FILE - In this Oct. 29, 2010 file photo, Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan briefs reporters at the White House in Washington. Brennan, now President Barack Obama's nominee to be CIA director, withdrew from consideration for the job in 2008 amid criticism over the agency's use of harsh interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, against terrorist suspects. This time, in 2013, he's making it clear he strongly opposes such practices. Former and current U.S. intelligence officials say Brennan wasn't so vocal a decade ago. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
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.
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.
