“trust me” isn’t good enough

The senators, with few exceptions, exempted Brennan from tough questioning about the drone program...

The only people truly eager to press Brennan on the drone program were Code Pink demonstrators, whose heckling forced Feinstein, after multiple interruptions, to suspend the hearing and order all public spectators removed from the room. That overreaction left 140 seats empty and a created undesirable irony: A hearing that should have been about transparency instead ended in the exclusion of the public.

Some of the lawmakers’ reticence to press Brennan had to do with the classified nature of the program. But politics played a role. Republicans didn’t pry because they favor the targeted-killing program, and Democrats didn’t raise civil-liberties objections because Brennan is the nominee of a Democratic president.

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To the minority of senators who dared to challenge him on the drone program, Brennan offered vague reassurance. “I never believe it’s better to kill a terrorist than to detain him,” he told Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). Brennan assured Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that people in areas affected by the drone strikes “have welcomed the work that the U.S. government has done.”

After Capitol Police cleared the public from the room, Brennan spoke about the demonstrators. “I think they really have a misunderstanding of what we do as a government,” he said, “and the care that we take and the agony that we go through to make sure that we do not have any collateral injuries or deaths.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-john-brennans-trust-me-is-not-enough-on-drone-warfare/2013/02/08/a7ea1a1c-71af-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_story.html