FLASHBACK: Obama’s Top Counterterrorism Adviser, John Brennan, Praises Police Surveillance. “The comments from the top counterterrorism official in the White House follow months of debate over an NYPD domestic intelligence operation that placed Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups under surveillance. The Associated Press revealed the details of the program in a series of articles that won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting earlier this week. Brennan’s comments represent a White House stamp of approval of the NYPD’s tactics.”