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With the news that John Brennan will be appointed to head the CIA, Obama's second-term national-security team is now taking on full shape.
Here's what to know about the latest figure to participate in the national-security shuffle.
He got started in the CIA by answering a classified ad
In 2009, Brennan told the The Record, a North New Jersey paper, that he first applied to work in the CIA after reading a classified ad in The New York Times while riding a bus to Fordham University.
Other biographical highlights:
Brennan grew up in North Bergen, N.J., and is 57 years old. He has a B.A. in political science from Fordham University and a master's in government and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Texas (Austin). He is fluent in Arabic.
He worked in the CIA for 25 years
Brennan's positions included: Saudi Arabia station chief, chief of staff to then-CIA Director George Tenet, deputy executive director, and chief of staff of the National Counterterrorism Center under President George W. Bush.
President Obama thought about nominating him to direct the CIA in 2008
But the move drew criticism from liberals who thought Brennan was too closely tied to the enhanced-interrogation techniques directed under the Bush administration. As the Associated Press reports, Brennan denied being involved in the practices but withdrew his name for consideration. He went so far as to write to President Obama "“ and the rest of us "“ that he was "a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush administration, such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, to include waterboarding."