YouSaid · the spoken record

John Brennan

lines on the record
65
first
2017-01-09
most recent
2017-01-09
sittings or episodes
1
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  1. “I was because when I was at the University of Texas, in fact, we had some former CIA officers who would speak at UT and some of them were quite critical of the agency. Phil Pagey came down there one time.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Reading reports that were sent in to Langley from the State Department and others and from intelligence that we acquired from sources. And evaluating that and then writing reports for the president. Yeah, putting it together and I found that something that I enjoyed. I enjoyed writing. I enjoyed briefing. And I had the opportunity to go out pretty early in my agency career serving a rotation with the State Department at the American Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, back in the early 80s. the embassies were in Jeddah, not Riyadh. So I was out there for two years. My wife and I went out there before children. went to a six-month tutorial Arabic. And so my Arabic was pretty good at the time and just traveled a lot, went off with the tribes for a week, did a lot of hiking and camping, went down to Yemen, and just really enjoyed experiencing a life outside of northern New Jersey.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “And I didn't know what I was going to encounter, but they offered me a job because I did have some Arabic and overseas experience. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I started the agency in operations and then had an opportunity to serve an interim assignment on the analytics side, and I felt that was a better match for me. So I spent most of my career at the agency on the Andlex side and went back and forth between operations, though.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “No, I just was trying to learn as much as I could about the world and I just enjoyed seeing new things and experiencing new cultures and new environments. And when I was in graduate school, I was in a doctoral program at the University of Texas. I got married at a young age of 22. And I think my wife was a little bit concerned I was getting too comfortable as a graduate student. And so I had an application from the CIA because I saw an advertisement in the New York Times that I sent in my resume for, and since I had some overseas travel, they said, well, why don't you pursue graduate studies? And if you have an interest in the CIA, send this application in. So as I said, my wife was concerned that I wasn't pulling my weight, and she said, send that application to the CIA, which I did.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “American University in Cairo in my junior year when I was at Fordham because I went back after Indonesia, went back to northern Jersey, was commuting back and forth to Fordham. And my professor in sophomore year brought in a brochure. It was for the American University in Beirut, and I was planning to go there, but that was the year of the Civil War that AUB was closed down. So I then went to American University in Cairo. Never been to the Middle East before. It stimulated my interest in the region and the people, in the language, and that's when I then pursued Arabic in graduate school and middle-east studies and led to my postings then in the Middle East several years.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “It is my cousin was in AID and he was the Food for Peace Officer in Indonesia and he invited me to go out there in the summer of my freshman year of college. So I was able to convince one of my political science professors to allow me to do a tutorial at least I would get some credit for going out there and selling my toys and so I traveled out to Indonesia was out there for about two months and did a paper on oil and politics in Indonesia, traveled across Java, motorcycled across Java, then went to Bali, spent a week there. And it was my first time out of the country, aside from Ireland when I went when I was younger, and it really did open my eyes to different cultures, different religions, and also gave me a sense of just how huge this world is and how diverse it is, which stimulated then my wanderlust, and that's when I went to”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “If he is weighing in on something and if he is looked to for His thoughts or his involvement in something, yes. I mean, he is a world figure. And if the Catholic Church, if the Vatican gets involved in some type of situation or crisis or whatever, but it's not something that we focus on in terms of women. We don't have a podcast. We're not collecting as the Vatican. Let me assure you about that.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Well, I do in terms of the The interest in mankind as well as and really has, I think, tried to share the concept that we are all children of God, and we need to, I think, take stock of what is happening in our world. And I can remember a number of my Jesuits in college who really opened up my eyes to the world and got me out of my northern New Jersey New York environment and made me understand that I am just one person of billions and we're sort of all in this together. So the Pope is a very impressive individual.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Well, yes, I was invited to the White House when the Pope came and the revel ceremony, and then I was introduced to him, and I remember vividly when I was on the line, and then when I got up to the Pope and the president introduced me as the John Brennan Director of CIA. And I could see the Pope's eyebrows go up a little bit. And then the president immediately said, but he was Jesuit trained. And so the Pope gave a smile and gave a warm handshake. But yeah, the Jesuits... I had a number of Jesuits at Fordham University, and especially on the philosophy courses, theology courses, they really did a lot in terms of my intellectual curiosity and really stimulated thought. I find the Jesuits to be a tremendous, tremendous intellect. And so there's a special, I think, affinity to the Jesuits for those who were trained by them.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “My mama's ninety five and they were married for sixty four years and she is in New Jersey still and I have an older sister and a younger brother who are in the area where my mother lives and my mother and father live together and assisted living facility but she was the daughter of Irish. Immigrants, while her grandparents were immigrants from Ireland. So I had Irish on both sides”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “And I don't have the faith that I had when I was young. But I light a belief that I have the spirituality as well as the moral compass that I developed because of my family, my parents, my early schooling, that's something that continues to be my North Star.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Yeah, well, I was raised in a very, not strict Catholic family, but a very. Strong Irish Catholic family. It was a blue collar, lower middle class neighborhood, but my father was Construction, but they would save up the money so they could send me to Catholic school. And so I had Franciscan sisters in elementary school, Christian brothers in high school, and then Jesuits in college at Ford University. And I joke that I was beaten and berated by many of the clergy, the Catholic Church. But it was a tremendous educational experience for me. There was discipline. But there was also a real investment in the moral fiber of students. And I always wanted to be the first American pope. That was what I really wanted to do up until high school because I was planning to go into the seminary and then decided that that was not for me.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Yeah, well, after three hip replacements and one knee replacement and a number of surgeries, I don't have the same jumping capability I had back then. But yeah, at one point I was able to dunk and at six foot. That's pretty good. Yeah. Basketball was my love when I was young and I always hoped to have an NBA career. I think I may have decided that that might not be in the offing, but I...”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I was born in Jersey City, I grew up in Hudson County, New Jersey, first West New York, and then North Bergen, which is right across from Manhattan.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “In fact, I'm going to be his wake and funeral as this weekend up in New Jersey. Lived to 96 and a half, a tremendous inspiration and role model for me was a blacksmith and a farrier. Came to this country at the age of twenty-eight in nineteen forty eight. Love this country, found a wonderful woman, raised a family. had a work ethic that was second to none, an integrity and moral character that I wish I could be half the man my father was and who continues to be an inspiration to me.”

    2017-01-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 111 - John Brennan · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source