Megrahi petition again before Justice Committee

[Justice for Megrahi’s petition features on the agenda for the meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee to be held on Tuesday 17 January 2017 starting at 10.00 in Holyrood Committee Room 2. The following are (a) the committee clerk’s note on this agenda item and (b) Justice for Megrahi’s submission to the committee:]

PE1370: Independent inquiry into the Megrahi conviction

Terms of the petition

PE1370 (lodged 1 November 2010): The petition on behalf of Justice for Megrahi (JFM), calls for the opening of an inquiry into the 2001 Kamp van Zeist conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988.

Current consideration

19. At its meeting on 27 September 2016 the Committee agreed to keep the petition open pending the completion of Operation Sandwood. This is the operational name for Police Scotland‟s investigation into the nine allegations of criminality levelled by Justice for Megrahi at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the police, and forensic officials involved in the investigation and legal processes relating to Megrahi‟s conviction. The allegations range from perverting the course of justice to perjury. It had previously been understood that the operation would be expected to conclude by the end of 2016. Further information is being sought from Police Scotland and the clerk will update the Committee on this at the 17 January meeting.

20. Police Scotland have previously stated that once the report is finalised it will then be scrutinised and assessed by an independently appointed Queen‟s Counsel appointed by Police Scotland to provide independent direction and advice.

21. In their submission to the Committee for the meeting on the 27 September, the petitioners informed the Committee that they continued to liaise with Operation Sandwood investigators and that they anticipated having a final meeting with them prior to the report being submitted to the COPFS.

22. The petitioners have provided a written submission (Annexe F*) asking the Committee to keep the petition open not only until the completion of Operation Sandwood but until the COPFS has fully considered the police report and announced its findings. The submission does not contain any new information from the petitioners as to the likely completion date for Operation Sandwood.

Options for action on petition PE1370

23. The Committee is invited to consider what action it wishes to take in relation to the petition, having regard to its decision in September in keep the petition open pending the completion of Operation Sandwood.

*Annexe F

Petition: PE1370 submission from Petitioner

In November 2010 Justice for Megrahi (JfM) lodged petition PE1370 with the Petitions Committee calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to open an independent inquiry into the 2001 Kamp van Zeist conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in December 1988. The petition was referred to the Justice Committee which first considered it on 8th November 2011.

In 2012 we lodged with the police nine allegations of criminality linked to the Lockerbie investigation and trial, and for the last three years Police Scotland has been conducting a major criminal investigation into these allegations under the codename “Operation Sandwood‟. It is anticipated that the police will submit their final report to the Crown Office in the early part of this year.

Over the period since its submission in 2011 the Justice Committee has agreed to keep this petition open. At the meeting on 27th September however members decided to keep the petition open “pending the completion of Operation Sandwood”. This could be construed as a change from the previous position, assumed by us, that the petition would be kept open until the Crown Office had fully considered the police report and announced its findings.

Given the centrality of this issue to the image of Scottish Justice at home and abroad and the previous public dismissal of the JfM allegations by Crown Office even before the police investigation of them had begun (indeed, even before the supporting evidence had been submitted), we would seek assurance from the Justice Committee that it will continue its review of our petition and the Operation Sandwood inquiry until the police report has been fully considered by Crown Office and its conclusions have been announced.

We believe that the Justice Committee is the principal body through which the Scottish Parliament fulfils its constitutional duty to provide political oversight of the Scottish Justice System. As such, we believe that its continued monitoring of the actions of the prosecution authorities in relation to the Operation Sandwood investigations is critical and very much in the public interest.

We would respectfully urge the Committee to allow Petition PE1370 to remain on the table until the Crown Office has announced its conclusions in respect of Operation Sandwood.

Discovery of dodgy timer fragment

[What follows is excerpted from an article published in 2007 by Dr Ludwig de Braeckeleer:]

The Discovery of the MST-13 Timer Fragment

In the months following the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, someone discovered a piece of a gray Slalom-brand shirt in a wooded area about 25 miles away from the town. According to a forensics expert, the cloth contained a tiny fragment -- 4 millimeters square -- of a circuit board. The testimony of three expert witnesses allowed the prosecutors to link this circuit board, described as part of the bomb trigger, to Megrahi.

