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Wikipedia

John Brennan (CIA officer)

January 23, 2023

For other people with similar names, see John Brennan.

John Owen Brennan (born September 22, 1955)[1][2] is a former American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from March 2013 to January 2017. He served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama, with the title Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President.[1][3][4] Previously, he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 election campaign and presidential transition.[5]

John Brennan
5th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
In office
March 8, 2013 – January 20, 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
DeputyAvril Haines
David Cohen
Preceded byDavid Petraeus
Succeeded byMike Pompeo
5th United States Homeland Security Advisor
In office
January 20, 2009 – March 8, 2013
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byKen Wainstein
Succeeded byLisa Monaco
Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
In office
August 27, 2004 – August 1, 2005
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byJohn Scott Redd
Personal details
Born
John Owen Brennan

(1955-09-22) September 22, 1955 (age 67)
North Bergen, New Jersey, U.S.
SpouseKathy Pokluda
Children3
EducationFordham University (BA)
University of Texas at Austin (MA)

Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the first Obama administration over concerns about his support for torture, after defending on TV the transferring of terror suspects to countries where they might be tortured while serving under President George W. Bush.[3][6] Instead, Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor, a position which did not require Senate confirmation.[3][6][7]

Brennan's 25 years with the CIA included work as a Near East and South Asia analyst, as station chief in Saudi Arabia, and as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.[3][6][8] After leaving government service in 2005, Brennan became CEO of The Analysis Corporation, a security consulting business, and served as chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an association of intelligence professionals.[9]

Brennan served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security between 2009 and 2013. Obama nominated Brennan as his next director of the CIA on January 7, 2013.[10][11] The ACLU called for the Senate not to proceed with the appointment until they confirmed that "all of his conduct was within the law" at the CIA and White House.[12] Brennan was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 5, 2013, to succeed David Petraeus as the Director of the CIA by a vote of 12 to 3.[13]

On August 15, 2018, President Donald Trump announced that he had revoked Brennan's security clearance, although the White House reportedly did not follow through with the revocation process.[14] Brennan had harshly criticized Trump several times since his election and responded to the revocation by stating "My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent."[15][16][17]

Brennan serves as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. His inaugural appearance was on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday, February 4, 2018.[18]

Early life

Brennan was born in North Bergen, New Jersey,[8] the son of Owen and Dorothy (Dunn) Brennan. His Irish father, a blacksmith, emigrated from County Roscommon, Republic of Ireland, to New Jersey in 1948.[19][20] He attended the Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School and graduated from Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School in West New York, New Jersey.

Education

Brennan attended Fordham University, graduating with a B.A. in political science in 1977.[3] While a college student, in 1976, he voted for the Communist Party USA candidate for president, Gus Hall. He has later described his vote as a way of "signaling my unhappiness with the system", specifically the partisanship of the Watergate era.[20] After Fordham, Brennan attended the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a Master of Arts in government with a concentration in Middle East studies in 1980.[6] He speaks Arabic fluently.[8] His studies included a junior year abroad learning Arabic and taking courses at the American University in Cairo.[3][6]

While riding a bus to class at Fordham, he saw an ad in The New York Times that said that the CIA was recruiting. He decided that a CIA career would be a good match for his "wanderlust" and his desire for public service.[6] He applied to the CIA in 1980. During his application he admitted during a lie-detector test that he had voted for the Communist Party candidate four years earlier. To his surprise, he was still accepted; he later said that he finds it heartening that the CIA valued freedom of speech.[21]

Career

 
Brennan with Kathleen Sebelius and Rahm Emanuel, White House, April 2009

Brennan began his CIA career as an analyst and spent 25 years with the agency.[1][6][22] He was a daily intelligence briefer for President Bill Clinton.[6] In 1996, he was CIA station chief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, when the Khobar Towers bombing killed 19 U.S. servicemen.[6] In 1999, he was appointed chief of staff to George Tenet, then-Director of the CIA.[3][6] Brennan became deputy executive director of the CIA in March 2001.[3] He was director of the newly created Terrorist Threat Integration Center from 2003 to 2004, an office that sifted through and compiled information for President Bush's daily top secret intelligence briefings and employed the services of analysts from a dozen U.S. agencies and entities.[23]

Brennan then left government service for a few years, becoming Chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) and the CEO of The Analysis Corporation (TAC).[20] He continued to lead TAC after its acquisition by Global Strategies Group in 2007 and its growth as the Global Intelligence Solutions division of Global's North American technology business GTEC, before returning to government service with the Obama administration as Homeland Security Advisor on January 20, 2009.[9]

On January 7, 2013, President Obama nominated Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.[24]

On January 20, 2017, Brennan's CIA appointment ended, and he was replaced by President Trump's nominee Mike Pompeo on January 23, 2017.

In September 2017, Brennan was named a Distinguished Non-Resident Scholar at The University of Texas at Austin, where he also acts as a senior advisor to the University's Intelligence Studies Project.[25] He serves as a consultant on world events for Kissinger Associates.[20]

Counterterrorism advisor to President Obama

Brennan was an early national security adviser to then-candidate Obama.[20] In late 2008, Brennan was reportedly the top choice to become the Director of the CIA in the incoming Obama administration. However, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration because of opposition to his CIA service under President George W. Bush and past public statements he had made in support of enhanced interrogation and the transfer of terrorism suspects to countries where they might be tortured (extraordinary rendition).[3][6][26] President Obama then appointed him to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the president's chief counterterrorism advisor and a position that did not require Senate confirmation.[3][6][7] His responsibilities included overseeing plans to protect the country from terrorism and respond to natural disasters, and he met with the president daily.[6][27]

 
Brennan and President Barack Obama at a meeting of the Homeland Security Council, May 2009

In August 2009, Brennan criticized some Bush-administration anti-terror policies, saying that waterboarding had threatened national security by increasing the recruitment of terrorists and decreasing the willingness of other nations to cooperate with the U.S.[28] He also described the Obama administration's focus as being on "extremists" and not "jihadists". He said that using the second term, which means one who is struggling for a holy goal, gives "these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek" and suggests the US is at war with the religion of Islam.[28] Brennan told The New York Times in January 2010, "I was somebody who did oppose waterboarding,"[29] a claim that he repeated in 2013, during the Senate's hearings about whether to confirm him as Obama's CIA director.[30] None of Brennan's superior officers at the CIA, however, recall hearing his objections, and in 2018, Brennan admitted to The New York Times, "It wasn't as though I was wearing that opposition on my sleeve throughout the agency. I expressed it privately, to individuals."[31]

In an early December 2009 interview with the Bergen Record, Brennan remarked, "the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities have to bat 1.000 every day. The terrorists are trying to be successful just once."[6] At a press conference days after the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Brennan said U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss any signs that could have prevented the attempt but later said he had let the president down by underestimating a small group of Yemeni terrorists and not connecting them to the attempted bomber.[1][32] Within two weeks after the incident, however, he produced a report highly critical of the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies, concluding that their focus on terrorist attempts aimed at U.S. soil was inadequate.[22] In February 2010, he claimed on Meet the Press that he was tired of Republican lawmakers using national security issues as political footballs, and making allegations where they did not know the facts.[33]

Brennan was present in the Situation Room in May 2011 when the United States conducted the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He called Obama's decision to go forward with the mission one of the "gutsiest calls of any president in memory".[34] In the aftermath of the operation, Brennan said that the U.S. troops in the raid had been "met with a great deal of resistance", and bin Laden had used a woman as a human shield.[35][36]

Drone program

In April 2012, Brennan was the first Obama administration official to publicly acknowledge CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. In his speech, he explained the legality, morality, and effectiveness of the program.[37][38][39] The ACLU and other organizations disagreed. In 2011–2012, he also helped reorganize the process, under the aegis of the Disposition Matrix database, by which people outside of war zones were put on the list of drone targets. According to an Associated Press story, the reorganization helped "concentrate power" over the process inside the White House administration.[40][41][42] According to The New York Times, Brennan was the "principal coordinator" of U.S. kill lists. Former Obama administration counter-terrorism official Daniel Benjamin has stated that Brennan "probably had more power and influence than anyone in a comparable position in the last 20 years".[43]

In June 2011, Brennan claimed that US counter-terrorism operations had not resulted in "a single collateral death" in the past year because of the "precision of the capabilities that we've been able to develop".[44][45] Nine months later, Brennan claimed he had said "we had no information" about any civilian, noncombatant deaths during the timeframe in question.[45][46] The Bureau of Investigative Journalism disagreed with Brennan, citing their own research[47] that initially led them to believe that 45 to 56 civilians, including six children, had been killed by ten US drone strikes during the year-long period in question.[45] Additional research led the Bureau to raise their estimate to 76 deaths, including eight children and two women.[45] According to the Bureau, Brennan's claims "do not appear to bear scrutiny".[45] The Atlantic has been harsher in its criticism, saying, "Brennan has been willing to lie about those drone strikes to hide ugly realities."[48]

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Brennan's comments about collateral death are perhaps explained by a counting method that treats all military-aged males in a strike zone as combatants unless there is explicit information to prove them innocent.[45][49]

CIA Director (2013–2017)

Nomination

 
Brennan being sworn in as CIA Director, March 8, 2013
 
Brennan at the White House in April 2013, discussing the Boston Marathon bombing

Obama twice nominated Brennan to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.[10][11] Morris Davis, a former Chief Prosecutor for the Guantanamo Military Commissions compared Brennan to Canadian Omar Khadr, who was convicted of "committing murder in violation of the law of war".[50] He suggested that Brennan's role in targeting individuals for CIA missile strikes was no more authorized than the throwing of the grenade of which Khadr was accused.

