"Intelligence: The Need To Know" - A Series of Discussions

January - February 2002

With the United States engaged in a full-scale war on terrorism and American intelligence-gathering capabilities high among national concerns, this series brought to the campus an array of experts on intelligence work. The series was titled, "Intelligence: The Need To Know."

Jan. 22: Reuel Marc Gerecht

Topic: "Intelligence in the Middle East: A Brutal Land of Paradoxes"

Author of Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran and a forthcoming book, For Their Eyes Only, Gerecht was a CIA Middle East specialist for nine years. He has also been a consultant on Afghanistan for CBS News and is currently a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly.

Jan. 29: R. James Woolsey

Topic: "The War on Terror — Why We're In It and How We Should Fight It"

Former Director of the CIA during the Clinton administration and a member of the National Commission on Terrorism (1999-2000), Woolsey is a partner in the Washington law firm Shea and Gardner.

Feb. 5: David A.Vise

Topic: "The Secret Story of the Modern FBI and America's Silent War"

Now a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post, Vise was formerly an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. His acclaimed recent book, The Bureau and the Mole, about the unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the most dangerous double agent in FBI history, will be made into a movie by Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Disney's Touchstone Pictures.

Feb. 12: Joseph E. Persico

Topic: "Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage"

Persico is an author whose works focus on espionage. His books include Casey: From the OSS to the CIA and his latest, Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage. He collaborated with Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now Secretary of State, on Powell's book My American Journey. Earlier, he was chief speech writer for Nelson Rockefeller.

Feb. 19: Michael A.Vatis

Topic: "The Making of Intelligence: Problems in Intelligence, Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism"

Vatis is Director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth, a national counterterrorism and cybersecurity research and development center. He previously founded and served as first Director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center. He was also formerly an advisor to the U.S. Attorney General on counterintelligence and counterterrorism issues at the Department of Justice.

Feb. 26: Philip Chase Bobbitt

Topic: "The Challenge of Terrorism: Crossing the Foreign/Domestic Divide"

Bobbitt is a Professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He is a former Senior Director of Intelligence for the National Security Council and was Legal Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on the Iran-Contra Affair. He has authored several books. His latest book is Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History.