Dubbed the assassination czar, presumptive CIA nominee John Brennan has played a key role backing some of the nation’s most controversial post-9/11 policies from the secret drone war to wireless surveillance.

Brennan was a rumored pick for the job when Obama was first elected in 2008, but was forced to withdraw from consideration amid protests over his role at the CIA under George W. Bush and his public support for the CIA’s policies of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” and extraordinary rendition.

We’re joined by Marcy Wheeler, an investigative blogger with the website, EmptyWheel. Wheeler calls Brennan’s nomination, “a testament to what kind of hard-nosed person Barack Obama has become and the degree to which his policies are really just a continuation of the Bush-Cheney policies.”