On February 27, 2013, the Senate Intelligence Committee postponed a vote on the confirmation of Brennan, expected to be taken the next day, until the following week. On March 5, the Intelligence Committee approved the nomination 12–3. The Senate was set to vote on Brennan's nomination on March 6, 2013. However, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul began a talking Senate filibuster prior to the vote, citing Obama and his administration's use of combat drones against Americans, stating "No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt, to charge an individual, to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual. It goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country."[51][52] Paul's filibuster continued for 13 hours, ending with the words: "I'm hopeful that we have drawn attention to this issue, that this issue will not fade away, and that the president will come up with a response."[53] After the filibuster, Brennan was confirmed by a vote of 63–34. He was sworn into the office of CIA Director on March 8, 2013.[54]

Tenure

Two months after assuming his post at the CIA, Brennan replaced Gina Haspel, head of the National Clandestine Service with another unidentified, career intelligence officer and former Marine.[55][56] In June 2013, Brennan installed Avril Haines as Deputy Director of the Agency.[57]

In April 2014, Brennan visited Kyiv where he met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema and purportedly discussed intelligence-sharing between the United States and Ukraine.[58][59]

In the summer of 2014, Brennan faced scrutiny after it was revealed that some CIA employees had improperly accessed the computer servers of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the wake of oversight of the CIA's role in enhanced interrogation and extraordinary rendition. Brennan apologized to Senators and stated that he would "fight for change at the CIA", and stated he would pass along the findings of the Inspector General on the incident.[60] After the incident, Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.) stated he had "lost confidence in Brennan".[61]

 
Brennan and James Clapper at the LBJ Presidential Library, September 16, 2015
 
Brennan and former National Security Advisers Sandy Berger and Brent Scowcroft in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2015

In December 2014, Brennan again came under fire when he defended the CIA's past interrogation tactics as having yielded "useful" intelligence, during a news conference. While admitting that the actions of the CIA officers were "abhorrent", worthy of "repudiation", and had, at times, exceeded legal boundaries Brennan stated the CIA had also done "a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secured".[62]

During testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2016, Brennan warned of the threat posed by ISIL claiming it had the ability to draw on a "large cadre of Western fighters" and reiterated the threats posed by lone wolf attackers, calling them "an exceptionally challenging issue for the intelligence community". Brennan detailed ISIL's size to the committee, specifying they had more fighters than al-Qaeda at its height and that they were spread between Africa and southwest Asia.[63]

In September 2016, the Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) that would allow relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged role in the attacks.[64] Congress overwhelmingly rejected President Barack Obama's veto.[65][66] Brennan warned of the JASTA bill's "grave implications for the national security of the United States."[67][68]

While director, Brennan created ten new "mission centers" in his campaign to focus the CIA on threats in cyberspace, where analysts and hackers work in teams with focuses on specific areas of the globe and particular issues. In addition, he created the Directorate for Digital Innovation (DDI) to hone the Agency's tradecraft in the information technology sector and create new tools dedicated to cyber-espionage. Despite general praise for his actions from within the intelligence community about Brennan's shift towards cyber, some CIA officials said they held reservations in moving away from traditional human intelligence.[69] In January 2017, Brennan, alongside FBI director James Comey, NSA director Mike Rogers, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed President-elect Donald Trump in Trump Tower on the findings of the intelligence community in regards to Russian election interference and the allegations contained in the Steele dossier.[70][71]

British security hacker Kane Gamble, sentenced to 2 years in youth detention, posed as CIA chief to access highly sensitive information and hacked into Brennan's private email and iCloud accounts, made hoax calls to his family home and even took control of his wife's iPad. The judge said Gamble engaged in "politically motivated cyber terrorism."[72][73]

Less than a week before Brennan left office in January 2017, he expressed several criticisms of incoming President Trump. Brennan said "I don't think he has a full appreciation of Russian capabilities, Russia's intentions and actions that they are undertaking in many parts of the world." Brennan stated that it was "outrageous" that Trump was "equating the intelligence community with Nazi Germany".[74]

WikiLeaks hack

In October 2015, the contents of Brennan's personal AOL e-mail account were stolen by a hack and posted on WikiLeaks. The e-mails did not contain classified information but did include sensitive personal information, including a draft of Brennan's Standard Form 86 (SF-86) application. During a subsequent security conference at George Washington University, Brennan proclaimed his "outrage" at the hack but also demonstrated the need to "evolve to deal with these new threats and challenges".[75][76] In January 2017, a North Carolina college student pleaded guilty in a Virginia federal court to charges relating to hacking Brennan's e-mail.[77] The two North Carolina men eventually pleaded guilty to a conspiracy with a group that called itself "Crackas With Attitude" to commit unauthorized computer intrusions, identity theft, and telephone harassment. Justin Gray Liverman was sentenced to five years in federal prison and Andrew Otto Boggs was sentenced to two years. Other co-conspirators were located in the United Kingdom and were prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service.[78]

Criticism of President Trump

Brennan helped establish the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump’s campaign, which included the use of foreign intelligence, during the period leading up to the 2016 presidential election.[79] Since leaving office, Brennan has been harshly critical of President Trump. In March 2018, Brennan said Trump had "paranoia", accused him of "constant misrepresentation of the facts", and described him as a "charlatan".[80] Following the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe later that month, Brennan tweeted to Trump, "When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America... America will triumph over you."[81]

Axios quoted Brennan tweeting a response to Trump's harsh comments about James Comey: "Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey... we have the opportunity to emerge from this nightmare stronger & more committed to ensuring a better life for all Americans, including those you have so tragically deceived."[82] On July 16, 2018, Brennan tweeted his reaction to Trump's comments at the 2018 Helsinki summit meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin:

John O. Brennan Twitter
@JohnBrennan

Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of "high crimes & misdemeanors". It was nothing short of "treasonous". Not only were Trump's comments "imbecilic", he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???

July 16, 2018[83]

Trump responded by calling Brennan a "total lowlife".[84] Brennan was also the target of a mailed pipe bomb incorrectly addressed to "John Brenan", as were multiple other Democratic lawmakers, officials, and critics of Trump.[85]

In December 2018, Brennan tweeted that Trump should prepare for the "forthcoming exposure of your malfeasance & corruption." One day after the release of the Barr letter in March 2019, Brennan said on MSNBC: "Well, I don't know if I received bad information, but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was. I am relieved that it's been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election...I still point to things that were done publicly, or efforts to try to have conversations with the Russians that were inappropriate, but I’m not all that surprised that the high bar of criminal conspiracy was not met.”[86] The Barr letter was criticized by many as deceptive after the release of the Mueller report weeks later, with Mueller writing to Barr that the letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s work.[87]

Claimed security clearance revocation

 
Brennan at the LBJ Presidential Library, October 24, 2018

In a tweet on July 23, 2018, Senator Rand Paul accused Brennan of making money from his security clearance and he called for Brennan's clearance to be revoked. Adding in a second tweet, Paul said, "Today I will meet with the President and I will ask him to revoke John Brennan's security clearance!" Later at a press conference on that date Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that President Trump was considering removing the clearances of several of Obama's intelligence officials, including Brennan, saying, "The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they politicize and in some cases monetize their public service and security clearances."[88][89]

On August 15, 2018, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement from President Trump dated July 26, 2018, in which he revoked Brennan's security clearance.[90] The statement said Brennan's "lying and recent conduct, characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary, is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation's most closely held secrets and facilitates the very aim of our adversaries, which is to sow division and chaos".[91] The statement said further, that Brennan had "recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the internet and television – about this Administration".[17]

