John Brennan Educational Background: How Educated is the Current Head of the C.I.A.?

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Likely to be succeeded by Mike Pompeo in the Trump administration, John Brennan is the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He has held this position since March 8th of 2013. Before that, Brennan served the U.S.A. as a chief counterterrorism advisor to President Barack Obama. He’s worked in intelligence for more than three decades. During his time away from the government, Brennan became chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) and served as CEO of The Analysis Corporation (TAC). Just how educated must a man be to run an “intelligence” agency? Read on to find out.
John Owen Brennan, the son of two Irish immigrants, came into the world on September 22nd of 1955. As a child, he attended the Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School. After graduating Immaculate Heart, John moved on to the Saint Joseph of the Palisades High School in West New York, New Jersey. Due to dwindling enrollment, this private, Roman Catholic high school permanently shut its doors in 2009. After graduating from this doomed institution, Brennan enrolled at New York’s Fordham University. This private, co-educational facility serves 15,000 students in a wide variety of fields. During his time at Fordham, Brennan spent a year abroad learning Arabic and spent time studying at the American University of Cairo. It’s likely this time that laid the foundation for his later master’s degree. In 1977, he graduated from Fordham with a B.A. in political science. Shortly after that, John Brennan enrolled at the University of Texas – Austin to pursue a master’s degree in Government and Middle Eastern studies.
His ability to speak Arabic fluently, and his deep understanding of Islam, may have given Brennan an advantage during his time fighting the War or Terror. It seemed that his choice to serve the CIA, sparked by an advertisement he saw on the way to Fordham, served this wanderer well.