Nationality American Role Military Officer | Name Malcolm Nance | |
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Born 1961 (age 53–54) Philadelphia, Pa Alma mater Excelsior University (B.A. Arabic) Known for National Security Counterterrorism Intelligence Islamic Extremism SERE Torture Website www.thetacticsofterror.org Books An End to Al‑Qaeda: Destroyin, Terrorist Recognition Handboo, The Terrorists of Iraq: In, The Terrorist Recogniti | ||
Highlights: Distinguished Speaker Series Presents Malcolm Nance
Malcolm Wrightson Nance (born September 20, 1961) is a retired United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer in naval cryptology and author, scholar and media commentator on international terrorism, intelligence, insurgency and torture.
Contents
- Highlights Distinguished Speaker Series Presents Malcolm Nance
- Malcolm nance discusses us torture being used by isis boko haram and others
- Early years
- Military career
- Post military career
- Academia and security industry
- Small Wars Journal and torture controversy
- Journalism and media appearances
- Movies and documentaries
- References
Nance is an expert in the history, personalities and organization of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL); jihadi radicalization, Islamic extremism in Middle East, Southwest Asian and African terror groups, as well as counterinsurgency and asymmetric warfare. He speaks Arabic and is active in the field of national security policy particularly in anti- and counter-terrorism intelligence, terrorist strategy and tactics, torture and counter-ideology in combating Islamic extremism. In 2014 he became the executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies (TAPSTRI), a Hudson, New York-based think tank.
Malcolm nance discusses us torture being used by isis boko haram and others
Early years
Nance is a graduate of West Catholic Boys High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Military career
A former U.S. Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer in Naval Cryptology he says he was involved in numerous counter-terrorism, intelligence and combat operations. He received military decorations and he either learned Arabic while in the Navy or in college -- it is worth noting that currently Excelsior has no Arabic major. He became an instructor in wartime and peacetime SERE where he trained Navy and Marine Corps flyers, both pilots and aircrew to survive captivity as a prisoner of war. He conceptualized and spearheaded the Advanced Terrorism, Abduction and Hostage Survival school (ATAHS), a special survival program designed to train Special Mission Units, Navy SEALS and members of the U.S. Intelligence Community in resisting torture, exploitation and escaping terrorist captivity by al-Qaeda. At ATAHS, he led an al-Qaeda simulation group to expose trainees at high risk of capture to the Al Qaeda organization and its abduction and attack tactics.
Post-military career
In early 2001, Nance founded Special Readiness Services International (SRSI) an intelligence support company. On the morning of 9/11, driving to Arlington he witnessed the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. He acted as a first responder at the helipad crash site where he helped organize the rescue and recovery of victims. Nance served as an intelligence and security contractor in Iraq, Afghanistan, the UAE and North Africa.
Academia and security industry
Between 2005–2007 Nance was a visiting lecturer on counterterrorism in Sydney, Australia at Macquarie University's Centre on Policing, Intelligence and Counter-terrorism (PICT) and at Victoria University of Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand. Nance has been a guest lecturer on al-Qaeda and counter-ideology at the Defense Intelligence University and international law enforcement colleges. Nance is a keynote speaker in the security industry on mitigating terrorist strategies and tactics including for the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS), the Austral-Asian industrial security industry and the International Air Transport Authority (IATA).
Small Wars Journal and torture controversy
In 2007 Nance wrote an article for the counterinsurgency blog Small Wars Journal titled "Waterboarding is Torture... period." Republished in the Pentagon Early Bird, it set off a firestorm as the first credible description of the torture technique as used in SERE. The article strongly swayed the Pentagon against the use of the waterboard because its misuse would damage America's honor worldwide. Nance claimed that using the torture techniques of America's former enemies dishonors the memory of US service members who died in captivity through torture, and that torture does not produce credible intelligence. Nance was called to testify before the U.S. Congress about the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques". He told the House Judiciary Committee that:
Waterboarding is torture, period... I believe that we must reject the use of the waterboard for prisoners and captives and cleanse this stain from our national honor... water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel(ing) your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs.
Journalism and media appearances
Nance is often a guest policy analyst on television frequently for BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera America and radio on BBC World Service, London Broadcasting and WAMC in New York and Western Massachusetts.
Nance was a frequent guest analyst on terrorist strategy on Fox News with Tony Snow, who would later become the Press Secretary of President Bush. He was featured on numerous international political talk shows including PBS's NewsHour, BBC's Hardtalk and World Have Your Say, Australian Broadcasting's Dateline, German TV's ZDF Frontier 21, TV 5, France 24 and others.
In 2016, Nance urged readers to be skeptical of Podesta emails leaked by WikiLeaks, writing that the documents were "riddled with obvious forgeries" and were black propaganda "not even professionally done" and arguing that even if all the emails were authentic, WikiLeaks' excerpts of the emails were posted to Twitter in a way that distorted their meaning.