ASP Fellow Joshua Foust speaks to MSNBC about Brennan nomination
ASP Fellow Joshua Foust gave an interview to MSNBC’s Morning Joe about the nomination of John Brennan to direct the Central Intelligence Agency.
“Brennan was instrumental in expanding the drones program, but he’s also been instrumental in scaling it back,” Joshua Foust, a former defense and intelligence consultant who has worked with the US Army and fellow at the American Security Project, told MSNBC.com. “Putting him in charge of the CIA, right after he’s been quoted saying the CIA needs to abandon its paramilitary efforts and go back to its roots is notable.”
“There’s always a big question of what someone’s going to do when they’re in charge,” Foust said. “The effort Brennan and his people have gone to to paint him as trying to scale back the drones program indicates that he might defy his critics.” …
Few deny the program has had some success in eliminating al-Qaeda targets. “Wherever we’ve seen drones employed, they’ve been very successful at identifying and killing a small number of people, but they’re also successful at creating vehement anti-Americanism,” Foust said. “I have never gotten the impression from people running these programs that they’re aware of and trying to mitigate these downsides.”
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