John Edward McLaughlin (born June 15, 1942) is an American intelligence official who was Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and briefly acting

Director of Central Intelligence The director of central intelligence (DCI) was the head of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1946 to 2004, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the president of the United States and the United States National Se ...

. He is a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Life and career

McLaughlin was born in

McKeesport McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. A suburb of Pittsburgh, it is situated at the confluence of the Monongahela River, Monongahela and Youghiogheny River, Youghiogheny rivers. The population was 17,727 as of the ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. In 1964, McLaughlin received a bachelor of arts degree from

Wittenberg University Wittenberg University (officially Wittenberg College) is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students drawn from 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical ...

in Springfield, Ohio. He was a member of the Beta Iota chapter of

Delta Sigma Phi Delta Sigma Phi (), commonly known as Delta Sig, is a fraternities and sororities, fraternity established in 1899 at City College of New York, The City College of New York (CCNY). It was the first fraternity to be founded based on religious and e ...

. 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 the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the

. 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. In 2001, he returned to Wittenberg to speak at the commencement ceremony. McLaughlin's CIA career lasted more than 30 years, starting in 1972 with a focus on European, Russian, and

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

n issues at 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. He returned to CIA and 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 The National Intelligence Council (NIC), established in 1979 and reporting to the Director of National Intelligence, bridges the United States Intelligence Community (IC) with policy makers in the United States. The NIC produces the "Global Trend ...

, and Acting Chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 1995 to 1997; and Deputy Director for Intelligence from 1997 to 2000. While Deputy Director for Intelligence from 1997 to 2000, he created the Senior Analytic Service, a career track that enables CIA analysts to rise to senior rank without working in management. He also founded the

Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis The Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis is a training school for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intelligence analysts located in Reston, Virginia. Opened in May 2000, the school is housed on the second floor of a five-story structure ...

, an institution dedicated to teaching the history, mission, and skills of the analytic profession to new CIA employees. President Bill Clinton designated McLaughlin as the Acting Deputy Director of Central Intelligence on June 28, 2000, and later nominated him for the 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 on October 19, 2000. After Tenet's resignation on June 3, 2004, the Bush Administration 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 was confirmed by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

to serve as the new director. He then returned to his position as Deputy Director, and announced his retirement on November 12, 2004. McLaughlin currently serves as a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the

Philip Merrill Philip Merrill (April 28, 1934 – June 10, 2006) was an American diplomat, publisher, banker, and philanthropist. Career Born Philip Merrill Levine, he was a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Business School. At Cornell, he was ma ...

Center for Strategic Studies at the

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C. He also serves on the Guiding Coalition of the

Project on National Security Reform The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) was a nonpartisan nonprofit mandated by the United States Congress to recommend improvements to the U.S. national security system. Advocates of reform of the U.S. national security system contend that ...

. On January 8, 2010, Director of National Intelligence

Dennis C. Blair Dennis Cutler Blair (born February 4, 1947) is the former United States Director of National Intelligence and a retired United States Navy admiral who was the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific region., Aspen Security Forum, 2013 Blair wa ...

announced that he had appointed McLaughlin to head a group of experts to investigate the December 2009 bombing attempt by alleged terrorist

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (; also known as Umar Abdul Mutallab and Omar Farooq al-Nigeri; born 22 December 1986) popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber" or "Christmas Bomber", is a Nigerian terrorist who attempted to detonate plastic exp ...

aboard

Northwest Airlines Flight 253 The attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 occurred on December 25, 2009, aboard an Airbus A330 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Amsterd ...

, and the November

2009 Fort Hood shooting On November 5, 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), near Killeen, Texas, United States. Nidal Hasan, a Major (United States), U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 other ...

, carried out by Army Maj.

Nidal Hasan Nidal Malik Hasan (born September 8, 1970) is an American former United States Army major, physician, and mass murderer convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. Hasan, an Army Me ...

. The group was tasked with making proposals to remedy weaknesses in intelligence systems and procedures that the incidents exposed. In October 2020, McLaughlin signed a letter stating the Biden laptop story “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, John E. 1942 births Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency Deputy directors of the Central Intelligence Agency Living people People from McKeesport, Pennsylvania Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Wittenberg University alumni