Alex WellersteinVerified account

...he also knew that to not suspend his clearance would leave him (Eisenhower) open to attack from McCarthy and his ilk. So the prudent political move was to suspend the clearance, like it or not. So that's a pretty big difference by itself from the Brennan affair as I see it.

4. Under AEC regulations, Oppenheimer was given opportunity to have a hearing on his clearance suspension. That worked out poorly for him, in the end, resulting not only in the upholding of its suspension, but the airing of a lot of dirty laundry (affairs, bad judgment, etc.)...

...I don't know (but would love to know) whether Brennan and the potential "others" have the ability to contest? I suspect not. But I am not up to date on the regs for this. If not, then that's another key difference between the two.

5. Lastly, it is clear that Trump is doing this to Brennan because he wants to silence his critics. Purely political. The Oppenheimer affair was more complicated, a mix of the political and the personal, and again, only reluctantly participated in by Eisenhower.

I only write these things because I've seen some historians assert historical parallels. I think it's kind of a weak comparison, in the sense that the Oppenheimer affair was pretty complex, and the Brennan affair seems to be "merely" a form of ugly politics.

The Oppenheimer affair, for all of its injustice, was not merely an attempt to silence a critic, or cut him off from potential income. The Brennan affair looks *only* like that, at least from my vantage point. FIN.

Missing here is that Brennan has no professional requirement to have a security clearance, nor is it relevant to his public statements. I debriefed all my "tickets" when I left the AF, so why should SES/Generals/FOs get to keep theirs? For what purpose? 1/2

Moreover, if Brennan was relying on his clearance for the content of his public remarks that is inappropriate. It also gives him public credibility that is inherently biased ("he should know, so he must be right"). Clearances have nothing to do with freedom of speech. 2/2