Countering the Terrorist Threat: An Insider’s Story

In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. intelligence community was consumed by a new counterterrorism mission in support of the global war on terrorism. The CIA conducted lethal operations against numerous targets, capturing or killing high-profile al Qaeda operatives around the world. But recent attacks, from Sri Lanka to New Zealand, show that counterterrorism efforts are far from over. Join the World Affairs Council for a conversation with former CIA targeter Nada Bakos, who worked on some of the agency’s highest profile cases, including al-Zarqawi and bin Laden. Bakos’s new book The Targeter, delayed by the CIA for years, reveals the inner workings of the CIA and the world of intelligence gathering post 9/11. Her book will be released on June 4th.

Nada Bakos, a Senior Fellow in the Program on National Security at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, is a highly-regarded national security expert with 20 years of in-depth knowledge base in global intelligence. She was a 2018 Templeton Fellow at FPRI. As a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst, she was a key member of the team charged with analyzing the relationship between Iraq, al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks. Subsequently, during the war in Iraq, Ms. Bakos was asked to serve as the Chief Targeting officer tracking one of the world’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In 2006, Zarqawi was killed in a targeted strike conducted by US military forces. She was recently featured in the Emmy-award winning HBO documentary, Manhunt, and is a frequent media commentator.

After leaving the CIA, Ms. Bakos worked in a key role with Starbucks Corporation Public Affairs and as a consultant to a variety of organizations. Ms. Bakos has worked with C-level corporate executives, senior level government officials, and front-line-technical teams to help them understand the business or security-related context to deploying new processes and technologies.

Her upcoming book, The Targeter, will be published by Little, Brown.