On August 16, Brennan stated that Trump's claims of no collusion with Russia were "hogwash": "The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of 'Trump Incorporated' attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets."[92]

Following the announcement, 15 former senior intelligence officials and 60 other high-ranking former CIA officers protested the Trump decision in an open letter saying, "... former government officials have the right to express their unclassified views on what they see as critical national security issues without fear of being punished for doing so."[93] Calling Brennan "one of the finest public servants I have ever known," retired Navy admiral William H. McRaven addressed President Trump in an op-ed saying, "I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency."[94]

In an extensive interview on August 17, Brennan responded to Trump's decision to remove his security clearance, expressing alarm for the nation's national security in the statement: "[the country] is in a crisis in terms of what Mr. Trump has done and is liable to do. Are the Republicans on the Hill who have given him a pass -- are they going to wait for a disaster to happen before they actually find their backbones and spines to speak up against somebody who clearly, clearly, is not carrying out his responsibilities with any sense of purpose and common sense from the standpoint of national security?"[95][96]

On August 19, Brennan told the host of NBC's Meet the Press that he was considering legal action to prevent Trump from doing the same to others.[97]

The New York Times reported in May 2019 that the administration had not followed through on the bureaucratic process to revoke Brennan's clearance.[98]

Durham investigation

In March 2019, attorney general Bill Barr appointed United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut John Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, which involved some Trump associates.[99] In December 2019, The New York Times reported that Durham was specifically scrutinizing Brennan's role.[100][101] Durham interviewed Brennan for eight hours on August 21, 2020, after which a Brennan advisor said Durham told Brennan he was not a subject or target of a criminal investigation, but rather a witness to events.[102]

Personal life

Brennan is married to Kathy Pokluda Brennan. Together they have one son, Kyle and two daughters, Kelly and Jaclyn.[2][3][103] He is agnostic.[104]

Books

  • John O. Brennan (2020). Undaunted: My Fight Against America's Enemies, at Home and Abroad. New York: Celadon Books. ISBN 9781250241771. (Available 10/06/2020)[105]

References

  1. ^ a b c d James Gordon Meek (January 9, 2010). "White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan: Out of the shadows and into the spotlight". New York Daily News.
  2. ^ a b Marquis' Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 36th, 37th Editions; Who's Who in the East, 37th, 38th Editions; Who's Who in American Politics, 22nd, 23rd Editions; Who's Who in America, 64th, 65th Editions
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Erickson, Amanda (January 7, 2013). . Who Runs Gov. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 8, 2013.
  4. ^ (PDF). Executive Office of the President of the United States. July 1, 2009. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 13, 2011.
  5. ^ Kate Bolduan (March 22, 2008). "Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser". CNN.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jackson, Herb (December 5, 2009). . The Bergen Record. Archived from the original on May 7, 2011. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  7. ^ a b Mark Mazzetti; Scott Shane (December 3, 2008). "After Sharp Words on C.I.A., Obama Faces a Delicate Task". The New York Times. p. A1.
  8. ^ a b c Niall O'Dowd (June 6, 2010). "John Brennan, son of Irish immigrants, now Obama's top gun". Irish Central. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  9. ^ a b Judith Mbuya (December 12, 2005). "New at the Top: John O. Brennan". The Washington Post. p. D08.
  10. ^ a b Glenn Greenwald (January 7, 2013). "John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination: Obama's top terrorism adviser goes from unconfirmable in 2008 to uncontroversial in 2013, reflecting the Obama legacy". The Guardian. London. from the original on February 10, 2013. As it typically does in the US National Security State, all of that deceit and radicalism is resulting not in recrimination or loss of credibility for Brennan, but in reward and promotion. At 1 pm EST today, Obama will announce that he has selected Brennan to replace Gen. David Petraeus as CIA chief: the same position for which, four short years ago, Brennan's pro-torture-and-rendition past rendered him unfit and unconfirmable.
  11. ^ a b Julie Pace (January 7, 2013). "Obama to nominate counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to lead Central Intelligence Agency". Washington, D.C.: Postmedia News. Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Obama considered Brennan for the top CIA job in 2008. But Brennan withdrew his name amid questions about his connection to enhanced interrogation techniques while serving in the spy agency during the George W. Bush administration.
  12. ^ "Brennan Nomination to Head CIA Raises Concerns". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  13. ^ Shane, Scott (March 5, 2013). "John Brennan, C.I.A. Nominee, Clears Committee Vote". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Schmidt, Michael S.; Barnes, Julian E. (May 25, 2019). "Trump's Targeting of Intelligence Agencies Gains a Harder Edge". The New York Times.
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  17. ^ a b Allen, Jonathan. "Trump revokes former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance". NBC News. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
  18. ^ "Ex-CIA Chief John Brennan Signs as MSNBC/NBC as Contributor". TheWrap. February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  19. ^ "DOROTHY BRENNAN - Obituary". obits.nj.com.
  20. ^ a b c d e Schwartz, Mattathias (June 27, 2018). "A Spymaster Steps Out of the Shadows". The New York Times Magazine.
  21. ^ Kopan, Tal (September 15, 2016). "Polygraph panic: CIA director fretted his vote for communist". CNN.
  22. ^ a b Anne E Kornblut (June 6, 2010). "A forceful voice on Obama's security team; Counterterror director Brennan has emerged as key adviser". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
  23. ^ Timothy J. Burger.;Viveca Novak and Elaine Shannon (March 29, 2004). . Time. Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2010.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ Landler, Mark (January 7, 2013). "Obama Picks Hagel as Defense Secretary, Brennan for C.I.A." The New York Times.
  25. ^ Former CIA Director Brennan Joins UT Austin as a Distinguished Scholar University of Texas at Austin (Sep7. 19, 2017).
  26. ^ Massimo Calabresi (February 10, 2010). "Counterterrorism: The Debate Moves Right". TIME. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013.
  27. ^ Karen DeYoung (February 8, 2009). "Obama's NSC Will Get New Power; Directive Expands Makeup and Role Of Security Body". The Washington Post. p. A01.
  28. ^ a b Mike Memoli (August 16, 2009). "Brennan Outlines Terror Strategy, Rebutting Critics". Real Clear Politics. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  29. ^ Baker, Peter (January 4, 2010). "Obama's War over Terror". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  30. ^ McGreal, Chris (February 13, 2013). "Brennan rejects CIA torture claims in confident display at Senate hearing". The Guardian. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  31. ^ Schwartz, Mattathias (June 27, 2018). "A Spymaster Steps out of the Shadows". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  32. ^ Time staff (January 4, 2010). . TIME. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  33. ^ Reuters staff (February 8, 2010). "GOP plays 'political football' with terror fear, President Obama aide John Brennan says". New York Daily News. Reuters. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  34. ^ "Trail leading to bin Laden began with his trusted courier". CNN. July 5, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  35. ^ Montopoli, Brian (May 5, 2011). "How did bin Laden resist Navy SEALs without a weapon?". CBS News. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  36. ^ "On Whether Bin Laden Was Armed, Here's What Officials Said". NPR. May 4, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  37. ^ John O. Brennan (April 30, 2012). "The Ethics and Efficacy of the President's Counterterrorism Strategy". Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  38. ^ Savage, Charlie (April 30, 2012). "Top U.S. Security Official Says 'Rigorous Standards' Are Used for Drone Strikes". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  39. ^ "White House in first detailed comments on drone strikes". BBC News. April 30, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  40. ^ "ACLU Credits White House for Drone Strike Transparency, but Says Program Still Unlawful". ACLU. April 30, 2012.
  41. ^ Kimberly Dozier (May 21, 2012). . The Boston Globe. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012.
  42. ^ Brian Bennett; David S. Cloud (April 30, 2012). "Obama's counter-terrorism advisor defends drone strikes". Los Angeles Times.
  43. ^ Worth, Robert; Mazzetti, Mark; Shane, Scott (February 5, 2013). "Drone Strikes' Dangers to Get Rare Moment in Public Eye". The New York Times.
  44. ^ John Brennan, Advisor, White House Office of Homeland Security (June 29, 2011). Obama Administration Counterterrorism Strategy: John Brennan talked about the campaign against al-Qaida, and the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy since the killing of Osama bin Laden. John McLaughlin moderated questions from the audience (Video). Paul H. Nitz School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland: C-SPAN. Event occurs at Events occur at 49:05 in video. Retrieved August 3, 2014. One of the things that President Obama has been insistent on is that we're exceptionally precise and surgical in terms of addressing the terrorist threat. And by that I mean if there are terrorists within an area where there are women and children or others, we do not take such action that might put those innocent men, women, and children in danger. In fact I can say that the types of operations that the US has been involved in, in the counterterrorism realm, that nearly for the past year there hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we've been able to develop.
  45. ^ a b c d e f Woods, Chris (January 9, 2013). "New questions over CIA nominee Brennan's denial of civilian drone deaths". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved August 3, 2014. Claims by the Central Intelligence Agency's new director-designate that the US intelligence services received 'no information' about any civilians killed by US drones in the year prior to June 2011 do not appear to bear scrutiny ... Nine months later, George Stephanopoulos of ABC News challenged Brennan on his original claims. 'Do you stand by the statement you have made in the past that, as effective as they have been, [drones] have not killed a single civilian?' the interviewer asked. 'That seems hard to believe.' Brennan was robust, insisting that 'what I said was that over a period of time before my public remarks that we had no information about a single civilian, a noncombatant being killed.' ... A later report in the New York Times provided a possible explanation for Brennan's robustness. The paper revealed that Washington 'counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.' ... The Bureau has now raised its estimate of the number of civilians killed in the period Brennan claimed none had died to 76, including eight children and two women. The new figures are based in part on our own research and on studies by Associated Press and Stanford and New York universities.
  46. ^ "'This Week' Transcript: John Brennan, Economic Panel". ABC News. April 29, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2014. Well, what I said was that over a period of time before my public remarks that we had no information about a single civilian, a noncombatant being killed. Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population.
  47. ^ Woods, Chris (July 18, 2011). "US claims of 'no civilian deaths' are untrue". The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Retrieved August 3, 2014. To date, the Bureau has identified 45–56 civilian victims across 10 individual strikes – the most recent in mid-June 2011. The dead include six children.
  48. ^ Friedersdorf, Conor (August 1, 2014). "Does John Brennan Know Too Much for Obama to Fire Him?". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 3, 2014. In the past, Brennan has been willing to lie about those drone strikes to hide ugly realities. For example, he stated in the summer of 2011 that there had been zero collateral deaths from covert U.S. drone strikes in the previous year, an absurd claim that has been decisively debunked.
  49. ^ Jo Becker; Scott Shane (May 29, 2012). "Secret 'Kill List' Proves a Test of Obama's Principles and Will". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved August 3, 2014. Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.
  50. ^ Morris Davis (February 8, 2013). "The law of war does not shield the CIA and John Brennan's drone kill list". The Guardian. London. from the original on February 8, 2013. Jack Goldsmith, former assistant attorney general in the George W Bush administration and now a professor at Harvard Law School, argues the past decade shows that the United States needs a new statutory framework governing how it conducts secret warfare. Perhaps that would be a positive step, but a new domestic statutory scheme would not make a civilian working for a civilian agency a lawful combatant entitled to immunity under the law of war for acts committed outside the United States.
  51. ^ "Sen. Paul holds floor for hours in filibuster of CIA nominee, over drone concerns". Fox News. March 6, 2013.
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  56. ^ "Gina Haspel, new CIA director, is a "seasoned spymaster"". CBS News. March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
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  58. ^ "Why CIA Director Brennan Visited Kiev: In Ukraine The Covert War Has Begun". Forbes. April 16, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  59. ^ "Heres What the CIA Director Was Really Doing in Kiev". The Daily Beast. April 16, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
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  64. ^ "Why Obama doesn't want 9/11 families suing Saudi Arabia". USA Today. September 23, 2016.
  65. ^ "Obama: Congress veto override of 9/11 lawsuits bill 'a mistake'". BBC News. September 29, 2016.
  66. ^ "We finally know what Hillary Clinton knew all along – US allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding Isis". The Independent. October 14, 2016.
  67. ^ "CIA director: 9/11 bill will have 'grave implications' for national security". The Hill. September 28, 2016.
  68. ^ "Congress overrides Obama's veto of 9/11 bill". The Washington Post. September 28, 2016.
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  71. ^ Perez, Evan; Sciutto, Jim; Tapper, Jake; Bernstein, Carl (January 10, 2017). "Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him". CNN. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
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  73. ^ "British 15-year-old gained access to intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran by pretending to be head of CIA, court hears ". The Daily Telegraph. January 19, 2018.
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External links

