Video: Drone protesters disrupt Senate hearing for nominated CIA director John Brennan Mr Brennan declined several times to say whether waterboarding is torture, but he did say it is "something that is reprehensible and should never be done again." He also conceded that after years of intelligence work he is uncertain whether the use of the technique in interrogations has yielded valuable information. In hours of questioning from the Senate Intelligence Committee, Brennan made repeated general pledges to increase the flow of information to members of the panel, but he was less specific when it came to individual cases. Brennan is a veteran of more than three decades in intelligence work, and is currently serving as Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser in the White House. Any thought he had of becoming CIA director four years ago vanished amid questions about the role he played at the CIA when the Bush administration approved waterboarding and other forms of "enhanced interrogation" of suspected terrorists. The hearing was interrupted repeatedly - once before it began and then four times before Mr Brennan had completed his preliminary remarks. The shouted protests centred on CIA drone strikes that have killed three American citizens and an unknown number of foreigners overseas.