Photo: U.S Government employee / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
John Brennan is a hard figure for me to file neatly, which is exactly why he's interesting. Rising to lead the CIA from 2013 to 2017 after years as Obama's counterterrorism advisor put him at the center of some of the most consequential and contested decisions of that era. I respect the sheer career discipline it takes to climb from analyst to director, even as the drone-war and surveillance debates that surround that tenure leave me uneasy. What I find notable is how openly political he became afterward on social media, a sharp break from the gray-man tradition of intelligence chiefs. Power and accountability rarely sit easy together, and he embodies that tension.
Overview
John Owen Brennan (born September 22, 1955) is an American former 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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- John Owen Brennan
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョン・オーウェン・ブレナン
- Reading
- じょん・おーうぇん・ぶれなん
- Born
- September 22, 1955 (age 70)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Goat
- Origin
- North Bergen, New Jersey, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- civil servant / intelligence officer / intelligence analyst
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School
- University
- Fordham University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.