CIA director once voted Communist Party for president
Click here for reuse options!Brennan on Thursday recalled being asked a standard question for a top security clearance at his early CIA lie detector test: Have you ever worked with or for a group that was dedicated to overthrowing the US?
“I froze,” Brennan said during a panel discussion about diversity in the intelligence community at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference. “This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate,”
Brennan was responding to a question about barriers to recruiting diverse candidates for the intelligence fields, including whether past records of activism could hurt someone applying for a clearance later in life.
The CIA director said the agency’s mission is to protect the values of the Constitution — which include free speech.
“We’ve all had indiscretions in our past,” he said, adding neither some drug experimentation nor activism was a non-starter. “I would not be up here if that was disqualifying.”
Brennan on Thursday recalled being asked a standard question for a top security clearance at his early CIA lie detector test: Have you ever worked with or for a group that was dedicated to overthrowing the US?
“I froze,” Brennan said during a panel discussion about diversity in the intelligence community at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference. “This was back in 1980, and I thought back to a previous election where I voted, and I voted for the Communist Party candidate,”
Brennan was responding to a question about barriers to recruiting diverse candidates for the intelligence fields, including whether past records of activism could hurt someone applying for a clearance later in life.The CIA director said the agency’s mission is to protect the values of the Constitution — which include free speech.
“We’ve all had indiscretions in our past,” he said, adding neither some drug experimentation nor activism was a non-starter. “I would not be up here if that was disqualifying.”
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4 responses to CIA director once voted Communist Party for president
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dogsRgoodpeople September 21st, 2016 at 17:40
wtf, i’m glad to hear it……………
bpollen September 22nd, 2016 at 05:13
Communism isn’t a bad political system… on paper.
dogsRgoodpeople September 22nd, 2016 at 06:39
yeah but just that he was flexible at one point in his life and it didn’t keep him from pursuing the career he chose. would that be possible today ?
bpollen September 22nd, 2016 at 06:47
I think most people don’t see communism as the bogeyman anymore… but our current right wing is descended from the John Birchers, rabid and irrational anti-communists and conspiracy theorists.