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to John O. Brennan.

Further reading

  • Brennan, John O. (April 30, 2012). "Text of John O. Brennan's Speech on Drone Strikes at the Wilson Center". Lawfare Blog.
  • Cole, David (February 21, 2013). "13 Questions for John O. Brennan". New York Review of Books.
  • Shane, Scott (March 5, 2013). "Senate Committee Approves Brennan for C.I.A. Director". The New York Times.
  • Nomination of John O. Brennan to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: Hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session February 7, 2013, March 5, 2013

Interviews

  • Lake, Eli (June 24, 2010). "Dozens of Americans believed to have joined terrorists". The Washington Times. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  • . National Journal. March 7, 2008. Archived from the original on March 10, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  • "The Dark Side: Interviews – John Brennan". Frontline. WGBH. June 20, 2006.
Government offices
New office Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
Acting
2004–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
2013–2017 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Homeland Security Advisor
2009–2013 		Succeeded by

January 23, 2023
john, brennan, officer, other, people, with, similar, names, john, brennan, john, owen, brennan, born, september, 1955, former, american, intelligence, officer, served, director, central, intelligence, agency, from, march, 2013, january, 2017, served, chief, c. For other people with similar names see John Brennan John Owen Brennan born September 22 1955 1 2 is a former American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA from March 2013 to January 2017 He served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U S President Barack Obama with the title Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and Assistant to the President 1 3 4 Previously he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 election campaign and presidential transition 5 John Brennan5th Director of the Central Intelligence AgencyIn office March 8 2013 January 20 2017PresidentBarack ObamaDeputyAvril HainesDavid CohenPreceded byDavid PetraeusSucceeded byMike Pompeo5th United States Homeland Security AdvisorIn office January 20 2009 March 8 2013PresidentBarack ObamaPreceded byKen WainsteinSucceeded byLisa MonacoActing Director of the National Counterterrorism CenterIn office August 27 2004 August 1 2005PresidentGeorge W BushPreceded byPosition establishedSucceeded byJohn Scott ReddPersonal detailsBornJohn Owen Brennan 1955 09 22 September 22 1955 age 67 North Bergen New Jersey U S SpouseKathy PokludaChildren3EducationFordham University BA University of Texas at Austin MA Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency CIA during the first Obama administration over concerns about his support for torture after defending on TV the transferring of terror suspects to countries where they might be tortured while serving under President George W Bush 3 6 Instead Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor a position which did not require Senate confirmation 3 6 7 Brennan s 25 years with the CIA included work as a Near East and South Asia analyst as station chief in Saudi Arabia and as director of the National Counterterrorism Center 3 6 8 After leaving government service in 2005 Brennan became CEO of The Analysis Corporation a security consulting business and served as chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance an association of intelligence professionals 9 Brennan served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security between 2009 and 2013 Obama nominated Brennan as his next director of the CIA on January 7 2013 10 11 The ACLU called for the Senate not to proceed with the appointment until they confirmed that all of his conduct was within the law at the CIA and White House 12 Brennan was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 5 2013 to succeed David Petraeus as the Director of the CIA by a vote of 12 to 3 13 On August 15 2018 President Donald Trump announced that he had revoked Brennan s security clearance although the White House reportedly did not follow through with the revocation process 14 Brennan had harshly criticized Trump several times since his election and responded to the revocation by stating My principles are worth far more than clearances I will not relent 15 16 17 Brennan serves as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC His inaugural appearance was on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday February 4 2018 18 Contents 1 Early life 2 Education 3 Career 3 1 Counterterrorism advisor to President Obama 3 1 1 Drone program 3 2 CIA Director 2013 2017 3 2 1 Nomination 3 2 2 Tenure 4 WikiLeaks hack 5 Criticism of President Trump 5 1 Claimed security clearance revocation 5 2 Durham investigation 6 Personal life 7 Books 8 References 9 External links 9 1 Further reading 9 2 InterviewsEarly lifeBrennan was born in North Bergen New Jersey 8 the son of Owen and Dorothy Dunn Brennan His Irish father a blacksmith emigrated from County Roscommon Republic of Ireland to New Jersey in 1948 19 20 He attended the Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School and graduated from Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School in West New York New Jersey EducationBrennan attended Fordham University graduating with a B A in political science in 1977 3 While a college student in 1976 he voted for the Communist Party USA candidate for president Gus Hall He has later described his vote as a way of signaling my unhappiness with the system specifically the partisanship of the Watergate era 20 After Fordham Brennan attended the University of Texas at Austin receiving a Master of Arts in government with a concentration in Middle East studies in 1980 6 He speaks Arabic fluently 8 His studies included a junior year abroad learning Arabic and taking courses at the American University in Cairo 3 6 While riding a bus to class at Fordham he saw an ad in The New York Times that said that the CIA was recruiting He decided that a CIA career would be a good match for his wanderlust and his desire for public service 6 He applied to the CIA in 1980 During his application he admitted during a lie detector test that he had voted for the Communist Party candidate four years earlier To his surprise he was still accepted he later said that he finds it heartening that the CIA valued freedom of speech 21 Career Brennan with Kathleen Sebelius and Rahm Emanuel White House April 2009 Brennan began his CIA career as an analyst and spent 25 years with the agency 1 6 22 He was a daily intelligence briefer for President Bill Clinton 6 In 1996 he was CIA station chief in Riyadh Saudi Arabia when the Khobar Towers bombing killed 19 U S servicemen 6 In 1999 he was appointed chief of staff to George Tenet then Director of the CIA 3 6 Brennan became deputy executive director of the CIA in March 2001 3 He was director of the newly created Terrorist Threat Integration Center from 2003 to 2004 an office that sifted through and compiled information for President Bush s daily top secret intelligence briefings and employed the services of analysts from a dozen U S agencies and entities 23 Brennan then left government service for a few years becoming Chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance INSA and the CEO of The Analysis Corporation TAC 20 He continued to lead TAC after its acquisition by Global Strategies Group in 2007 and its growth as the Global Intelligence Solutions division of Global s North American technology business GTEC before returning to government service with the Obama administration as Homeland Security Advisor on January 20 2009 9 On January 7 2013 President Obama nominated Brennan to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency 24 On January 20 2017 Brennan s CIA appointment ended and he was replaced by President Trump s nominee Mike Pompeo on January 23 2017 In September 2017 Brennan was named a Distinguished Non Resident Scholar at The University of Texas at Austin where he also acts as a senior advisor to the University s Intelligence Studies Project 25 He serves as a consultant on world events for Kissinger Associates 20 Counterterrorism advisor to President Obama Brennan was an early national security adviser to then candidate Obama 20 In late 2008 Brennan was reportedly the top choice to become the Director of the CIA in the incoming Obama administration However Brennan withdrew his name from consideration because of opposition to his CIA service under President George W Bush and past public statements he had made in support of enhanced interrogation and the transfer of terrorism suspects to countries where they might be tortured extraordinary rendition 3 6 26 President Obama then appointed him to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism the president s chief counterterrorism advisor and a position that did not require Senate confirmation 3 6 7 His responsibilities included overseeing plans to protect the country from terrorism and respond to natural disasters and he met with the president daily 6 27 Brennan and President Barack Obama at a meeting of the Homeland Security Council May 2009 In August 2009 Brennan criticized some Bush administration anti terror policies saying that waterboarding had threatened national security by increasing the recruitment of terrorists and decreasing the willingness of other