Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the Founder and President of the New York-based American Center for Democracy and its Economic Warfare Institute. Dr. Ehrenfeld’s multidisciplinary approach encompasses Economic Warfare and Weapons of Mass Effect (WME), which include: suppression of free speech, disinformation, political subversion, indoctrination, Political Islam and lawfare, corruption, terrorist financing, Narco-Terrorism, the links between global criminal and radical networks and Jihadi/terrorist groups, and money laundering, as well as and cybersecurity. Dr. Ehrenfeld focuses on recognizing patterns of seemingly unrelated domestic and foreign events as they link to threaten the U.S. political, social, economic, and financial systems and other matters related to its national security.
She organized international conferences/workshops, provided briefings, and planned and participated in wargaming in the U.S. and elsewhere. She testified on terrorist financing before Congressional Committees, the Canadian and European Parliaments, provided evidence to the British Parliament, and consulted Indonesia’s President Abdurrahman Wahid (1999) and the Prime Minister of Bulgaria (2008) on anti-corruption/good governance policies. She advised U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Justice, State, Treasury, Homeland Security, and the CIA, and provided expert testimony in U.S. courts. She also led the ACD teams of election observers in Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Morocco.
On her own, Dr. Ehrenfeld took on a Saudi billionaire and terrorist financier who sued her for libel in London, England. She countersued him in New York and initiated and successfully lobbied for the Libel Terrorism Protection Act (aka “Rachel’s Law”) in New York State in 2008, and similar laws have since passed in other states in the U.S. A federal version of Rachel’s
Law, the SPEECH Act was passed unanimously by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in 2010.
She has more than 1,500 publications, including three books, and is working on the fifth, many academic and policy papers. The Wall Street Journal published her; the New York Times; Forbes; The Washington Times; Newsweek; FOXNews; CNN; Los Angeles Times; Guardian, Herald Tribune; Huffington Post; and the New York Sun, to name but a few. She also appeared on national and international radio and TV, such as CNN, Fox News & Business, ABC, BBC, NBC, CNBC, CBS, Voice of America, and many others.
Ehrenfeld was a visiting scholar at Columbia University Institute of War and Peace Studies, a research scholar at the New York University School of Law, a Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Jesus College at Cambridge University, and a Research Fellow at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
She has a Ph.D. in Criminology from the Hebrew University School of Law Jerusalem, an M.A. in Criminology from Tel-Aviv University School of Law, and a B.A. in Political Science and Criminology from Bar-Ilan University.
Dr. Ehrenfeld received several awards, including the “Sappho Award” from the Free Press Society (2011). The Joseph Templeton Award – 2008 – 2010, The Public Service Award, The American Jewish Historical Society – 2008, and The American Committees of Foreign Relations, 2001, to name a few.
Dr. Ehrenfeld has authored more than 1,500 articles, including academic and White Papers, and four books: THE SOROS AGENDA (2023) • FUNDING EVIL: HOW TERRORISM IS FINANCED – and HOW to STOP IT (2003, 2005, 2011) • EVIL MONEY (HarperCollins, 1992,1994), and NARCO-TERRORISM (Basic Books, 1990, 1992)
Michael B. Mukasey served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from November 2007 to January 2009. He oversaw all activities of the Justice Department and advised on critical issues of domestic and international law.
From 1988 to 2006, he served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming a chief judge in 2000. While on the bench, he handled numerous cases, including the trial of Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called “blind sheik,” and nine co-defendants, convicted of a wide-ranging conspiracy that included the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and a later plot to blow up New York landmarks, including the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the United Nations, and the FBI’s New York headquarters in lower Manhattan; and the case of Jose Padilla, arrested on a material witness warrant and believed to have returned to the United States to detonate a high-radiation bomb and to blow up apartment buildings by sealing apartments, filling them with gas, and then detonating them.
Judge Mukasey began his career in private practice after graduating from Yale Law School in 1967, where he was a member of the board of editors of the Yale Law Journal. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in the Criminal Division, from 1972 to 1976, and as chief of that office’s official corruption unit in 1975-1976.