There have been different accounts concerning the discovery of the timer fragment. A police source close to the investigation reported that it had been discovered by lovers. Some have said that it was picked up by a man walking his dog. Others have claimed that it was found by a policeman "combing the ground on his hands and knees."

At the trial, the third explanation became official. "On 13 January 1989, DC Gilchrist and DC McColm were engaged together in line searches in an area near Newcastleton. A piece of charred material was found by them, which was given the police number PI/995 and which subsequently became label 168."

The Alteration of the Label

The officer had initially labeled the bag "cloth (charred)" but had later overwritten the word "cloth" with "debris."

The bag contained pieces of a shirt collar and fragments of materials said to have been extracted from it, including the tiny piece of circuit board identified as coming from an MST-13 timer made by the Swiss firm MeBo.

"The original inscription on the label, which we are satisfied, was written by DC Gilchrist, was 'cloth (charred).' The word 'cloth' has been overwritten by the word 'debris.' There was no satisfactory explanation as to why this was done."

The judges said in their judgment that Gilchrist's evidence had been "at worst evasive and at best confusing."

Yet the judges went on to admit the evidence. "We are, however, satisfied that this item was indeed found in the area described, and DC McColm, who corroborated DC Gilchrist on the finding of the item, was not cross-examined about the detail of the finding of this item."

Lockerbie trial hears of security doubts

[This is the headline over a report published on the BBC News website on this date in 2001. It reads in part:]

Defence lawyers in the Lockerbie trial have called into question security arrangements at an airport which handled the luggage containing the bomb.

The defence had alleged that Palestinian extremists - and not the two Libyans accused - were the real bombers behind the outrage which killed 270 people in December 1988.

The prosecution case has focused on allegations that the Libyans were responsible for sending the bomb on its way from Malta and that it was transferred to a Heathrow-bound flight at Frankfurt Airport.

But defence counsel William Taylor QC argued that security procedures at Frankfurt were inadequate, with baggage handlers making mistakes as they struggled to cope with pressures of work.

The systems in place were much less effective, he said, than in Malta.

The defence case has been that a German cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) had the means and the motive to attack the Boeing 747 Pan Am Flight 103.

Mr Taylor pointed out that the defence did not have to prove anything.

It only had to sow sufficient doubt over the prosecution case against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah in the minds of the judges.

Mr Taylor, representing Mr Al Megrahi, said: "There was pressure at Frankfurt because of guarantees given in relation to the turnaround of the aircraft to operate the baggage conveyance system as quickly as possible."

He told the court evidence had been heard that security passes were not always checked at Frankfurt and there was at least one example of a "mystery worker" placing luggage into the system and sparking a security alert.

Mr Taylor also raised the question of whether there was a possibility of another unaccompanied bag on the Pan Am flight.

He said documents from German airline Lufthansa showed there were many questions raised by a piece of luggage which arrived at Frankfurt from Warsaw on the day of the bombing.

The court was told printouts showed it was headed for flight 103 but no passenger from the Warsaw plane was destined for the same aircraft.

"Did it fly from Heathrow on Pan Am 103? Did it contain the improvised explosive device?" he asked.

The case was adjourned until Tuesday when Mr Taylor is due to continue his closing speech.

George H W Bush and Margaret Thatcher agree to low-key Lockerbie

[What follows is an excerpt from John Pilger’s Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and Its Triumphs:]

Thatcher’s record on the Lockerbie disaster is quite appalling. She has been the chief architect of the monumental cover-up of what happened. When her new Transport Secretary, Cecil Parkinson, came whining to her last September [1989] asking for a judicial inquiry with Privy Councillors attached (an idea which Parkinson himself had put to the bereaved families) she sent him away with a flea in his ear. She was determined there should be no inquiry (except a Scottish “fatal accident inquiry” which can’t find out how or why the bomb got on the plane and how or why British airport security was so lax as not to trace it).

