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Podcasts Take Two
New CIA head John Brennan and the US drone program
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Jan 7, 2013
Listen • 35:51
New CIA head John Brennan and the US drone program
President Obama has appointed John Brennan to head the CIA. Brennan was one of the key officials overseeing the use of targeted killings against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants during President Obama's first term.
John Brennan, Assistant to US President Barack Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, speaks about US policy towards Yemen at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, August 8, 2012.
John Brennan, Assistant to US President Barack Obama for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, speaks about US policy towards Yemen at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, August 8, 2012.
(
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
)

President Obama has appointed John Brennan to head the CIA. Brennan was one of the key officials overseeing the use of targeted killings against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants during President Obama's first term.

President Obama has appointed John Brennan to head the CIA. Brennan was one of the key officials overseeing the use of targeted killings against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants during President Obama's first term.

Most independent estimates put the death of the over 250 strikes during that period at over 2000 militants and hundreds of non-combatants. 

Here to discuss Brennan's role in the drone program and how his appointment to head the CIA might affect it is Joshua Foust, a fellow at the American Security Project and a correspondent for the Atlantic.