John Brennan is “at the center of a secret process where the White House is deciding who lives and who dies around the world every day,” says Nation national security correspondent Jeremy Scahill about the CIA nominee’s confirmation hearings. “And yet the conversation that took place was as though they were talking about adding a wing onto a school in Idaho.” Scahill, producer and writer of the film Dirty Wars, discusses the failures of yesterday’s Senate hearing on Democracy Now!

—James Cersonsky

For more on the Brennan hearings, check out Greg Mitchell’s analysis.