From 1976 until 1987, when President Reagan nominated him to the bench, he practiced at Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, where he litigated cases in state, federal and arbitral tribunals.
Since February 2009, Judge Mukasey has been a partner in the New York firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where he is a member of the litigation department and focuses his practice primarily on internal investigations, independent board reviews, and corporate governance. The honors he has received include the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brooklyn Law School.
He and his wife, Susan, have two children, Marc and Jessica, and two grandsons, William and Benjamin Barkoff.
Dr. Gene H. McCall, is an Affiliate Research Professor Desert Research Institute, Reno Nevada. He completed an assignment as the Chief Scientist with Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. Dr. McCall’s areas of expertise include Lasers, laser-matter interactions, non-linear optics, nuclear weapon science and technology, Plasma physics, Z-pinch physics. explosive modeling and applications, positioning and timing systems, satellite navigation, aircraft navigation, and landing systems, weapon systems. He has now retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Laboratory Fellow. As the AFSPC chief scientist, he provided information, advice, and guidance on operations research and scientific matters and initiates, prosecutes and evaluates substantive programs on defending America through its space and intercontinental ballistic missile operations – vital force elements in projecting Global Reach and Global Power. The AFSPC mission areas include launching satellites and other high-value payloads into space and operating those satellites; ensuring friendly use of space by conducting counterspace operations encompassing surveillance, negation and protection; providing weather, communications, intelligence, missile warning and navigation, and maintaining and operating a rapid response, land-based ICBM force. At Los Alamos, he is a Laboratory Fellow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory of the University of California and is Past Chairman of the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He joined the Laboratory as a Staff Member in 1969. At Los Alamos, and he was one of the founders of the Inertial Fusion Program and participated in laser and plasma physics research. He and a small group of collaborators designed and built the first high power Nd:Glass laser to be used for fusion research at Los Alamos. For a time that laser was the world’s highest power laser. From 1980- 1982, he was Leader of the Laser Division at Los Alamos. Dr. McCall was awarded the prestigious E. O. Lawrence Award for contributions to National Security in 1988. This award is given annually to five or fewer workers in the field of atomic energy by the U. S. Department of Energy. He has also received Distinguished Performance Awards from the Department of Energy for significant contributions to the Nuclear Weapons Program, and he has received Distinguished Performance awards from the Los Alamos National Laboratory for important technical achievements. In 1995 Dr. McCall directed the New World Vistas study requested by the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force. The study has received wide recognition in the defense technology community as a guide for the development of 21st-century weapons for the Air Force. In recognition of his work on the study, the Air Force Association has awarded Dr. McCall their highest award for technical achievement, the 1996 Theodore von Karman Award.
* Houston T. “Terry” Hawkins, R.I.P. (1941-2021) was Senior Fellow/Chief Scientist, Principal Associate Directorate for Global Security (PADGS/LANL), at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He concurrently served as a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Physical Science, McLean, VA; and an advisor for the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (MIIR), Huntington, WV. Earlier, he was the Director of the LANL Department of Defense Programs in the Office of the Associate Director for Threat Reduction.
Terry provided exemplary leadership during situations involving significant technical challenges and dynamic change. Throughout his career, Terry led major technical programs aimed at assessing, detecting, preventing, and reversing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the use of those weapons by international terrorists. This leadership included his exemplary management of the Nonproliferation and International Security Division (NIS) at Los Alamos. In five years, he doubled the NIS programmatic portfolio ($150M to $270M), led the construction of the new NIS Center, had five R&D 100 Awards, received two environmental awards, a LANL Distinguished Business Management Award, five consecutive “outstanding” ratings from external review panels, best-of-class electrical safety awards, and a diversity award. He also established a successful scholarship program using royalties that accrued to NIS.
As an internationally recognized expert on modern terrorism particularly terrorism involving the potential use of weapons of mass destruction, Terry served on the Presidential Panel on National Infrastructure Protection. He also gave invited lectures worldwide on this topic. For his efforts, he received the Chief Justice Earl Warren Medallion, the Aviation Week & Space Technology 2000 Laurel Award, and the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Medallion.
