Researching John Brennan

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. Instead, Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor, a position which did not require Senate confirmation.

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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."

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.

A member of the class of 1930 at The Citadel, where he majored in English and History, Brennan retired as a personnel specialist for the Federal Reserve. He was a Laurel resident for more than 50 years and wrote a column on history and etymology for the Laurel Leader newspaper in the 1960s and 1970s. Considered a Booth scholar, Brennan wrote the article "John Wilkes Booth's Enigmatic Brother Joseph", published in the Spring 1983 issue of Maryland Historical Magazine. Also among Brennan's works is The Three Versions of the Testimony in the 1865 Conspiracy Trial, published in 1983 and cited in the book Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The Laurel Museum's research library is named after Brennan, whose works are among its major holdings. A World War II veteran who served as a Major in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Brennan is interred at St. Lawrence Cemetery in Sumter County, South Carolina.

In 1962 he stood for the Belfast Falls constituency at the 1962 Northern Ireland election, before becoming a founder member of the National Democratic Party.

Under the National Democratic banner, Brennan won Belfast Central at the 1965 Northern Ireland election without facing an opponent - the only member of that party to win election at this level.

However, at the 1969 Northern Ireland election, he was defeated by Paddy Kennedy of the Republican Labour Party.

He was from Clontibret in County Monaghan and was active in the Old IRA during the Irish War of Independence. He was elected to the County Council in 1942. In Castleblayney, he was chair of the urban district council and president of the chamber of commerce. He stood unsuccessfully for Dáil Éireann in Monaghan in the elections of 1948, 1954, and 1957. He was a friend and early political backer of Erskine H. Childers, Monaghan TD and later President of Ireland.

He was elected to the 9th Seanad on 9 February 1960 at a by-election to the Administrative Panel caused by the death of John O'Leary. He was elected to the 11th (1965) and 13th (1973) Seanad from the Industrial and Commercial Panel, and was nominated by the Taoiseach to the 10th Seanad in 1961 and to the 12th Seanad in 1969.