nations to cooperate with the U S 28 He also described the Obama administration s focus as being on extremists and not jihadists He said that using the second term which means one who is struggling for a holy goal gives these murderers the religious legitimacy they desperately seek and suggests the US is at war with the religion of Islam 28 Brennan told The New York Times in January 2010 I was somebody who did oppose waterboarding 29 a claim that he repeated in 2013 during the Senate s hearings about whether to confirm him as Obama s CIA director 30 None of Brennan s superior officers at the CIA however recall hearing his objections and in 2018 Brennan admitted to The New York Times It wasn t as though I was wearing that opposition on my sleeve throughout the agency I expressed it privately to individuals 31 In an early December 2009 interview with the Bergen Record Brennan remarked the U S intelligence and law enforcement communities have to bat 1 000 every day The terrorists are trying to be successful just once 6 At a press conference days after the failed Christmas Day bomb attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Brennan said U S intelligence agencies did not miss any signs that could have prevented the attempt but later said he had let the president down by underestimating a small group of Yemeni terrorists and not connecting them to the attempted bomber 1 32 Within two weeks after the incident however he produced a report highly critical of the performance of U S intelligence agencies concluding that their focus on terrorist attempts aimed at U S soil was inadequate 22 In February 2010 he claimed on Meet the Press that he was tired of Republican lawmakers using national security issues as political footballs and making allegations where they did not know the facts 33 Brennan was present in the Situation Room in May 2011 when the United States conducted the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden He called Obama s decision to go forward with the mission one of the gutsiest calls of any president in memory 34 In the aftermath of the operation Brennan said that the U S troops in the raid had been met with a great deal of resistance and bin Laden had used a woman as a human shield 35 36 Drone program In April 2012 Brennan was the first Obama administration official to publicly acknowledge CIA drone strikes in Pakistan Yemen Somalia Libya Afghanistan and elsewhere In his speech he explained the legality morality and effectiveness of the program 37 38 39 The ACLU and other organizations disagreed In 2011 2012 he also helped reorganize the process under the aegis of the Disposition Matrix database by which people outside of war zones were put on the list of drone targets According to an Associated Press story the reorganization helped concentrate power over the process inside the White House administration 40 41 42 According to The New York Times Brennan was the principal coordinator of U S kill lists Former Obama administration counter terrorism official Daniel Benjamin has stated that Brennan probably had more power and influence than anyone in a comparable position in the last 20 years 43 In June 2011 Brennan claimed that US counter terrorism operations had not resulted in a single collateral death in the past year because of the precision of the capabilities that we ve been able to develop 44 45 Nine months later Brennan claimed he had said we had no information about any civilian noncombatant deaths during the timeframe in question 45 46 The Bureau of Investigative Journalism disagreed with Brennan citing their own research 47 that initially led them to believe that 45 to 56 civilians including six children had been killed by ten US drone strikes during the year long period in question 45 Additional research led the Bureau to raise their estimate to 76 deaths including eight children and two women 45 According to the Bureau Brennan s claims do not appear to bear scrutiny 45 The Atlantic has been harsher in its criticism saying Brennan has been willing to lie about those drone strikes to hide ugly realities 48 According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism Brennan s comments about collateral death are perhaps explained by a counting method that treats all military aged males in a strike zone as combatants unless there is explicit information to prove them innocent 45 49 CIA Director 2013 2017 Nomination Brennan being sworn in as CIA Director March 8 2013 Brennan at the White House in April 2013 discussing the Boston Marathon bombing Obama twice nominated Brennan to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency 10 11 Morris Davis a former Chief Prosecutor for the Guantanamo Military Commissions compared Brennan to Canadian Omar Khadr who was convicted of committing murder in violation of the law of war 50 He suggested that Brennan s role in targeting individuals for CIA missile strikes was no more authorized than the throwing of the grenade of which Khadr was accused On February 27 2013 the Senate Intelligence Committee postponed a vote on the confirmation of Brennan expected to be taken the next day until the following week On March 5 the Intelligence Committee approved the nomination 12 3 The Senate was set to vote on Brennan s nomination on March 6 2013 However Kentucky Senator Rand Paul began a talking Senate filibuster prior to the vote citing Obama and his administration s use of combat drones against Americans stating No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt to charge an individual to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual It goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country 51 52 Paul s filibuster continued for 13 hours ending with the words I m hopeful that we have drawn attention to this issue that this issue will not fade away and that the president will come up with a response 53 After the filibuster Brennan was confirmed by a vote of 63 34 He was sworn into the office of CIA Director on March 8 2013 54 Tenure Two months after assuming his post at the CIA Brennan replaced Gina Haspel head of the National Clandestine Service with another unidentified career intelligence officer and former Marine 55 56 In June 2013 Brennan installed Avril Haines as Deputy Director of the Agency 57 In April 2014 Brennan visited Kyiv where he met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema and purportedly discussed intelligence sharing between the United States and Ukraine 58 59 In the summer of 2014 Brennan faced scrutiny after it was revealed that some CIA employees had improperly accessed the computer servers of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the wake of oversight of the CIA s role in enhanced interrogation and extraordinary rendition Brennan apologized to Senators and stated that he would fight for change at the CIA and stated he would pass along the findings of the Inspector General on the incident 60 After the incident Senator Mark Udall D Colo stated he had lost confidence in Brennan 61 Brennan and James Clapper at the LBJ Presidential Library September 16 2015 Brennan and former National Security Advisers Sandy Berger and Brent Scowcroft in Riyadh Saudi Arabia 2015 In December 2014 Brennan again came under fire when he defended the CIA s past interrogation tactics as having yielded useful intelligence during a news conference While admitting that the actions of the CIA officers were abhorrent worthy of repudiation and had at times exceeded legal boundaries Brennan stated the CIA had also done a lot of things right during this difficult time to keep this country strong and secured 62 During testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2016 Brennan warned of the threat posed by ISIL claiming it had the ability to draw on a large cadre of Western fighters and reiterated the threats posed by lone wolf attackers calling them an exceptionally challenging issue for the intelligence community Brennan detailed ISIL s size to the committee specifying they had more fighters than al Qaeda at its height and that they were spread between Africa and southwest Asia 63 In September 2016 the Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act JASTA that would allow relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its government s alleged role in the attacks 64 Congress overwhelmingly rejected President Barack Obama s veto 65 66 Brennan warned of the JASTA bill s grave implications for the national security of the United States 67 68 While director Brennan created ten new mission centers in his campaign to focus the CIA on threats in cyberspace where analysts and hackers work in teams with focuses on specific areas of the globe and particular issues In addition he created the Directorate for Digital Innovation DDI to hone the Agency s tradecraft in the information technology sector and create new tools dedicated to cyber espionage Despite general praise for his actions from within the intelligence community about Brennan s shift towards cyber some CIA officials said they held reservations in moving away from traditional human intelligence 69 In January 2017 Brennan alongside FBI director James Comey NSA director Mike Rogers and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper briefed President elect Donald Trump in Trump Tower on the findings of the intelligence community in regards to Russian election interference and the allegations contained in the Steele dossier 70 71 British security hacker Kane Gamble sentenced to 2 years