Prior to his coming to Los Alamos, Col. (Retired) Terry had served 25 years in the US Air Force. In that capacity, he performed research on advanced ablative materials, lead a reconnaissance avionics unit in Southeast Asia, performed thousands of radiochemical analyses of nuclear debris, developed new nuclear forensic technologies and analytic methods, and defined foreign nuclear activities and threats, and helped implement arms control verification methods. Terry was the leader of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Nuclear Energy Division where he also served on the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee and co-chaired the DOD Hard Target Kill Committee. He subsequently served as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Air Force Nuclear Matters. In this capacity, he advised the Secretary of Defense on decisions pertaining to USAF nuclear weaponry, prepared the SecDef position paper on nuclear winter, and lead foreign assistance programs pertaining to hardening against nuclear effects. Finally, he served as the Director of Threat Reduction/Arms Control, Defense Nuclear Agency.
Colonel Hawkins received numerous awards and recognition for his work including two Defense Superior Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, two Air Force Superior Service Medals, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and numerous service medals, including the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Korean Defense Medal and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm. He held patents in graphite fiber reinforcements and super hard structures.
Terry was a Distinguished Military Graduate of Clemson University (BSChem) and a graduate of the Air Force Nuclear Research Officer Program, the McCrone Institute (Applied Microscopy), the Air War College, the National Defense University, and the LaSalle Extension University School of Law.
Ambassador R. James Woolsey was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1993 to 1995. He’s been appointed by Presidents to positions of leadership during the administrations of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. In a town riven by partisan divisions, Ambassador Woolsey is widely respected on both sides of the aisle.
A national security and energy specialist, Ambassador Woolsey chairs the United States Energy Security Council. He is also a Venture Partner with Lux Capital and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the Paladin Capital Group, a multi-stage private equity firm.
Ambassador Woolsey has held Presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, most recently, from 1993 to 1995, as Director of Central Intelligence under President Bill Clinton. During his twelve years of government service, in addition to heading the CIA and the Intelligence Community, Ambassador Woolsey was Ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe from 1989 to 1991, Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979, and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services from 1970 to 1973.
He was appointed by President Reagan to serve in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1983 to 1986 as Delegate at Large to the U.S. Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks (NST). As an officer in the U.S. Army, he was an adviser on the U.S. Delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), in Helsinki and Vienna, from 1969 to 1970.
From July 2002 to March 2008, he was a Vice President and officer of Booz Allen Hamilton where he focused principally on energy and security. Previously, he was a partner at the law firm of Shea & Gardner in Washington, DC, now Goodwin Procter, where he practiced for 22 years in the fields of civil litigation, arbitration, and mediation.
He has served on numerous government, corporate, and non-profit boards of Directors and advisory boards. He served on the National Commission on Energy Policy and chaired the Advisory Boards of the Clean Fuels Foundation and the New Uses Council. He also served as a Trustee of Stanford University, chaired the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution, and is former Chairman of the Board of Freedom House. He has been a member of The National Commission on Terrorism, The Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the U.S. (Rumsfeld Commission), The President’s Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform, The President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (Packard Commission), and The President’s Commission on Strategic Forces (Scowcroft Commission).
He has also served as a member of boards of directors of a number of publicly and privately held companies, generally in fields related to technology and security, including British Aerospace, Inc., Martin Marietta, Fairchild Industries, and Yurie Systems, Inc.
In 2009, he was the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University; and from 2010 to 2011 he was a Senior Fellow at Yale University, where he taught in the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.
He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and attended Tulsa public schools, graduating from Tulsa Central High School. He received his B.A. degree from Stanford University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa; an M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and an LL.B from Yale Law School, where he was Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal.
He is a frequent contributor of articles to major publications and gives public speeches and media interviews on the subjects of energy, foreign affairs, defense, and intelligence.
