WASHINGTON — The leading candidate to be CIA director for President-elect Barack Obama withdrew from consideration Tuesday amid mounting opposition from liberal groups, marking the first time that the incoming administration appeared to bow to outside pressure on a high-level appointment.
The withdrawal of John Brennan, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and the top intelligence advisor to Obama, complicates the next administration's desire to have a smooth transition on intelligence matters at a time when U.S. spy agencies are involved in two wars and confront the ongoing threat of Al Qaeda.
In a pointed letter to Obama, Brennan removed his name from consideration even while lashing out at critics, whom he accused of distorting his record on the controversial intelligence policies of the Bush administration.
"It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration, such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding," Brennan said, referring to a widely condemned interrogation method in which a detainee is made to feel he is drowning.
"The fact that I was not involved in the decision-making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored," Brennan said.
Brennan was responding to criticism from an array of outside groups that had begun lobbying the Obama team to find another candidate for the top CIA job.
In a letter sent to Obama last week and signed by dozens of psychologists opposed to harsh interrogation methods, Brennan was described as a "supporter of the 'dark side' policies" of the Bush administration.
The group noted that Brennan had held senior positions under former CIA Director George J. Tenet. A Brennan appointment "would dishearten and alienate those who opposed torture under the Bush administration," they said.
Brennan spent a 25-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, serving in a series of high-level posts. Most recently, he was head of the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created in the efforts after the Sept. 11 attacks to improve coordination among the nation's 16 spy agencies on threat data.
He left the government in 2005, and has served as chief executive of the Analysis Corp., a Washington-area consulting firm.
