John Brennan: 5 Things To Know About New CIA Chief

After a half-day-long filibuster led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the Senate voted 63-34 Thursday to confirm John Brennan as the new CIA director. But what do we know about the man who will be in charge of our nation's most important covert intelligence operations?

His rise through the ranks of public service began with something many people do every day: a commute to work or school. The son of Irish immigrants in North Bergen, N.J., Brennan would ride the bus from there to his classes at Fordham University in New York City. While reading the New York Times on one of his commutes, he noticed an advertisement soliciting applicants for the Central Intelligence Agency. He later told The Record newspaper in northern New Jersey that the ad "got the wanderlust" in him and he soon met with a CIA recruiter.

Fluent in Arabic, Brennan spent much of the 1980s working in embassies and intelligence posts throughout the Arab world and Asia. A 25-year veteran of the intelligence community, his next high profile job began in 1996 as station chief of CIA operations in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

He later was appointed to be the deputy to the Clinton administration's CIA director, George Tenet, and continued to serve in the CIA during the Bush administration.

There were reports following the 2008 presidential election that President-elect Obama was going to choose Brennan to lead the CIA at that time. However, according to TIME, Brennan asked that his name be withdrawn from consideration because of criticism from a number of legislators over his tenure under President George W. Bush. Though he has made statements in support of the use of torture on captured terrorism suspects, he criticized the repercussions the act of waterboarding had on the increased recruitment of terrorists.

At the time, Obama decided to instead appoint him as top counterterrorism advisor to the White House, which does not require Senatorial confirmation.

He has also been crucial in the execution of the overseas drone program, which targets terrorism suspects using unmanned armed airborne vehicles. Paul's reason for filibustering Brennan's nomination centered around the possibility of such a program being implemented domestically.

He succeeds acting director Michael Morrell, who will return to his former deputy post, and Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of United States Central Command, or "CENTCOM," in the Middle East. Brennan has a wife and three children.