YouSaid · the spoken record

John O. Brennan

lines on the record: 69
first: 2020-12-16
most recent: 2020-12-16
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, if there is anything I know about it, I'm certainly not going to have to share it with you and your audience today. I still find it difficult to understand how so many Americans still believe what he says. I mean, his life is just one lie after another, unfortunately. And he's been masterful as far as capitalizing on this craving United States to believe in someone who was going to lead them, this country sort of out of the problems that they see. But no, I think Donald Trump is pretty transparent as far as who he is and the types of things that he is holds dear and what he holds dear is himself first and foremost. Now I'm not going to share anything else that I might know or assume.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think it's too many. There are some of those intelligence agencies that are very specific to organizations. For example, you have, there's the Marine Intelligence, there's Navy intelligence. There's Army Intelligence. And some service their own organizations. And there's the national agencies such as NSA and CIA and the National Geospatial Agency. And I do think it would be worthwhile to see whether or not some of those individual intelligence agencies that are embedded for example, in the State Department, INR, it's called Intelligence and Research, whether or not that intelligence requirement of the State Department can be better serviced by a broader intelligence community effort. That's why I do think it's worthwhile to take a fresh look at the constellation that exists right now.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To try to push the intelligence community in a direction that shed some of those unfortunate legacy practices that are a drag on the system and to better integrate capabilities to make the U.S. intelligence community much more effective.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the intelligence community of 2020 is the legacy of many, many years, decades of intelligence agencies that have grown up and have evolved and have adapted to the new realities. And so unfortunately, over time, there has not been as much of an effort to try to better integrate those agencies and authorities and capabilities, as well as to ensure that they are complementary as opposed to unnecessarily redundant. I disagree with Bob Gates. I do believe that the Office of Director of National Intelligence needs to be looked at afresh after 16 years in existence. And some modifications need to be made. But as CIA director, the last thing I wanted was to have to be CI director and the director of the intelligence community writ large, 17 agencies. There's more than enough to keep the director of CIA busy. However, I do think that that orchestration function of the Director of National Intelligence can be refined and modified”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a good question. I mean, I know OPM has done some things, but some U.S. government systems are legacy systems and trying to transform them and transition to new, updated and less vulnerable systems takes time, effort, and lots of money. Facebook, it has loads of money, but also I don't know how concern it is about ensuring that there are no vulnerabilities in the system that can be exploited by actors, either domestic or foreign. So I think this is a challenge for the public, private, and not-for-profit sector in the coming decades. How are you going to ensure that your data is going to be protected while at the same time making sure that it's available so that you can leverage it the way it's designed to be used?”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there have been a number of revelations as a result of the investigations that have gone on about the Russian investigation, revealing that there was not the type of rigor and the checking and double checking of the information that goes into those FISA applications. And so without just totally overhauling the system, I think there can be a way to ensure better accuracy of information that goes into them. And when a FISA application may be approved one day and then 30 days or 68 days later, it'll be reupped. And I think it's incumbent on the Bureau, the ones that are pushing the FISA, to ensure that there is any new information that's been acquired in that time or known needs to be incorporated into that PISA, as well as a review of the existing basis for that FISA needs to be scrutinized. So I just think greater rigor in ensuring that, again, accuracy”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I was at CIA, I really didn't have to get involved in the foreign intelligence surveillance act, FISA applications programs. This is something that the FBI was involved in.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Early on after the Congressional Oversight Committees came into existence after the church and Pike committees in the 70s when a lot of the atrocities that the CI was involved in, quite frankly, were uncovered. And for the first 20 years or so, even longer, the members of the Oversight Committee's Republican and Democrat would put their party affiliation outside the door when they conducted those oversight activities. Unfortunately, over the last 15 years or so, I see more and more partisanship going on inside of those committees. So if there's any way that there can be going back to a bipartisan approach to intelligence nation security oversight, I would strongly recommend it because right now the House Intelligence Committee is just fractured beyond any type of reasonable work that it can do. Unfortunately, I think the Senate has stayed together.