Leonard P. Shaykin is is Chairman of CHEETAH Robotic Parking Systems. Mr. Shaykin was a Managing Partner of Adler & Shaykin (1983-1994), an investment partnership organized to sponsor management leveraged buyouts. Adler & Shaykin managed roughly $300 million of institutional and private capital acquiring companies with total acquisition financing in excess of $2.4 billion. Prior to forming Adler & Shaykin in 1983, Mr. Shaykin was Vice President, Director and a member of the Investment Committee of Citicorp Venture Capital Ltd. and Citicorp Capital Investors, Inc., where he was responsible for establishing and subsequently managing a $100 million equity fund dedicated to management leveraged buyouts. From 1970 to 1974, Mr. Shaykin was an investment officer at First Chicago Investment Corporation and First Capital Corporation of Chicago, the equity and venture capital investment vehicles of First Chicago Corporation. Mr. Shaykin was formerly a director and/or principal shareholder of Best Products Co., Inc., The Chicago Sun-Times, Ecolaire, Inc., the Folger Adam Company, International Healthcare, Joy Technologies, Inc., Multiserv International, Peterson Outdoor Advertising, Wherehouse Entertainment, Inc., and other public and private companies. Together these companies employed over 2,000 employees who were subject to numerous collective bargaining agreements. Mr. Shaykin is a graduate of The University of Chicago (B.A., M.A.) and The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (M.B.A.).
Kenneth S. Abramowitz is a co-founder and Managing General Partner of NGN Capital. He joined NGN Capital from The Carlyle Group in New York where he was Managing Director from 2001 to 2003, focused on U.S. buyout opportunities in the healthcare industry. Beginning July 2003, he transitioned to Senior Advisor at Carlyle in order to devote the time necessary to create a dedicated health care fund on behalf of Carlyle. Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Abramowitz worked as an Analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. where he covered the medical-supply, hospital management, and HMO industries for 23 years, after which he was an EGS Securities Healthcare Fund Manager. He was voted top hospital supply and/or service analyst on the Institutional Investor Magazine “All-America Research Team” during 14 out of 20 years between 1980-2000 and made “The Team” for both healthcare services and medical supplies for 9 years since 1987. Mr. Abramowitz has published several notable studies on healthcare service companies, major medical mergers, and cardiovascular device innovation, among others. He has also published numerous articles in leading journals. Mr. Abramowitz earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1972 and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1976. Mr. Abramowitz currently sits on the Board of Directors of Valtech Cardio Ltd., Small Bone Innovations, Inc. and Akorn, Inc., and serves as a board observer at OptiScan Biomedical Corp., BeneChill, Inc., Cerapedics, Inc., and Spine View, Inc. He previously served as a Director at Sightline Technologies Ltd, acquired by Stryker, Power Medical Interventions, acquired by Covidien, EKOS Corp., acquired by BTG and MultiPlan, acquired by BC Partners and Silver Lake, as well as on the boards of MedPointe and ConnectiCare Holdings, Inc.
David W. Hamon, VP – Director, Strategic Research and International Security – With more than 20 years of experience in providing targeted analyses to the highest levels of government, some of David’s career highlights include distinguished Analyst & Director, National & International Security and Strategic Research at Analytic Services, Inc., (ANSER) September 1995 – April 2015.
David focused on studies and analyses of America’s engagement in the Asia Pacific and development of potential and future research areas for ANSER such as strategic and asymmetric threats, as well as assist in analyses and studies for clients. He was Director of Board of Trustees initiative aiding USG in implementing Asia policies associated with the “rebalance.” Directed the start-up of a new institute at ANSER “Banyan Analytics.” Banyan focuses on the goal of becoming the premier implementing partner to the U.S. Government in activities related to U.S. – Asian engagement. Expertise includes organizing start-up research organizations, policy studies, strategy development, research into future international security threats, weapons of mass destruction & effect, nuclear weapons policy, non-proliferation & arms control, management of strategic research, oversight of strategic dialogues at the “Track II” level, international organizations and humanitarian operations, international logistics, civil-military coordination and HIV/AIDS prevention in foreign militaries. David served as Senior Research Advisor to the Director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, May 2010 – May 2011; Dir. for Research and Studies, Advanced Systems and Concepts Office (2007-2010), and also as Chief, Policy & Strategy Studies at DTRA (2002-2005). He was Director, Planning, and Strategy, at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, African Affairs.