A report in the Washington Post on 11 January [1990] by Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta revealed that Thatcher and [President George H W] Bush had spoken about Lockerbie in mid-March last year. Anderson suggested that the two leaders had agreed to “low-key” the disaster because neither could do anything about it and did not want to appear impotent. Their intelligence services had reported “beyond doubt” that the Lockerbie bomb had been placed by a terrorist group led by Ahmed Jibril. The group, the report went on, had been paid by the Iranian Government, which wanted a reprisal for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner by an American warship the previous year. Although they knew the terrorists responsible, however (Anderson’s report concluded) Bush and Thatcher agreed to keep it quiet.

[RB: I cannot find the Washington Post report online. However, I suspect it was in the same terms as this report by Jack Anderson in the Lewiston, Maine Sun-Journal on the same date.]

Saudi Arabia and South Africa intervene in Lockerbie impasse

[What follows is a snippet from the Libya: News and Views website on this date in 1999:]

The United Nations announced on Friday that Saudi Arabian and South African envoys will spend two days in Libya next week in another attempt to persuade Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi to surrender suspects in the 1988 of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said the envoys, Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, his country's ambassador to Washington, and Jakes Gerwel, South African President Nelson Mandela's chief of staff, would leave for Libya from London on Tuesday. Their visit is considered key following talks in Pretoria between Mandela and British Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier this week. [Reuters]

[RB: The suspects surrendered for trial in April 1999.]

Lockerbie film is a tantalising prospect

[This is the headline over a report in today’s edition of The Scotsman. It reads in part:]

There is no doubt over the quality of filmmakers like Ken Loach, Lynne Ramsay and Peter Mullan, who have been garlanded at some of the world’s leading film festivals for the work they have made in Scotland in the last 20 years or so. There have been numerous portrayals of working class Scots in films like Red Road, My Name is Joe, Ratcatcher, Small Faces and Orphans.

But it is hard to think of many films which have even touched upon the major events of modern-day Scotland.

While the playwrights of the day have regularly tackled the political upheaval in Scotland since the 1970s, filmmakers have been curiously reluctant to tackle some of the defining events that have shaped the country. That is perhaps why it is so intriguing to hear that a feature film exploring the conspiracy theories behind the Lockerbie disaster is being planned by one of the current crop of leading filmmakers.

Lockerbie has long been seen as an untouchable subject for writers and filmmakers to tackle. But the sensitive filmmaking deployed in Fire in the Night, the BAFTA Scotland-winning documentary about the Piper Alpha disaster, offered proof of the power of the real-life stories behind the tragedy and its enduring impact.

Kevin Macdonald, who made State of Play and The Last King of Scotland is perhaps best known for the Oscar-winning documentary One Day In September, which charted events at the 1972 Munich Olympic when a group of Israeli athletes were massacred.

With his Glasgow roots and strong track record over the last two decades it is hard to think of a British filmmaker more suited to attempting the unenviable task of distilling the Lockerbie story into a couple of hours. While expectations are already sky high about the forthcoming sequel to Trainspotting, the prospect about a feature film on the biggest conspiracy of modern times in Scotland is a tantalising one.

[RB: A report in today’s edition of The Times contains the following:]

The Lockerbie disaster, in which 270 aircrew, passengers and town residents died in a terrorist bombing, is to be made into a film by one of Scotland’s leading directors.

Kevin Macdonald, who won an Oscar for his documentary about the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, said he planned to shed light on the “unanswered conspiracy” behind Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity. (...)

The script is being developed by David Harrower, one of Scotland’s most acclaimed playwrights. The film will be produced by the dramatist Christopher Young. (...)

Film4 and the British Film Institute (BFI) are providing finance, with a possible release date at the end of next year to coincide with the disaster’s 30th anniversary. (...)

Young said: “We don’t believe al-Megrahi was responsible. There are a number of people in Scotland who feel very strongly that justice was ill-served. If we are to have any faith in our justice system we need to know the truth.”