in youth detention posed as CIA chief to access highly sensitive information and hacked into Brennan s private email and iCloud accounts made hoax calls to his family home and even took control of his wife s iPad The judge said Gamble engaged in politically motivated cyber terrorism 72 73 Less than a week before Brennan left office in January 2017 he expressed several criticisms of incoming President Trump Brennan said I don t think he has a full appreciation of Russian capabilities Russia s intentions and actions that they are undertaking in many parts of the world Brennan stated that it was outrageous that Trump was equating the intelligence community with Nazi Germany 74 WikiLeaks hackIn October 2015 the contents of Brennan s personal AOL e mail account were stolen by a hack and posted on WikiLeaks The e mails did not contain classified information but did include sensitive personal information including a draft of Brennan s Standard Form 86 SF 86 application During a subsequent security conference at George Washington University Brennan proclaimed his outrage at the hack but also demonstrated the need to evolve to deal with these new threats and challenges 75 76 In January 2017 a North Carolina college student pleaded guilty in a Virginia federal court to charges relating to hacking Brennan s e mail 77 The two North Carolina men eventually pleaded guilty to a conspiracy with a group that called itself Crackas With Attitude to commit unauthorized computer intrusions identity theft and telephone harassment Justin Gray Liverman was sentenced to five years in federal prison and Andrew Otto Boggs was sentenced to two years Other co conspirators were located in the United Kingdom and were prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service 78 Criticism of President TrumpBrennan helped establish the FBI s counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump s campaign which included the use of foreign intelligence during the period leading up to the 2016 presidential election 79 Since leaving office Brennan has been harshly critical of President Trump In March 2018 Brennan said Trump had paranoia accused him of constant misrepresentation of the facts and described him as a charlatan 80 Following the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe later that month Brennan tweeted to Trump When the full extent of your venality moral turpitude and political corruption becomes known you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history You may scapegoat Andy McCabe but will not destroy America America will triumph over you 81 Axios quoted Brennan tweeting a response to Trump s harsh comments about James Comey Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey we have the opportunity to emerge from this nightmare stronger amp more committed to ensuring a better life for all Americans including those you have so tragically deceived 82 On July 16 2018 Brennan tweeted his reaction to Trump s comments at the 2018 Helsinki summit meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin John O Brennan Twitter JohnBrennan Donald Trump s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to amp exceeds the threshold of high crimes amp misdemeanors It was nothing short of treasonous Not only were Trump s comments imbecilic he is wholly in the pocket of Putin Republican Patriots Where are you July 16 2018 83 Trump responded by calling Brennan a total lowlife 84 Brennan was also the target of a mailed pipe bomb incorrectly addressed to John Brenan as were multiple other Democratic lawmakers officials and critics of Trump 85 In December 2018 Brennan tweeted that Trump should prepare for the forthcoming exposure of your malfeasance amp corruption One day after the release of the Barr letter in March 2019 Brennan said on MSNBC Well I don t know if I received bad information but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was I am relieved that it s been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election I still point to things that were done publicly or efforts to try to have conversations with the Russians that were inappropriate but I m not all that surprised that the high bar of criminal conspiracy was not met 86 The Barr letter was criticized by many as deceptive after the release of the Mueller report weeks later with Mueller writing to Barr that the letter did not fully capture the context nature and substance of Mueller s work 87 Claimed security clearance revocation Brennan at the LBJ Presidential Library October 24 2018 In a tweet on July 23 2018 Senator Rand Paul accused Brennan of making money from his security clearance and he called for Brennan s clearance to be revoked Adding in a second tweet Paul said Today I will meet with the President and I will ask him to revoke John Brennan s security clearance Later at a press conference on that date Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that President Trump was considering removing the clearances of several of Obama s intelligence officials including Brennan saying The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they politicize and in some cases monetize their public service and security clearances 88 89 On August 15 2018 White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement from President Trump dated July 26 2018 in which he revoked Brennan s security clearance 90 The statement said Brennan s lying and recent conduct characterized by increasingly frenzied commentary is wholly inconsistent with access to the nation s most closely held secrets and facilitates the very aim of our adversaries which is to sow division and chaos 91 The statement said further that Brennan had recently leveraged his status as a former high ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations wild outbursts on the internet and television about this Administration 17 On August 16 Brennan stated that Trump s claims of no collusion with Russia were hogwash The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy and how many members of Trump Incorporated attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets 92 Following the announcement 15 former senior intelligence officials and 60 other high ranking former CIA officers protested the Trump decision in an open letter saying former government officials have the right to express their unclassified views on what they see as critical national security issues without fear of being punished for doing so 93 Calling Brennan one of the finest public servants I have ever known retired Navy admiral William H McRaven addressed President Trump in an op ed saying I would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well so I can add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency 94 In an extensive interview on August 17 Brennan responded to Trump s decision to remove his security clearance expressing alarm for the nation s national security in the statement the country is in a crisis in terms of what Mr Trump has done and is liable to do Are the Republicans on the Hill who have given him a pass are they going to wait for a disaster to happen before they actually find their backbones and spines to speak up against somebody who clearly clearly is not carrying out his responsibilities with any sense of purpose and common sense from the standpoint of national security 95 96 On August 19 Brennan told the host of NBC s Meet the Press that he was considering legal action to prevent Trump from doing the same to others 97 The New York Times reported in May 2019 that the administration had not followed through on the bureaucratic process to revoke Brennan s clearance 98 Durham investigation In March 2019 attorney general Bill Barr appointed United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut John Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections which involved some Trump associates 99 In December 2019 The New York Times reported that Durham was specifically scrutinizing Brennan s role 100 101 Durham interviewed Brennan for eight hours on August 21 2020 after which a Brennan advisor said Durham told Brennan he was not a subject or target of a criminal investigation but rather a witness to events 102 Personal lifeBrennan is married to Kathy Pokluda Brennan Together they have one son Kyle and two daughters Kelly and Jaclyn 2 3 103 He is agnostic 104 BooksJohn O Brennan 2020 Undaunted My Fight Against America s Enemies at Home and Abroad New York Celadon Books ISBN 9781250241771 Available 10 06 2020 105 References a b c d James Gordon Meek January 9 2010 White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan Out of the shadows and into the spotlight New York Daily News a b Marquis Who s Who in the South and Southwest 36th 37th Editions Who s Who in the East 37th 38th Editions Who s Who in American Politics 22nd 23rd Editions Who s Who in America 64th 65th Editions a b c d e f g h i j k Erickson Amanda January 7 2013 Profile John O Brennan Who Runs Gov The Washington Post Archived from the original on January 8 2013 Annual Report To Congress On White House Office Staff PDF Executive Office of the President of the United States July 1 2009 p 3 Archived from the original PDF on May 13 2011 Kate Bolduan March 22 2008 Chief of firm involved in breach is Obama adviser CNN a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jackson Herb December 5 2009 North Bergen man is homeland security assistant for President Obama The Bergen Record Archived from the original on May 7 2011 Retrieved October 31 2010 a b Mark