David advised ASCO’s director on all matters related to creating and directing the portfolio of studies related to WMD threats, non-proliferation and arms control, nuclear weapons and deterrence, emerging science and technology issues as they related to future threats. Recruited new experts and performers to support this effort and mentored several post-doctoral students, fellows, and interns that worked in the office. In addition,
- David was one of the first international loan officers to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations
- Conceived, created, and led the first HIV-AIDS prevention program for uniformed services by the defense department
- First director in any region in DoD to create defense policy on health as a security issue
- Developed then led research efforts on politically difficult and risky subjects: apocalyptic terrorism, resumption of nuclear testing, nuclear forensics cooperation with Russia, next generation of WMD, anticipating threats using simulations of human behavior, sustained nuclear weapon dialogue with China at the Track II level (in absence of official US Government talks on that subject), Anticipating the Species Jump (bio-weapon implications), among others.
- First to set up a joint research organization between US DoD, a National laboratory, university faculty, and students (JTAC at the University of Chicago)
- Wrote paper for Board of trustees (at Analytic Services) convincing them to invest in the future of US-Asia Pacific engagement as an enduring business line. Result was the authority and mandate to set up Banyan Analytics, the first research and analysis organization to investigate Fukushima incident from the US Government decision making side and project future US involvement in nuclear, biological, chemical, radiological incidents, to assess Pacific Island Security threats (on the future of their stability and what impact it has on the government), assessment model for Southeast Asian countries to meet the rise of China, and the first to lead a gaming exercise on Ebola outbreak in the Asia region for the US military. David is a retired US Army Officer.
David has received numerous awards and recognition for his work in ANSER, including the Outstanding Team Award (Banyan Analytics), 2014, and the Platt Award, annual recipient since 2007. He is listed in Cambridge “Who’s Who Executive Professional of the Year” (2010-2011 edition). David was also the recipient of DTRA Director’s Service Award for 2005.
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Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, USAF (Ret.) is the founder of Government Reform Through Technology, a consulting firm that works with high-tech companies. GRTT conducts business with federal, state, city and local governments to help them introduce advanced technology into the public sector. Prior to this, he was the CEO and the president of Business Executives for National Security, a national, nonpartisan organization of business and professional leaders. For 35 years, General McInerney served as a pilot, commander, and strategic planner in the U.S. Air Force. He retired from military service as Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Director of the Defense Performance Review, reporting to the Secretary of Defense. He led the Pentagon’s “reinventing government” effort, visiting more than 100 leading-edge commercial companies to assimilate their ideas about business re-engineering. General McInerney graduated from the United States Military Academy and earned a Master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University. He also attended the Armed Forces Staff College and National War College. Gen. McInerney, is also a Military commentator of FOX NEWS, and author of Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror.
Major General Paul E. Vallely, USA (Ret.) was born in DuBois, Pa. He retired in 1991 from the US Army as Deputy Commanding General, US Army, Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. General Vallely graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned in the Army in 1961 serving a distinguishing career of 32 years in the Army. He served in many overseas theaters to include Europe and the Pacific Rim Countries as well as two combat tours in Vietnam. He has served on US security assistance missions on civilian-military relations to Europe, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Central America with in-country experience in Indonesia, Columbia, El Salvador, Panama, Honduras, and Guatemala.
General Vallely is a graduate of the Infantry School, Ranger and Airborne Schools, Jumpmaster School, the Command and General Staff School, The Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Army War College. His combat service in Vietnam included positions as an infantry company commander, intelligence officer, operations officer, military advisor, and aide-de-camp. He has over fifteen (15) years experience in Special Operations, Psychological and Civil-Military Operations.
He was one of the first nominees for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations under President Reagan. From 1982-1986, he commanded the 351st Civil Affairs Command that included all Special Forces, Psychological Warfare and Civil-Military units in the Western United States and Hawaii. He was the first President of the National Psychological Operations Association. His units participated in worldwide missions in Europe, Africa, Central America, Japan, Solomon Islands, Guam, Belgium, Korea, and Thailand. He has served as a consultant to the Commanding General of the Special Operations Command as well as the DOD Anti-Drug and Counter-Terrorist Task Forces. He also designed and developed the Host-Nation Support Program in the Pacific for DOD and the State Department. Most recently, he has in-country security assistance experience in El Salvador, Colombia, and Indonesia in the development of civil-military relations interfacing with senior level military and civilian leadership.
