Demonstrators disrupt the confirmation hearing of John Brennan, President Barack Obama's nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2013. The hard-nosed architect of the US drone war against Al-Qaeda, John Brennan, will on Thursday face difficult questions about secret assassinations from senators weighing his nomination to lead the CIA. Committee chair, Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA, cleared the room after several outbursts by protesters.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
By RICHARD LARDNER and DONNA CASSATA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Brennan has won Senate confirmation to head the CIA after a late struggle that had more to do with presidential power to order drone strikes than with the nominee's credentials to lead the spy agency.
The vote Thursday was 63-34. Brennan will replace Mike Morrell, the acting CIA director since November.
The vote came after the Obama administration bowed to demands from Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and specified limits on the president's authority to order drone strikes against American citizens in the United States.
Paul declared he was satisfied with the administration's statement, which said the president does not have the authority to use a drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil.
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Demonstrators disrupt the confirmation hearing of John Brennan, President Barack Obama's nominee to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 7, 2013. The hard-nosed architect of the US drone war against Al-Qaeda, John Brennan, will on Thursday face difficult questions about secret assassinations from senators weighing his nomination to lead the CIA. Committee chair, Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-CA, cleared the room after several outbursts by protesters.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
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