Mazzetti Scott Shane December 3 2008 After Sharp Words on C I A Obama Faces a Delicate Task The New York Times p A1 a b c Niall O Dowd June 6 2010 John Brennan son of Irish immigrants now Obama s top gun Irish Central Retrieved October 31 2010 a b Judith Mbuya December 12 2005 New at the Top John O Brennan The Washington Post p D08 a b Glenn Greenwald January 7 2013 John Brennan s extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director nomination Obama s top terrorism adviser goes from unconfirmable in 2008 to uncontroversial in 2013 reflecting the Obama legacy The Guardian London Archived from the original on February 10 2013 As it typically does in the US National Security State all of that deceit and radicalism is resulting not in recrimination or loss of credibility for Brennan but in reward and promotion At 1 pm EST today Obama will announce that he has selected Brennan to replace Gen David Petraeus as CIA chief the same position for which four short years ago Brennan s pro torture and rendition past rendered him unfit and unconfirmable a b Julie Pace January 7 2013 Obama to nominate counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to lead Central Intelligence Agency Washington D C Postmedia News Archived from the original on February 8 2013 Obama considered Brennan for the top CIA job in 2008 But Brennan withdrew his name amid questions about his connection to enhanced interrogation techniques while serving in the spy agency during the George W Bush administration Brennan Nomination to Head CIA Raises Concerns American Civil Liberties Union Retrieved June 18 2016 Shane Scott March 5 2013 John Brennan C I A Nominee Clears Committee Vote The New York Times Schmidt Michael S Barnes Julian E May 25 2019 Trump s Targeting of Intelligence Agencies Gains a Harder Edge The New York Times Singman Brooke August 15 2018 Trump revokes ex CIA Director John Brennan s security clearance Fox News Retrieved August 16 2018 President Trump revokes security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan KMGH TV CNN August 15 2018 Retrieved August 15 2018 a b Allen Jonathan Trump revokes former CIA Director John Brennan s security clearance NBC News Retrieved August 15 2018 Ex CIA Chief John Brennan Signs as MSNBC NBC as Contributor TheWrap February 2 2018 Retrieved February 4 2018 DOROTHY BRENNAN Obituary obits nj com a b c d e Schwartz Mattathias June 27 2018 A Spymaster Steps Out of the Shadows The New York Times Magazine Kopan Tal September 15 2016 Polygraph panic CIA director fretted his vote for communist CNN a b Anne E Kornblut June 6 2010 A forceful voice on Obama s security team Counterterror director Brennan has emerged as key adviser The Washington Post Retrieved November 1 2010 Timothy J Burger Viveca Novak and Elaine Shannon March 29 2004 Threat Analysis Decoding The Chatter Time Archived from the original on March 6 2008 Retrieved October 31 2010 a href Template Cite magazine html title Template Cite magazine cite magazine a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Landler Mark January 7 2013 Obama Picks Hagel as Defense Secretary Brennan for C I A The New York Times Former CIA Director Brennan Joins UT Austin as a Distinguished Scholar University of Texas at Austin Sep7 19 2017 Massimo Calabresi February 10 2010 Counterterrorism The Debate Moves Right TIME Archived from the original on February 4 2013 Karen DeYoung February 8 2009 Obama s NSC Will Get New Power Directive Expands Makeup and Role Of Security Body The Washington Post p A01 a b Mike Memoli August 16 2009 Brennan Outlines Terror Strategy Rebutting Critics Real Clear Politics Retrieved October 31 2010 Baker Peter January 4 2010 Obama s War over Terror The New York Times Magazine Retrieved July 2 2018 McGreal Chris February 13 2013 Brennan rejects CIA torture claims in confident display at Senate hearing The Guardian Retrieved July 2 2018 Schwartz Mattathias June 27 2018 A Spymaster Steps out of the Shadows The New York Times Magazine Retrieved July 2 2018 Time staff January 4 2010 There is no smoking gun TIME Archived from the original on January 7 2010 Retrieved October 31 2010 Reuters staff February 8 2010 GOP plays political football with terror fear President Obama aide John Brennan says New York Daily News Reuters a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a author has generic name help Trail leading to bin Laden began with his trusted courier CNN July 5 2011 Retrieved March 18 2018 Montopoli Brian May 5 2011 How did bin Laden resist Navy SEALs without a weapon CBS News Retrieved March 18 2018 On Whether Bin Laden Was Armed Here s What Officials Said NPR May 4 2011 Retrieved March 18 2018 John O Brennan April 30 2012 The Ethics and Efficacy of the President s Counterterrorism Strategy Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Retrieved May 1 2012 Savage Charlie April 30 2012 Top U S Security Official Says Rigorous Standards Are Used for Drone Strikes The New York Times Retrieved May 1 2012 White House in first detailed comments on drone strikes BBC News April 30 2012 Retrieved May 1 2012 ACLU Credits White House for Drone Strike Transparency but Says Program Still Unlawful ACLU April 30 2012 Kimberly Dozier May 21 2012 Who will drones target Who in the US will decide The Boston Globe Associated Press Archived from the original on May 27 2012 Brian Bennett David S Cloud April 30 2012 Obama s counter terrorism advisor defends drone strikes Los Angeles Times Worth Robert Mazzetti Mark Shane Scott February 5 2013 Drone Strikes Dangers to Get Rare Moment in Public Eye The New York Times John Brennan Advisor White House Office of Homeland Security June 29 2011 Obama Administration Counterterrorism Strategy John Brennan talked about the campaign against al Qaida and the Obama administration s counterterrorism strategy since the killing of Osama bin Laden John McLaughlin moderated questions from the audience Video Paul H Nitz School of Advanced International Studies Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Maryland C SPAN Event occurs at Events occur at 49 05 in video Retrieved August 3 2014 One of the things that President Obama has been insistent on is that we re exceptionally precise and surgical in terms of addressing the terrorist threat And by that I mean if there are terrorists within an area where there are women and children or others we do not take such action that might put those innocent men women and children in danger In fact I can say that the types of operations that the US has been involved in in the counterterrorism realm that nearly for the past year there hasn t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency precision of the capabilities that we ve been able to develop a b c d e f Woods Chris January 9 2013 New questions over CIA nominee Brennan s denial of civilian drone deaths The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Retrieved August 3 2014 Claims by the Central Intelligence Agency s new director designate that the US intelligence services received no information about any civilians killed by US drones in the year prior to June 2011 do not appear to bear scrutiny Nine months later George Stephanopoulos of ABC News challenged Brennan on his original claims Do you stand by the statement you have made in the past that as effective as they have been drones have not killed a single civilian the interviewer asked That seems hard to believe Brennan was robust insisting that what I said was that over a period of time before my public remarks that we had no information about a single civilian a noncombatant being killed A later report in the New York Times provided a possible explanation for Brennan s robustness The paper revealed that Washington counts all military age males in a strike zone as combatants according to several administration officials unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent The Bureau has now raised its estimate of the number of civilians killed in the period Brennan claimed none had died to 76 including eight children and two women The new figures are based in part on our own research and on studies by Associated Press and Stanford and New York universities This Week Transcript John Brennan Economic Panel ABC News April 29 2012 Retrieved August 3 2014 Well what I said was that over a period of time before my public remarks that we had no information about a single civilian a noncombatant being killed Unfortunately in war there are casualties including among the civilian population Woods Chris July 18 2011 US claims of no civilian deaths are untrue The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Retrieved August 3 2014 To date the Bureau has identified 45 56 civilian victims across 10 individual strikes the most recent in mid June 2011 The dead include six children Friedersdorf Conor August 1 2014 Does John Brennan Know Too Much for Obama to Fire Him The Atlantic Retrieved August 3 2014 In the past Brennan has been willing to lie about those drone strikes to hide ugly realities For example he stated in the summer of 2011 that there had been zero collateral deaths from covert U S drone strikes in the previous year an absurd claim that has been decisively debunked Jo Becker Scott Shane May 29 2012 Secret Kill List Proves a Test of Obama s Principles and Will The New York Times p A1 Retrieved August 3 2014 Mr Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in It in effect counts all military age males in a strike zone as combatants according to several administration