Televising of Megrahi appeal

[What follows is the text of a report published on the BBC News website on this date in 2002:]

The decision to allow the BBC to televise the Lockerbie bomber's appeal has been hailed as an "important step" by a Scottish legal expert.

However, Professor Jim Murdoch, of Glasgow University's law department, said the decision by Scotland's lord justice general should not be viewed as setting a precedent for the future.

Lord Cullen granted an application by the BBC to broadcast and provide an internet stream of the appeal proceedings, which are due to begin at Camp Zeist, near Utrecht, Holland, on 23 January.

Prof Murdoch said the decision was a crucial one for broadcasters in reinforcing the role of the media as a "watchdog" but he stressed that Scotland was still a long way from seeing the routine televising of trials.

He told BBC News Online: "This is an important step, but one which should not be seen necessarily as establishing a new precedent.

"We are - thankfully - still a great distance removed from American practice which readily allows the broadcasting of trials."

The focus on ensuring justice, he said, had rightly led to a refusal to allow broadcasting of the trial of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and his then co-accused Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, who was acquitted.

However, the appeal circumstances would be different as there would be no witnesses giving evidence.

Prof Murdoch said: "The Scottish legal system rightly places the fair administration of justice as of paramount concern and the court's refusal to allow the broadcasting of the trial proceedings was understandable.

"There would have been real concerns whether witnesses giving evidence could have been affected by the knowledge that their words would have been broadcast around the globe; further the legal system recognises that witnesses in trials may often require to be protected against the possibility of identification.

"The broadcasting of appeal proceedings concerning legal argument does not give rise to such concerns, and the watchdog role of the media in helping scrutinise the administration of justice can thus be more readily acknowledged."

Prof Murdoch said the broadcast of the appeal proceedings on television and the internet would assist people around the world in giving their own judgements on the trial.

"The decision will allow a much wider audience more easily to observe the appeal court's determination of whether the trial court's conviction was a safe one," he said.

[RB: I had earlier argued against the televising of the trial proceedings: see Head to head: Cameras in court. I had no objections to the televising of the appeal. However, as I wrote later: “The [appeal] proceedings (except when the evidence of witnesses was being heard) were televised live over the internet on a website maintained by the BBC, the first occasion in Scotland (or elsewhere in the United Kingdom) that live public broadcasting of judicial proceedings has been permitted. The consensus of opinion was that the administration of justice was not impaired by the presence of the television cameras, but that the level of excitement and drama was such that there is unlikely to be much clamour in the foreseeable future from either broadcasters or the viewing public for the experiment to be repeated.”]

There is no excuse whatsoever for more time to pass

[This is the headline over a report in today’s edition of Scotland on Sunday. It reads in part:]

One of Scotland’s leading filmmakers is to tackle the Lockerbie disaster, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald plans to lift the lid on the “unanswered conspiracy” behind Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.

It will chart events from the day of the 1988 tragedy, which claimed 270 lives, to the present day with relatives of the victims still campaigning for justice.

The script is being developed by one of Scotland’s most acclaimed playwrights, David Harrower. It will be produced by Christopher Young, who created the Gaelic drama Bannan for BBC Alba.

The film, casting for which is expected to get under way within months, will depict the only man convicted over Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity as innocent and raise fresh questions about his controversial release from behind bars in Scotland and his return to Libya. It is hoped the film, expected to have a budget of at least £10 million, will be shot in the UK, including Lockerbie itself.

Film4 and the BFI are funding the Lockerbie film, which had been under discussion between Macdonald and Young for several years before Harrower was signed up for the project in early 2016. Filming could begin this year, ahead of a possible release in 2018, coinciding with the disaster’s 30th anniversary.

Glasgow-born Macdonald won an Academy Award for One Day In September, a documentary about the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Macdonald also directed The Last King Of Scotland, which saw Forest Whitaker win the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Ugandan president Idi Amin. (...)