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The benefit of the insights that we get from liaison from clandestinely acquired sources and so on. And the more the CIA is pushed into the paramilitary, the more military-like activities, I think the more trouble the CI will get into.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, they do. And I think some of it takes on, as you think are pointing out, sort of the temperament of the commander-in-chief, the chief executive. But all CI covert action programs, for example, have to be authorized in writing, in very explicit writing, by a president of the United States. And so the more aggressive a president might be on the foreign front, and the more that he or she would want the CIA to be involved, the CIA will be involved. But I do think that the CIA needs to sort of stick with its traditional mission, which is to acquire clandestinely acquired intelligence that matters to U.S. national security, whether it be human sources or technical collection. It needs to carry out the counterintelligence activities to protect our secrets from foreign interference or intrusion. It needs to engage with foreign liaison services so that we're able to benefit from their capabilities and information gathering and needs to conduct all source analysis so that we gain”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People have asked me a lot about the Americans as well as homeland. I've never watched them. You know, I live the intelligence business. And then I heard that Homeland in one of the episodes, they blow up CIA headquarters, so I vow never to watch it. But anytime I've seen a little snippet or footage of it, a lot of times they really exaggerate the technical capabilities of the CIA and the Helios community. But sometimes science fiction gives birth to intelligence initiatives and vice versa. So I think the Americans was based on a real life story when the Russians had secreted into the United States 10 or 11 illegals, as they're called, to burrow into American society and adopt American personas. And I was at the White House at the time as President Obama's counterterrorism advisor and was intimately involved in that. And it was a really, really interesting, exciting sort of period of time. And my understanding based on people who have watched the Americans say it's very good.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you really want to be able to have individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences so that they can, in fact, blend into the local environments.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've met a lot of CI officers over the years who have reminded me of a James Bond. Sometimes they're very calm, cool debonares, slick, and they really seem to fit that bill. But CI officers, if you want to have a CIA gaze office go out and be a successful recruiter of spies, you don't want to have someone who's going to stand out in the crowd because then they'll draw the attention of local security or intelligence officials. You want someone who's going to be able to blend in, someone who is not going to be seen as someone to be concerned about. So we hire all different types of individuals. And even though at one point my Arabic was okay, it was pretty good. I still, if I was to wander in the among the tribes of Saudi Arabia or in the Sukhs of Damascus or the streets of Cairo, I still look like an American, a Westerner.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They are in their nut, one of the reasons why I got out of operations because I think I was too much of an introvert. I wouldn't go into a cocktail party and try to talk up people and chack them up and try to cultivate a relationship. That really requires an extroverted personality. But then you need to then go back into your cocoon of, you adopt certain personas when you're out, but then when you get it back into the CIA station or headquarters, whatever else, you really need to shield yourself from that type of outside scrutiny or being uncovered. So it takes a person with almost a schizophrenic approach to life.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, he's written so many books and he's gotten so many things, right? But he also, you know, I think intentionally, you know, tries to change some facts and realities. He has, I think, a tremendous ability to give individuals a sense of just the meticulousness and the detailed steps that need to be taken in order to carry out espionage operations and how things usually take months, if not years sometimes, for things to develop and evolve. And intelligence, patients really is a virtue. And frequently you want to get things sooner. But for example, the recruitment of sources can take years. It can be several case officers who are going to cultivate the relationship before someone is formally recruited. And then when those assets start to give really consequential intelligence to their handlers.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“that there was no technical intrusions that really would be significant. And I think they learned some lessons over the last four years, certainly from the 2016 election. So I think we were better prepared to prevent those types of technical intrusions that we were certainly worried about, but that the influence operations in that digital environment in particular, I think, were still quite evident.