General Vallely is a military analyst for FOX News Channel and is a guest on many nationally syndicated radio talk shows. He is also a guest lecturer on the War on Terror. He is the Military Committee Chairman for the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC. He has just co-authored a book entitled Endgame: Blueprint for Victory for Winning the War on Terror.
Norman A. Bailey, Ph.D. – Dr. Bailey’s national security and intelligence experience includes strategic intelligence and joint operational planning in the U.S. army; service on the staff of the National Security Council in the White House during the Reagan administration and senior staff position in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the George W. Bush administration. He is considered one of the founders of the field of national security economics.
Dr. Bailey has also held senior positions in industry, finance and consulting. He is professor emeritus of the City University of New York and is an adjunct professor of economic statecraft at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC and at the University of Haifa, where he is a senior researcher at the Center for National Security Studies.
He is the author, co-author or editor of five books and over two hundred book chapters and articles. He writes a weekly column in GLOBES.
He is a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia University. Dr. Bailey is the recipient of various honorary degrees, medals, awards, and orders of knighthood.Jean-Charles Brisard was appointed Knight of the National Order of Merit on the (French) presidential reserve, on December 2008. He is an international consultant and expert on terrorism and terrorism financing. He authored the first and most exhaustive study ever written on the financial network of the Bin Laden organization, “The economic environment of Osama Bin Laden”. His report was written for the French intelligence community and published by the French National Assembly in 2001. He testified on his work before the US Congress Joint Inquiry into the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, before the US Senate Banking Committee and reported on terrorism financing for the President of the UN Security Council. He served as an expert or witness in prosecutions of terrorism financing and money laundering cases in France, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States. He provides training to the French authorities on terrorism and terrorism financing.
Since June 2002, he is serving as lead investigator for lawyers representing over 6,500 family members of the 9/11 victims in the course of civil actions brought before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the terrorists, terrorist states and the sponsors of terrorism, including individuals, banks, corporations and Islamic charities.
Jean-Charles Brisard has served as special adviser to the Vice President of Vivendi Universal for corporate and business intelligence after serving as director of business intelligence and international legal counsel for international corporations. He held governmental positions in France as counsel to the former Chief Antiterrorism Prosecutor and adviser to the French Minister of Interior and French Prime Minister. He also served as an advisor to a US Senator.
Jean-Charles Brisard authored Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy And The Failed Hunt For Bin Laden in 2001 and Zarqawi, The New Face of Al-Qaeda in 2005.
His analysis regularly appears in international TV and newspapers, including NBC, CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Le Monde and Le Figaro.
Jean-Charles Brisard earns a Ph.D. in Public International Law of the Paris University of Law, an Md in International and European Law, a diploma in Comparative Law from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris, and he studied Diplomacy at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Nicholas Rostow, a member of the American Center for Democracy’s Board of Directors, is Director, Center for Strategic Research (CSR) and a Distinguished Research Professor at the National Defense University, specializing in international and national security law and affairs and U.S. government and international decision-making in foreign and national security policy. In addition, he is a Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Law School, 2010-11. In 2010, he was a visiting professor at the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Prior to joining NDU in September 2010, Professor Rostow served for more than 4 years as University Counsel and Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and tenured full professor at the State University of New York. His public service positions include: General Counsel and Senior Policy Adviser to the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, 2001-05; Charles H. Stockton Chair in International Law, U.S. Naval War College, 2001; Staff Director, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 1999-2000; Counsel and Deputy Staff Director to the House Select Committee on Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China, 1998-99; Special Assistant to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush for National Security Affairs and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council under Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft; and Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, 1985-1987.
Professor Rostow has taught at the University of Tulsa College of Law and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy as well as the Naval War College. He earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale in 1972, and his Ph.D. in history and J.D., also from Yale. His publications are in the fields of diplomatic history, international law, and issues of U.S. national security and foreign policy. Professor Rostow is married to the former Heyden White. They have two children.