officials unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent Morris Davis February 8 2013 The law of war does not shield the CIA and John Brennan s drone kill list The Guardian London Archived from the original on February 8 2013 Jack Goldsmith former assistant attorney general in the George W Bush administration and now a professor at Harvard Law School argues the past decade shows that the United States needs a new statutory framework governing how it conducts secret warfare Perhaps that would be a positive step but a new domestic statutory scheme would not make a civilian working for a civilian agency a lawful combatant entitled to immunity under the law of war for acts committed outside the United States Sen Paul holds floor for hours in filibuster of CIA nominee over drone concerns Fox News March 6 2013 CSPAN2 VIDEO Sen Paul holds floor for over 12 hours in filibuster of CIA nominee March 6 2013 Memmott Mark March 7 2013 Nearly 13 Hours Later Sen Paul Ends His Filibuster NPR Retrieved November 30 2016 CIA faces diverse challenges amidst tight budgets Brennan Archived April 13 2013 at archive today The Statesman March 9 2013 Mazzetti Mark March 6 2013 New Head of C I A s Clandestine Service Is Chosen The New York Times Retrieved March 18 2018 Gina Haspel new CIA director is a seasoned spymaster CBS News March 13 2018 Retrieved March 18 2018 AFP June 13 2013 Avril Haines appointed first female CIA deputy director The Daily Telegraph Retrieved March 18 2018 Why CIA Director Brennan Visited Kiev In Ukraine The Covert War Has Begun Forbes April 16 2014 Retrieved March 18 2018 Heres What the CIA Director Was Really Doing in Kiev The Daily Beast April 16 2014 Retrieved March 18 2018 Hattem Julian July 31 2014 CIA admits to spying on Senate The Hill Retrieved March 18 2018 CIA director John Brennan apologizes for search of Senate committee s computers The Washington Post July 31 2014 Retrieved March 18 2018 Bradner Eric December 11 2014 John Brennan defends CIA after torture report CNN Retrieved March 18 2018 Starr Barbara Browne Ryan June 16 2016 CIA director grave warning ISIS dangerous as ever CNN Retrieved March 18 2018 Why Obama doesn t want 9 11 families suing Saudi Arabia USA Today September 23 2016 Obama Congress veto override of 9 11 lawsuits bill a mistake BBC News September 29 2016 We finally know what Hillary Clinton knew all along US allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are funding Isis The Independent October 14 2016 CIA director 9 11 bill will have grave implications for national security The Hill September 28 2016 Congress overrides Obama s veto of 9 11 bill The Washington Post September 28 2016 Rohde David November 2 2016 John Brennan s attempt to lead the CIA into the age of cyber warfare Reuters Retrieved March 18 2018 Shabad Rebecca January 6 2017 Will Trump accept U S intelligence assessment on Russia hacking after briefing CBS News Retrieved March 18 2018 Perez Evan Sciutto Jim Tapper Jake Bernstein Carl January 10 2017 Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him CNN Retrieved March 18 2018 UK teen Kane Gamble gets two years for hacking CIA ex chief John Brennan Deutsche Welle April 20 2018 British 15 year old gained access to intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iran by pretending to be head of CIA court hears The Daily Telegraph January 19 2018 Decker Cathleen January 15 2017 CIA director John Brennan takes aim at Donald Trump for his criticism of the intelligence community Los Angeles Times Retrieved March 17 2018 Kopan Tal October 27 2015 CIA Director John Brennan outraged by email hack CNNPolitics Retrieved March 18 2018 Walker Alissa October 21 2015 WikiLeaks Drops CIA Director John Brennan s Personal Emails Gizmodo Retrieved March 18 2018 Josh Gerstein January 6 2017 Student pleads guilty in hacking ring that targeted CIA Director John Brennan Politico Under The Radar blog Retrieved July 21 2018 Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Hacking Conspiracy that Targeted Senior U S Government Officials Department of Justice U S Attorney s Office Eastern District of Virginia September 8 2017 Retrieved October 7 2020 Jurecic Quinta May 23 2017 Takeaways from Former CIA Director Brennan s Testimony Today Law Fare Tweene Alayna March 5 2018 Former CIA Director Brennan calls Trump a paranoid charlatan Axios Retrieved March 17 2018 Rossman Sean March 17 2018 Ex CIA chief John Brennan to Trump America will triumph over you USA Today Retrieved March 17 2018 Treene Alayna April 13 2018 War of words Trump vs former intelligence officials Axios Retrieved July 16 2018 John O Brennan JohnBrennan July 16 2018 Donald Trump s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to amp exceeds the threshold of high crimes amp misdemeanors It was nothing short of treasonous Not only were Trump s comments imbecilic he is wholly in the pocket of Putin Republican Patriots Where are you Tweet via Twitter Mark Landler Eileen Sullivan July 18 2018 Trump Says He Laid Down the Law in His Latest Account of His Meeting With Putin The New York Times p A1 Sciutto Jim October 24 2018 Breaking photo of package containing live explosive device sent to CNN Twitter Archived from the original on October 25 2018 Retrieved October 24 2018 Burke Michael March 25 2019 Brennan on Mueller summary I suspected there was more than there actually was TheHill Barrett Devlin Zapotosky Matt Mueller complained that Barr s letter did not capture context of Trump probe via www washingtonpost com WH Trump exploring taking away security clearances of Brennan Comey Hayden Rice McCabe CBS News Retrieved August 18 2018 Wise Justin July 23 2018 Rand Paul to ask Trump to eliminate Brennan s security clearance The Hill Retrieved August 18 2018 Sheth Sonam August 15 2018 The White House waited 3 weeks to announce Trump was revoking Brennan s security clearance and some are speculating it was to get people to stop talking about Omarosa and Manafort Business Insider Retrieved August 18 2018 Epstein Jennifer Sink Justin Trump Revokes Security Clearance for Critic and Obama Official John Brennan Bloomberg Quint Retrieved August 18 2018 Brennan John O August 16 2018 Opinion John Brennan President Trump s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash The New York Times Retrieved August 18 2018 Segers Grace 60 ex CIA members condemn Trump for revoking Brennan s security clearance CBS News Retrieved August 18 2018 William H McRaven August 16 2018 Revoke my security clearance too Mr President The Washington Post Retrieved August 18 2018 Ex CIA Director John Brennan Trump is drunk on power CNN Retrieved August 18 2018 Rachael Maddow John O Brennan I Gave Trump A Year To Live Up To The Office He Didn t MSNBC Archived from the original on December 13 2021 Retrieved August 18 2018 via YouTube Brennan is considering legal action to hit back after Trump revoked his security clearance SFGate August 19 2018 Retrieved August 20 2018 Schmidt Michael S Barnes Julian E May 25 2019 Trump s Targeting of Intelligence Agencies Gains a Harder Edge The New York Times Goldman Adam Savage Charlie Schmidt Michael S May 13 2019 Barr Assigns U S Attorney in Connecticut to Review Origins of Russia Inquiry The New York Times Benner Katie Barnes Julian E December 19 2019 Durham Is Scrutinizing Ex C I A Director s Role in Russian Interference Findings The New York Times Veronica Stracqualursi December 20 2019 New York Times John Durham investigating ex CIA Director John Brennan as part of review of FBI Russia probe CNN Ex CIA chief Brennan interviewed in Russia probe review ABC News Director of Terrorist Threat Integration Center Appointed Central Intelligence Agency March 11 2003 Archived from the original on June 13 2007 Retrieved June 17 2008 Cowen Tyler December 16 2020 Former CIA Director John Brennan on UFOs YouTube Archived from the original on December 13 2021 Retrieved December 19 2020 Harris Shane July 29 2020 Ex CIA director Brennan writes in upcoming memoir that Trump blocked access to records and notes The Washington Post Retrieved July 29 2020 External links Wikiquote has quotations related to John O Brennan Appearances on C SPANFurther reading Brennan John O April 30 2012 Text of John O Brennan s Speech on Drone Strikes at the Wilson Center Lawfare Blog Cole David February 21 2013 13 Questions for John O Brennan New York Review of Books Shane Scott March 5 2013 Senate Committee Approves Brennan for C I A Director The New York Times Nomination of John O Brennan to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate One Hundred Thirteenth Congress First Session February 7 2013 March 5 2013Interviews Lake Eli June 24 2010 Dozens of Americans believed to have joined terrorists The Washington Times Retrieved February 25 2013 Q amp A John Brennan The Counterterror Campaign National Journal March 7 2008 Archived from the original on March 10 2013 Retrieved February 25 2013 The Dark Side Interviews John Brennan Frontline WGBH June 20 2006 Government officesNew office Director of the National Counterterrorism CenterActing2004 2005 Succeeded byJohn ReddPreceded byMichael MorellActing Director of the Central Intelligence Agency2013 2017 Succeeded byMeroe ParkActingPolitical officesPreceded byKen Wainstein Homeland Security Advisor2009 2013 Succeeded byLisa Monaco Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title John Brennan CIA officer amp oldid 1126816911, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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