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think it's still unclear how much the interference was. I think the impact probably was less than a lot of people anticipated. But I think there's no doubt that Russia and China, Iran, other countries tried to use the social media environment to push out their narratives that they wanted to influence the minds and the votes of American citizens. But I think this past election, the social media environment as well as just the regular environment, information environment was just so overloaded with so much misinformation and disinformation. It was hard to maybe distinguish what was coming from abroad that was inaccurate and disinformation and what was coming from domestic sources. And I think this is almost going to be a feature in the future. Now I do think that the US cyber experts in FBI and SA, CIA, Department of Homeland Security did a good job of trying to ensure that”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think the reasoning carries some weight, certainly. I don't believe Ruby was part of a conspiracy. I have read and heard and talked about things that what might have led Lee Harvey Oswald to shoot Kennedy that may have involved other antagonists. But I don't believe Ruby was part knowingly part of a conspiracy to try to snuff out Lee Harvey so he wouldn't spill the beans. I do think he was just reacting. But that's just my assessment.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a good question. I don't know. I mean, I've read different books. I'm reading a new JFK book by Frederick Logball. That was during the earlier Kennedy years. But there are some things that I think are going to remain mysteries. Why did Lee Harvey Oswald shoot John F. Kennedy? We can speculate and there are things that have been written and said about it, but who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man?”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is used in order to deal with an urgent crisis. I think the bayonets should be used only when it cannot be addressed in other ways. Sometimes the bayonet is opted for too quickly when there are other means to address problems.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, just from a physical standpoint, I think if you're talking about the Constitution as the document, yes, it's paper. But I think the paper embodies what is America, what this great democracy republic is all about. And I think the Constitution is the strength of this country, not just because it allows us to continue to grow and prosper as a society, as a nation, but also it sends, I think, a clear signal to countries around the world, at least when it's adhered to, that the liberal democratic order and the fact that we are a country and a government anchored in law in the Constitution, I think that's a very powerful signal that we've used over the course, certainly of the last 75 years. Unfortunately, the bayonet sometimes has been necessary, certainly World War II and some other times. And the bayonet frequently...”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That culture worldwide, you know, I think all for the better. I think we should do more of that rather than trying to conduct these different types of covert operations to change the course of events overseas in ways that usually do not lead to the outcome that we want.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you pointed out one aspect of the LLCA. There's a lot of other aspects of the early CIA in terms of toppling regimes and actually shaping developments overseas during the Cold War when I think Washington really felt we were in an existential challenge in competition with the Soviet Union. I think the United States culture is one of its strongest calling cards around the world. And I do believe that we need to enhance the propagation of our culture, political, social other. And unfortunately, I don't think we have leveraged it enough because even in places like Iran and China and Russia, so many American entertainers and so many aspects of culture really are very much admired and embraced by the populace. And so to the extent that the CIA and the State Department and other organizations can help to extend”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The role of playing honest broker between the Arab states and Israel. And so I think, yes, looking at it just in isolation, it's good that the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan have relations with Israel. But at the same time, I don't know whether or not it's now going to be more difficult or harder to address the Palestinian problem, which is long, long overdue for some type of resolution that, again, does justice to the Palestinian people.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, I do not believe that it is something that has helped the cause of peace in terms of settling the Palestinian problem. The Palestinians got absolutely nothing out of this. Bibi Netanyahu threatened to annex the territories, the West Bank, and then agreed to suspend his planned annexation in exchange for this relationship between some of those Arab states in Israel. Bibi Netanyahu, I think, has been long opposed to a two-state solution. And I just think that the Palestinian people have been deprived of the very basic human rights and dignity that they deserve for so long. And now we have Arab leaders who are just basically turning a blind eye to Palestinian problem. And I think that is very unfortunate. And the fact that the United States has moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it has undermined the United States tradition.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm glad that there has been an improvement in relations between some key Arab states, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan on the Arab side and Israel on the other side. I think this was an effort by the Emiratis and the Bahrainis in particular with the agreement of Saudi Arabia to give Donald Trump a victory before the election as a way to help him out. But it formalized some of the ties and relationships that had already existed for a number of years.