John Edward McLaughlin (born June 15, 1942 in McKeesport

McKeesport, Pennsylvania

McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in the United States; it is located at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 19,731 at the 2010 census...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

) is the former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and former Acting Director of Central Intelligence

Director of Central Intelligence

The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence was the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the principal intelligence advisor to the President and the National Security Council, and the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various United...

. McLaughlin is an accomplished magician and lectured on magic at the 2006 International Brotherhood of Magicians

International Brotherhood of Magicians

International Brotherhood of Magicians is the world's largest organization for professional and amateur magicians, with approximately 15,000 members worldwide. The headquarters is in St...

 Annual Convention in Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

. His CIA career lasted more than 30 years starting in 1972 with a focus on European, Russian, and Eurasian issues in the Directorate of Intelligence. From 1984 to 1985, he served a rotational tour at the State Department in the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, where he was responsible for following European relations with the Middle East, Central America, and Africa. He served as Deputy Director and Director of the Office of European Analysis from 1985 to 1989; Director of Slavic and Eurasian Analysis from 1989 to 1995; Deputy Director for Intelligence, Vice Chairman for Estimates of the National Intelligence Council, and Acting Chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 1995 to 1997; and Deputy Director for Intelligence from 1997 to 2000 - heading up the Agency’s analytical corps. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/directors-and-deputy-directors-of-central-intelligence/mclaughlin.html

He led review of counterterrorism "lessons learned" at request of the Director of National Intelligence. While Deputy Director for Intelligence from 1997 to 2000, he created the Senior Analytic Service, a CIA career track that enables analysts to rise to very senior rank without branching out into management. He also founded the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, an institution dedicated to teaching the history, mission, and essential skills of the analytic profession to new CIA employees. http://www.udel.edu/globalagenda/2006/speakers/speaker6.html

President Bill Clinton designated McLaughlin as the Acting Deputy Director of Central Intelligence on June 28, 2000; and later nominated him for that same position. McLaughlin was unanimously confirmed as the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence by the Senate on October 18, 2000. Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet swore in McLaughlin as the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence at a ceremony at CIA Headquarters on October 19, 2000. https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-2000/pr10192000.html

After Tenet's resignation on June 3, 2004, the Bush Administration

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 announced that McLaughlin would serve as Acting Director after Tenet's departure on July 11, 2004. McLaughlin himself stepped down as Acting Director on September 24, 2004, after Porter J. Goss

Porter J. Goss

Porter Johnston Goss is an American politician who was the first Director of National Intelligence and the last Director of Central Intelligence following the passage of the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which abolished the DCI position...

 was confirmed by the Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 to serve as the new director. He then returned to his position as Deputy Director, and announced his retirement on November 12, 2004.

He currently serves as a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill

Philip Merrill

Philip Merrill was an American diplomat, publisher, banker, and philanthropist who committed suicide while traveling alone on his boat in the Chesapeake Bay.- Career and philanthropy :...

 Center for Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies , a division of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's leading and most prestigious graduate schools devoted to the study of international affairs, economics, diplomacy, and policy research and...

 (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., which has been a division of The Johns Hopkins University since 1950. He teaches a course on American Intelligence, involving issues related to American defense policy, counterterrorism, intelligence, irregular warfare, nuclear policy and proliferation, strategic and security issues, U.S. homeland security, and weapons of mass destruction. http://www.sais-jhu.edu/faculty/directory/bios/m/mclaughlin.htm He also serves on the Guiding Coalition of the Project on National Security Reform

Project on National Security Reform

The Project on National Security Reform is a nonpartisan non-profit organization mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system. Advocates of reform of the U.S...

.

On January 8, 2010, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced that he had appointed McLaughlin to head a small group of national security experts on behalf of the Obama Administration to investigate the December 25, 2009, bombing attempt by alleged terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Detroit-bound Northwest Flight 253, and the November 5, 2009, shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, allegedly carried out by Army Maj. Nidal Hasan and to make proposals to remedy potential weaknesses in intelligence systems and procedures that the incidents exposed. http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20100108_release.pdf

In 1964 McLaughlin received a bachelor of arts degree from Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University is a private four-year liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio serving 2,000 full-time students representing 37 states and approximately 30 foreign countries...

 in Springfield, Ohio. He was a member of the Beta Iota Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi. He completed graduate work in comparative politics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1966 he earned a master of arts degree in international relations from SAIS, after having spent a year studying at the Bologna Center in 1965. After graduating from SAIS, he served as a U.S. Army officer from 1966 to 1969, completing a tour in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. http://www.udel.edu/globalagenda/2006/speakers/speaker6.html In 2001, he returned to Wittenberg to speak at the commencement ceremony.