News of the Lockerbie feature film has emerged less than a year after a controversial book by former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill. MacAskill decided to free Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009 – eight years after his conviction following a historic trial under Scottish law in the Netherlands. A co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.

Megrahi launched a second appeal when he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer in 2008. He abandoned his appeal in August 2009, and two days later MacAskill ordered his release amid predictions he had three months to live. He died in May 2012. Relatives of victims failed in a bid to pursue an appeal two years ago, but have vowed to continue to “fight for justice”.

Macdonald said: “I’ve been thinking about a film on Lockerbie for around 10 years.

“It feels like one of those huge events that sort of casts a shadow over Scottish life. It seems like it is Britain’s JFK in some ways – a looming unanswered conspiracy. There has been so much speculation and it is fascinating that more than 25 years later nobody seems to know for certain the answers to a lot of questions. There are very few events like that.

“We’ll be telling the whole story in the sense we’ll going from the day of the bombing up to the present day. It’s very hard because there is just so much in there. That’s one of the things that’s flummoxed a lot of writers before.

“One of the things that JFK, Oliver Stone’s film, does very well is to have layer upon layer upon layer of characters and testimony to create this atmosphere of complexity and yet at the heart of it is a very straightforward emotional story.

“We’re trying to be faithful to the complexity of Lockerbie by telling a simple story.

“It’s a very delicate thing trying to make a film based on real events. A lot of people out there were affected by Lockerbie and lost loved ones. There is a great sense of responsibility and of wanting to contribute in a positive way rather than doing anything that’s going to cause any more pain.”

Young added: “As far as we’re concerned we don’t believe Megrahi was responsible. To me, it is as clear as day, but I suspect the general public assume Megrahi did it.

“We’re interested in telling a story about what we think really happened and also the extent to which people who want to know the truth have been, in all kinds of ways, blocked from that, most obviously by governments. It suited everybody really well that Megrahi went home and died.

“There are a number of people in Scotland who feel very strongly that justice was ill-served. If we are to have any faith in our justice system we need to know the truth.

“Given that is the largest mainland terrorist attack in our history, given it was also the prelude to 9/11 and everything that followed, and given the incredible mess we are in now, it seems to us that there is no excuse whatsoever for more time to pass.

“Any miscarriage of justice on this scale is an urgent matter. If the only way of bringing these things to light is to make a film then so be it.”

A wafer-thin pretext for inaction

[What follows is an item originally posted on this blog on this date in 2011:]

Government is criticised over delay in reply to Megrahi queries

[This is the headline over a report in today's edition of The Herald. It reads in part:]

Campaigners calling for an inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing have criticised the Scottish Government for a delay in responding to a request for information from one of Holyrood’s own committees.

The Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee wrote to the Government in November after hearing evidence from the Justice for Megrahi group, which submitted a petition bearing the signatures of 1646 people backing an independent inquiry.

Ministers were asked to respond by December 10, but the committee only received a response to its questions last night, a month after the deadline.

In it, the Government restates its position that any inquiry would be beyond the jurisdiction of Scots law and its own remit.

Robert Forrester, secretary of Justice for Megrahi, who stressed that he was speaking personally because the committee had yet to convene to discuss the response, said it was “inadequate.”

He said: “Clearly it has taken an extremely long time for them to put together, so far as I can see, a rather inadequate response. The Government has been saying repeatedly that they don’t have the power to open an inqury by saying it is beyond the power and remit of the Scottish Parliament.

“I personally don’t see why an inquiry cannot be opened.” (...)

The committee, led by convener Rhona Brankin, asked the Government whether it would open an independent inquiry or if it would provide detailed reasons for not doing so, including citing any legislation that prevents the Scottish Government from holding an inquiry.

The Petitions Committee has also received submissions from Professor Robert Black QC, the architect of the Lockerbie trial at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, which suggest there are previous examples of inquiries into judicial decisions. (...)