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, when I was learning Arabic and I was listening to Arabic music over there, I mean, it's different certainly in our music, but it's very heartfelt and then there usually are stories. And listening to Um Kathum, who is the famous Egyptian singer, there was such passion that she brought to it that would make men cry. But there's Lebanese music too, which is very, very good and popular. And so I spent, my wife and I spent over five years in Saudi Arabia and got a fair amount of time listening to Arabic music, both traditional as well as New Wave Arabic.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Citadel also is beautiful. Tahrir Square, when I was going to school at the American University in Cairo back in the mid-70s, the AUC campus was in downtown Cairo by Tahrir Square. Tahrir Square was where it was the locus of all the anti-Mubarak activities in terms of the Arab Spring. There's something really, really beautiful and attractive about the streets and smells and sounds of Cairo and the people of downtown Cairo. So whether it's going to Khan Khalili, which is the gold market, or just roaming around Zamalik or Babluk and other areas, I just, I love Cairo, the architecture, again, the people. So I can't put my finger on one place except just saying downtown where American versus Cairo was located.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Understand, so I never did well in North Africa, but in the Gulf and in Egypt, as well as in the Levant area, I could get by.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I've studied and forgotten Arabic so many times. I used to be pretty good in the 1980s because when I lived in Saudi Arabia the first time for a couple years, I also studied in Cairo and also had a six-month one-on-one tutorial before I went out to Saudi Arabia the first time. So I was pretty good, but I have long since lost a lot of the capability that I had. There are different types of Arabic when I was in Egypt. It was the first time I learned Arabic and I really enjoyed the Egyptian Arabic. It has a certain dialect and a lot of colloquialisms that I became familiar with. But then in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, it's a pure form of Arabic. But if you learn the standard Arabic, then you usually can just get by in other countries. But when you start going over to North Africa, where there's just a lot of French that is woven into the Arabic, it becomes much more difficult. And also their dialect is much more difficult.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Information from individuals. Yes, some of the individuals who are subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques subsequently provided information that was true and accurate and reliable. They also provided a lot of information that was disinformation as a way to mislead CI officers. And even when they provided reliable information, there's no way to know whether or not they would have provided that information sooner or later had they not been subjected to those EITs, enhanced interrogation techniques. So I do not believe one can make the case either from a morality standpoint or from an efficacy standpoint that those types of techniques should be employed.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, also, as I say in my book, I don't refer to CIA's detention interrogation program as torture because that program was duly authorized by the President of the United States and it was deemed lawful by the Department of Justice, and therefore, since it was deemed lawful, it was not torture the time. Now people can disagree with those Department of Justice memos, and I do. But CN offices were doing their obligation the best that they could. From the standpoint of efficacy of the use of those techniques up to and including waterboarding, I do not believe, first of all, that they are consistent with American values, and I don't think the CIA should have been asked to do that. First of all, they had no experience in a detention program, nor in an interrogation program. And so, again, from just a moral standpoint and ethics and principles standpoint, I don't think that they should have been authorized. Secondly, though, I do not believe that they were the best means to elicit information.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When you say sources, sources again in the lexicon of intelligence world, these are individuals overseas foreigners who give information to U.S. officers. But there never should be a reason occasion for U.S. government officials to provide misinformation or disinformation to a president. Absolutely not. It's critically important that a president and the National Security Council team have as accurate an understanding as possible about it. And I hadn't heard about anybody not reporting what they believe was accurate statistics about what's going on inside of Syria. The sources that provide CIA officers the information might be misinformed, might be misleading. But that's part of the business of intelligence. You need to try to weed out the wheat from the chaff.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, CI officers are expected to be and must remain a political, policy neutral when it comes to any type of issue that policymakers may be grappling with. And I also think it's a very good thing for agency offices to do when they brief somebody, like incoming President-elect Biden, about a particular issue is to state clearly what is it that we know from sources the reliability, the accuracy of that information. What is it that we don't know as far as gaps in our knowledge are concerned? And what are our capabilities to be able to address those gaps? Because if you don't nest within that broader environment of what is knowable, then I think you can give your listener the wrong impression about the extent and depth of your knowledge. And so it's important, I think, again, to put that knowledge, that assessment, that analysis into a”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And one where the local services have so many opportunities to pick up on your every move. And so being able to go dark and be able to operate covertly and clandestinely overseas is much more challenging. But thankfully, I think CI officers have done a tremendous job of operating in that digital noise.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, because of the advancements in technology, the spy business has changed profoundly. Years ago, CIO would be able to fabricate a passport as well as a visa and go across a border. And as they CI offices would say, with a fistful of 50s, be able to operate rather well, even in denied areas, because you didn't have all of the closed-circuit televisions. You didn't have the machine readable passport machines or airports, passport-readable machines. You didn't have the digital dust that we all leave, whether it be with a credit card or with our iPhone or whatever else. And so operating clandestinely in heavily digitized sensor rife environments is really difficult. And so that traditional spycraft really has had to just be transformed so that you're able to operate in a very busy digital environment.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Siblings, or parents, or whatever. And it is important, but the Bin Laden raid, Kathy, my wife, didn't know about our plans for that raid until after it happened. And after we knew that we got bin Laden, we brought his remains back to Afghanistan. And I gave her a call and said, Kathy, man, we just had a great counter-success and turned on the television because President Obama's going to be speaking to the nation and the world in a few minutes. And I think she sensed that what it might be based on the excitement of my voice, but I didn't want to burden her with that type of information that she couldn't reveal to anybody else. So it is tough. It's a balance, but it's one that CI officers, I think, take very seriously.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You do it carefully. Thankfully, during the course of my career, my wife, I've been married for 42 years, and early on it was tough. And I talk about in the book that after less than a year with CIA, my wife and I separated for a year because I got into that CIA environment and then I started to keep things from her. And she sensed a growing distance between us. And there was a distance between us. And thankfully, we got back together. We came to an understanding that I would try to explain as much as I could. without going into classified information. And she was willing to give me that latitude. Whenever I would minister the Oath of Office to a new group of CIA officers every month at CI headquarters, I tell them to not neglect the home front because, first of all, we want happy employees at CIA. They're better employees, but also they need to remember their responsibilities and obligations at home to spouses, to children.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's those family members of CI officers, the spouses, the sons and daughters and parents who keep the home fires burning and allow their CI officers to go overseas at a moment's notice or to go into a war zone and put their family's future at risk. Those are the really the unsung heroes of CIA, those family members of CIA officers.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, you know, so many CI officers who come into the organization undercover, which means that they cannot acknowledge except to their immediate family members that they're actually working with the CIA. They know that they're going to live a life in secrecy and that their accomplishments, achievements will not be known outside of maybe a small circle within CIA. And the reason why that CIA Museum is in CIA and not somewhere else is that there are some things that still remain classified because they reveal different types of sources and methods that could in fact compromise ongoing activities or future operations. So I really think it should honor those faceless and frequently nameless women and men of CIA who over the years put themselves at great danger and undertook great sacrifices in their families. And probably if any component of CIA demands I think more attention and more”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“really varies just like any organization. Sometimes individual leaders are quite cunning and quite innovative, and also they're able to use the resources available to them and they're able to recruit the right type of people and they're able to maintain the secrecy that is needed for this, while others just want to be terrorists and they trip over themselves, thankfully. And there are a lot of very, very bad terrorists that are out there that thankfully have been caught. And terrorists are caught anywhere along that operational cycle from their efforts to recruit or gain financing or whatever. Fortunately, the FBI, CIA, NSA have insights into what they're doing. But as they progress and they get further along and they recruit the operatives and then they get the explosives and they start to surveil and case and even do dry runs, then they're closer to execution of the attack, but also they run”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That. And I'm glad they do in some respects because that's where we're best prepared to defeat their efforts. I still shudder when I think about all the availability of weapons in the United States, different types of assault weapons, and how much carnage could be created and has been in instances, but rarely has it been as a result of a international terrorist group, a transnational terrorist group. You don't hear about Al-Qaeda member who picks up an assault weapon and most people down at a mall. Occasionally, attempts are made and sometimes it actually happens, but they still go after that IED that is going to blow up something and create the type of footage that they want.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do you want me to give the enemies the reasons why they're not as successful as they have been? Well, I think sometimes it's because they continue to go back to the tried and true methods. When I look at terrorist acts, especially those that are international, transnational terrorism directed against the United States, Al-Qaeda and other types of terrorist organizations continue to go after that which is going to go boom and bang, trying to secret improvised explosive device onto an airplane, try to bring down that air carry over the United States as opposed to really looking at new and ingenious and innovative ways to really cause havoc, but they continue to want to have things blow up. And the defenses that have been put in place really have guarded against and made it much more difficult for the terrorists to surmount the various obstacles and security checks that are in place. But they continue to focus on”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In a certain way, in a certain sequence, that the interaction between these variables are likely to produce certain outcomes that have certain implications, which is what the intelligence officers, analysts do when they talk to policymakers, because, again, there are so many different variables. And frequently, when you look at events around the world, what the US decides to do on the policy front is frequently quite determinative of what the future course is going to be. So I think it's having the appreciation of that range of variables that come in and how that ecosystem is evolving. It just, I think, gives people a good sense, and a lot of times it is rather intuitive.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a good question. I wouldn't dispute his bottom line at all. I am really impressed with people who have a good sense of reality in the world and common sense approaches to it and that frequently wisdom is derived from the ability to absorb information and then process it and then see relationships and also have almost an intuitive sense of past experiences and then apply that to future situations. So I think I'm interested now. I'm going to take a look at the forecasting approach. But I would never tell CIA analysts to put their eggs in one type of basket as far as forecasting. People think what's the prediction of something and I determine, in fact, prediction. It's looking at what are those variables, what are those factors that are going to come into play, and if certain things are...”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's different types of quantitative models that are used at the CIA to see if they could forecast certain outcomes, certain situations, but they're not going to get involved in the betting environment. But I think that what the CIA has always tried to do is to explore any type of new techniques or approaches or practices that are going to provide, again, just one more insight or perspective into trying to understand this world of ours and how events are going to evolve.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Safe, and our attrition rate is very, very low. So even if individuals come into the agency with the eye to just staying for a couple, three years, you'd be amazed at how many decide to stay just because the type of work that they're doing is really quite thrilling.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure, if you just look at the financial remuneration that comes with a job, yeah, we cannot compete with either Wall Street or the Silicon Valley or whatever. But there are a lot of individuals who want to give back to this great country of ours and also like the idea of working for the CIA. My recruiters would tell me that, you know, with millennials and Gen Xers, they really had a tough time because those younger Americans would bounce around from job to job and that they were going to come to the CIA for two or three years and be able to put CIA on their resume and then be able to go off and make their millions. And I said, well, don't look at it as a problem. Look at it as an opportunity that these individuals who could be hired by the Silicon Valleys and others and big banks are willing to give us two or three years. And that gives us two or three years to convince them that this is the absolute best place to work because it's such exceptionally talented people here and there's technology at your fingertips and you're really doing something to keep their families and fellow Americans.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, there's loyalty to the Constitution. There's loyalty to the oath of office. To me, there shouldn't be loyalty to any individuals, including inside a CIA. So I would like to think that CIA recruiters would be looking for individuals who are intellectually curious, have critical thinking skills, and may have also, you know, I think some degree of contrarianess because you don't want people just to accept as gospel what it is that they are being told, especially if they're going to be interacting with spies overseas. And so you don't want someone who's going to argue it, everything just for the sake of argumentation. But I know that certainly when I was at the agency and director CIA, I wanted people to challenge what I was saying. I wanted to be tested. I had no monopoly on wisdom or knowledge or insights. And so you want people to be willing to speak up. And I think in my book, I talk about how I was reluctant to do that earlier on.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, when we're not looking to hire just a bunch of yes people, to me, I don't think punctuality means that you're looking to instill discipline in organization. You're trying to ensure that you take advantage of, you know.”
2020-12-16 · Conversations with Tyler · John O. Brennan on Life in the CIA · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source