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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 5/28/12

White House "Assassination Czar" Confronted at Fordham

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Message Ayca Bahce

Brennan is now being called the "assassination czar" for his central role in planning and approving such strikes. Indeed, according to a new report from the Associated Press, Brennan has seized the lead in choosing who will be targeted for drone attacks.

Essentially, with a nod from Brennan -- and approval from a shadowy selection process -- a CIA functionary sitting at a console simply pushes a button to release a missile from a drone buzzing in the skies thousands of miles away. AP quoted one official expressing concern over "how easy it has become to kill someone."

On graduation day, about two minutes into Brennan's speech, I left my seat, held my sign high and walked toward the front of an audience consisting of classmates, faculty and families. In an effort to have Fordham administrators and trustees see my sign, I went up the Keating Hall steps to show the audience the painful truth.

To nobody's surprise, two of Brennan's security guards, panting and out of breath, approached me and demanded that I come with them. As they were leading me towards the Fordham security office, one student asked me in an angry, condescending tone: "What are you doing?" I told her how Brennan was responsible for numerous children being killed in drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan. At that moment, one of Brennan's security officers grabbed my sign from my hand.

At Fordham's security office, Brennan's security took down my name, address, phone number, and student ID number. I waited for about 30 minutes, and finally one of the security agents told me: "We're not going to arrest you."

I asked why they would arrest me in the first place. One of the men stated: "You were going towards the podium, and you were only allowed to stand and turn your back to Brennan in protest."

I replied: "I was going up the stairs in order to show my sign to the school's trustees and administrators." Brennan's security detail filed an incident report against me with Fordham because I allegedly "broke the demonstration policy" of the university. I was then escorted off campus.

Although I missed the bulk of Brennan's speech, I had the opportunity to learn about a brief segment he had delivered, since it was made public on Fordham's Web page in an article titled "National Security Adviser Delivers Last Lesson to Class of 2012." It became clear to me that significant portions of Brennan's speech were condescending, disingenuous -- and, at times, farcical.

Brennan Brushes Off the Standing Protesters

Referring to the protesters, Brennan resorted to this timeworn chestnut:

"But that's what makes our country great: our individual ability to openly and freely express our views, whether or not they are popular, whether or not they are in the minority, or whether they are even based on misimpressions. " That's why I still do my job, because the values that this country was founded on, to include freedom of speech and freedom from harm, are worth fighting for."

The truth of the matter is that Brennan's actions belie his claim that he believes in protecting free speech. For example, Brennan was among the first to advocate and brag about eavesdropping on American citizens without the court warrant required under the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

More recently, Brennan called the NYPD/CIA spying on Muslim communities in the Northeast "heroic."

Muslim-Americans Hit the Hardest

Many innocent Muslim-Americans have had their privacy invaded as a result of that surveillance and other spying techniques.

As part of their federally funded spying operation and with CIA assistance, the New York Police Department has targeted innocent student groups, shops and places of worship -- in the process, throwing the legal concept of "probable cause" out the window. Rather, there seems to be an implicit, widespread and un-American presumption of wrongdoing based solely on a person's Muslim faith. And Brennan has high praise for such efforts!

Worse still, many Muslim-Americans have been convicted on trumped-up, terror-related charges because their ideology and speech were antithetical to the war policies of the U.S. Government towards Muslim-majority countries. Several of those prosecuted were victims of entrapment.

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Ayca Bahce received her B.A. in political science at Fordham University in May 2012. She plans to pursue a degree in law for graduate studies. She is a second-generation American of parents who emigrated from Turkey.

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White House "Assassination Czar" Confronted at Fordham

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