for about 32% of the world’s nations.
The just held a meeting where absolutely nothing happened at all, except that they gave themselves a few days to indulge themselves at the expense of the planet for them to do absolutely nothing and call that “a meeting.” No matter how ‘reporters tried to spin this there was actually nothing at all to say because there was only one point of view present – the US Foreign policy position, and no one challenged anything about that mono-maniacal position. ......continued
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