Naveed Alexis Jamali ( Sindhi: نويد جمالي) is an American commentator on

national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...

and former

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

asset. He worked for the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...

as an intelligence officer in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

. He is the author of the non-fiction book ''How to Catch a Russian Spy'' (). He also co-chairs the Swatting Mitigation Advisory Committee for the

Seattle Police Department The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is the principal police force, law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is responsible for the entire city except for the campus of the University of Washington (which is und ...

Biography

Jamali was born to a French mother and a Pakistani Sindhi father who met while attending graduate school in New York. They later opened a research procurement agency in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Fascient Books, Inc., which specialized in finding academic and open-source material. Starting in 1988, they cooperated with the FBI, which was interested in Soviet (and later Russian) intelligence agents after they came into their office requesting to do business. Jamali graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(1999) with a degree in Political Science and Government. After

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, he contacted the FBI to offer his services as his parents were nearing retirement. He later became a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...

when a Russian

GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...

member named Oleg Kulikov attempted to recruit him. The ruse lasted from 2005 to 2009. During this time, Kulikov paid Jamali for what he thought were classified documents. The operation ended with Jamali being "arrested" by the FBI in front of Kulikov, blowing Kulikov's cover as a diplomat in the United States. Following the operation, Jamali was sworn in to the

as an intelligence officer. Since then, he has become a contributor to

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

and a senior

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at the

Foreign Policy Research Institute The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world and on eth ...

, an American

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

. In 2015, Jamali and

Ellis Henican Ellis Henican (born October 9, 1958) is an American columnist at ''Newsday'' and AM New York as well as a political analyst on the Fox News Channel. He hosts a nationally syndicated weekend show on Talk Radio Network and is the voice of "Stormy ...

co-wrote a book, ''How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent''.

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

purchased the film rights for the book; it was announced that

Mark Heyman Mark Heyman (born 1979) is an American screenwriter and film producer who is best known for co-writing ''Black Swan'' (2010), '' The Skeleton Twins'' (2014), and '' The Boogeyman'' (2023). He also created the television series '' Strange Angel'' ...

will write the screenplay with

Marc Webb Marc Preston Webb (born August 31, 1974) is an American filmmaker and music video director. He made his feature film directorial debut in 2009 with the romantic comedy '' (500) Days of Summer.'' He then directed ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' (2012 ...

directing. On November 27, 2018, Jamali announced a run for the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-larg ...

, representing District 7, after the incumbent, Sally Bagshaw, announced her retirement. He lost the primary, garnering 3% of the vote.

Reporting

In 2019, Jamali joine
Newsweek
first as a columnist, then as an editor-at-large. He has reported extensively on matters of National Security and Intelligence and was part of the team that broke the

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (28 July 1971 – 27 October 2019), commonly known by his ''nom de guerre'' Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant leader who was the founder and first leader of the Islamic State (IS), who proclaimed hims ...

raid

References

External links

*
Russian-diplomat eviction only scratches surface of spy network
2017 article by Jamali in ''Military Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jamali, Naveed Living people 1976 births New York University alumni American people of French descent American people of Pakistani descent Federal Bureau of Investigation agents People from Dobbs Ferry, New York United States Navy reservists MSNBC people