9 Key Questions for John Brennan

1. What gives you or the President the right to kill U.S. citizens abroad?
2. If you say those citizens have to be senior operational officials of Al Qaeda, then how can you explain or justify why you killed 16-year-old Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and was hardly a “senior operational official of Al Qaeda”?
3. The Obama Administration claims that no judge can rule on whether these assassinations are legal or not. Doesn’t make you above the law then?
4. You’ve been behind the cyber warfare efforts of the Obama Administration. What gives you the right to launch such warfare without Congressional approval?
5. Won’t such cyber warfare lead to a dangerous proliferation of cyber attacks around the world?
6. And won’t some nuclear powers, like North Korea or even Russia or China, worry that the United States might use cyber warfare as a first strike in a nuclear attack, which would make those countries more eager to launch their own weapons against us in a use-them-or-lose-them scenario?
7. Why did you say that no civilians were killed by our drone strikes over almost a one-year period?
8. How many civilians have our drones actually killed?
9. How many of these were children?
(With apologies to Medea Benjamin, who posted her own excellent list of 10 questions for Brennan: http://www.commondreams.org)
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his story "The Dangers of Obama’s Cyber War Power Grab."
Follow Matthew Rothschild @mattrothschild on Twitter
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
This form needs Javascript to display, which your browser doesn't support. Sign up here instead
|
||||||||
CURRENT ISSUE: June 2013
Spying on Occupy Activists
Matthew Rothschild | How local law enforcement and Homeland Security help Wall Street.
The Commerce of Violence
Wendell Berry | The cheapening of life is surely the dominant theme of our time, from Guantánamo to the Boston Marathon.
Jason Collins, Meet Brittney Griner
Dave Zirin | Dave Zirin says Jason Collins and Brittney Griner can teach the guys in the huddle a lot.
e-Books
Preserving Our Home on Earth: 100 Years of Environmental Writing from the Archives of The Progressive Magazine. is now available from Amazon and Barnes&Noble.
"Since we only have one planet to call our own, it might be worth reading this book." —Bill McKibben
Welcome to The Progressive Magazine
















