Why John Brennan Doesn’t Deserve a Security Clearance

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This is an opinion piece, so I thought it deserved its own thread.  One item of note that may explain all these supporters of Brennan relates to the potential earnings these top security clearance holders get, or will not get depending on the status of their clearance.  When you boil it all down, it usually does come down to money. 

 

As a paraphrase from the piece, Brennan now becomes just a crazy old man with communist tendencies shouting the sky is falling to anyone that will listen.  I imagine as some point there will be fewer and fewer listening. 

 

By Peter Van Buren • August 20, 2018

 

After President Donald Trump revoked his security clearance, John Brennan arose as a Hero of Free Speech. On Twitter, he announced in terms that reanimated the Founding Fathers and marched them down Constitution Avenue: “This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.” Twelve former senior intelligence officials agreed, calling Trump’s revocation “an attempt to stifle free speech.”

No less than Ben Wizner, a director at the ACLU, stated, “The First Amendment does not permit the president to revoke security clearances to punish his critics.” Republican Bob Corker, the retiring Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, said, “It just feels like sort of a…banana republic kind of thing.” Admiral William McRaven, former SEAL and bin Laden killing superhero, said of Trump’s revocation, “Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children.”

Relax. The only danger here is to John Brennan’s credibility as a #McResistance pop idol.

Over five million Americans hold security clearances. When a cleared person honorably leaves government, he usually retains his status. Ostensibly this is to allow him to help out his successors, yet most people use their clearances to hop on the gravy train. High-level clearances take time and cost a lot of money to obtain. Retired, cleared federal employees can slide into a range of lucrative contractor jobs. They can also use their clearances to garner information from old colleagues and put it to vaguely legal use at think tanks, universities, and as media analysts.

 

That’s not to say that once out of government a former employee can run around openly sharing secrets. What officials can do, and Brennan is pack leader, is become “sources” for journalists, unpaid positions albeit ones of extraordinary political power. Next up is to become a paid commentator, as Brennan also has done, where he can imply and allude to classified information to bolster his credibility. “If you could only see what I see,” the line goes, and the audience fills in the blanks.

None of this is particularly unique to Brennan though. To fully understand the real impact of his losing his security clearance, one has to grasp the role he plays in the “Destroy Trump” ecosystem.

 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-john-brennan-doesnt-deserve-a-security-clearance/

[jg121783 3,921]

We don't need a long explanation for why he doesn't deserve a security clearance. It's real simple. He is no longer a government employee who needs a clearance.

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1 minute ago, jg121783 said:

We don't need a long explanation for why he doesn't deserve a security clearance. It's real simple. He is no longer a government employee who needs a clearance.

Agreed, and folks like Clapper are actually now coming out and trying to distance themselves from Brennan which is interesting.  However, this was one of the first pieces I read that boiled it down to the fact that a security clearance of a retired government official is worth something to the Beltway types.  This may be the real reason all these folks signed up initially in Brennan's camp.  This is certainly not a first amendment issue as they would like us to believe, it is their wallets they are defending.