Brennan bashes Cheney, talks tough
On Sunday morning, White House counterrerrorism adviser John Brennan responded furiously to Dick Cheney’s recent criticism of President Obama. You can listen to Brennan here, to get a sense of his anger, but his words make the point. It’s also very interesting how Brennan talks far more aggressively about defeating Al Qaeda than Obama does.
MR. BRENNAN: I’m very disappointed in the vice president’s comments. I’m neither Republican nor Democrat. I’ve worked for the past five administrations. And either the vice president is willfully mischaracterizing this president’s position, both in terms of the language he uses and the actions he taken–he’s taken, or he’s ignorant of the facts. And in either case, it doesn’t speak well of what the vice president’s doing. The clear evidence is that this president has been very, very strong. In his inaugural address, he said, “We’re at war with this international network of terrorists.” We continue to say that we’re at war with al-Qaeda. We’re trying to give it some clarity. And we have taken the fight to them. We’ve continued, in fact, many of the, of the activities of the previous administration. I would not have come back into this government if I felt that this president was not committed to prosecuting this war against al-Qaeda. And every day I see it in the president’s face, I see it in the actions he’s taken, and so I’m confident that this country is, in fact, protected by this president’s position on al-Qaeda and against terrorist activities. We’re going to continue to do this, we’re going to do it hard, we’re going to do it constantly.
MR. [DAVID] GREGORY: Is it anything less than a failure that eight years after 9/11 Osama bin Laden has still not been captured?
MR. BRENNAN: This is something that has bedeviled this government for many, many years. We’re going to continue to hunt him down. Ultimately, we’re going to get him. We’re going to get bin Laden, we’re going to get Zawahiri, we’re going to get the others. There’s been a very strong track record over this past year and, in fact, over the past number of years in terms of finding these operatives, finding these commanders and either capturing or killing them. It’s going to happen with bin Laden. Every day we get one day closer, and hopefully it’s going to be very soon.