AL Kennedy, James Robertson, Len Murray and Ian Hamilton QC signed the petition calling for an inquiry into the conviction of Megrahi, who was found guilty of causing the deaths of 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in December 1988. A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Following the announcement last month that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has been unable to secure the necessary consents to release its statement of reasons in the Megrahi case due to the constraints of the current legislation, we are now considering legislation to overcome the problems presented by the current consent provisions.”

[The Scottish Government does not and cannot contend that it lacks the powers to set up an inquiry into the Lockerbie invesigation and prosecution and Abdelbaset Megrahi's conviction. These are all matters within devolved jurisdiction. What it says is this:

"The Inquiries Act 2005 provides that, to the extent that the matters dealt with are devolved, and criminal justice is devolved, the Scottish Government would have the power to conduct an inquiry. However, the wide ranging and international nature of the issues involved (even if the inquiry is confined to the trial and does not concern itself with wider matters) means that there is every likelihood of issues arising which are not devolved, which would require either a joint inquiry with or a separate inquiry by the UK government."

This is nothing more that a wafer-thin pretext for inaction. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has no jurisdiction and powers outwith Scotland. Yet it managed to conduct an investigation into the Megrahi conviction that enabled it to reach the conclusion that, on six separate grounds, that conviction might have amounted to a miscarriage of justice. There is no conceivable reason why a Scottish inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 should have less success in obtaining and uncovering evidence.]

CIA Director John Brennan and Lockerbie

[What follows is an item originally posted on this blog on this date in 2013:]

John Brennan to be nominated as new CIA director

[A report published today on the BBC News website contains the following:]

US President Barack Obama is to nominate John Brennan as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, White House officials have said.

If confirmed, Mr Brennan will replace Gen David Petraeus, who resigned last year after admitting to an affair. (...)

Mr Brennan, a CIA veteran, is currently Mr Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser. He was heavily involved in the planning of the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Although put forward for the role in 2008, Mr Brennan withdrew his name amid questions about his connection to interrogation techniques used during the administration of George W Bush.

"Brennan has the full trust and confidence of the president," a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP news agency.

"Over the past four years, he has been involved in virtually all major national security issues and will be able to hit the ground running at CIA."

[Mr Brennan has on occasion commented on Lockerbie during his CIA career.  Here are a few of his interventions:]

‘President Obama's top counterterrorism aide denounced Scotland's decision last year to release the Lockerbie bomber as a "travesty" and categorically denied a widespread report that the United States secretly endorsed the decision to free the Libyan terrorist, who was sentenced to life in prison. (...)

‘John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, this week wrote Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, in response to a major British newspaper's report Sunday that the Obama administration "secretly" agreed to al-Megrahi's release. (...)’

28 July 2010

‘The White House has told Scottish Ministers that they should return the Lockerbie bomber to jail in Scotland, amid fresh calls for a full public inquiry into his conviction and subsequent release.

‘John Brennan, counter-terrorism adviser to President Barack Obama, said Washington had expressed "strong conviction" to officials in Edinburgh over what he described as the "unfortunate and inappropriate and wrong decision" to free Abdelbaset Al Megrahi. (...)’

22 August 2010

‘John Brennan, President Obama's counter-terrorism adviser, stated that the United States has "expressed our strong conviction" to Scottish officials that Megrahi should not remain free. Brennan criticized what he termed the "unfortunate and inappropriate and wrong decision" to allow Megrahi's return to Libya on compassionate grounds on Aug 20, 2009 because he had cancer and was not expected to live more than about three months.’

1 September 2010

[Addendum from The Guardian of Tuesday, 8 January:]

The appointment of Brennan to replace disgraced general David Petraeus as head of the CIA has also been criticised because of Brennan's involvement with the Bush administration's backing for harsh interrogation techniques that many have described as torture, although Brennan denies he supported their use. (...)

The nomination of Brennan, while less controversial, has also come in for criticism from liberal Democrats unhappy at his previous record at the CIA.

Brennan had been a candidate to lead the agency in Obama's first term but withdrew his name from consideration. In doing so, Brennan told Obama that he was "a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration, such as the pre-emptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding".