Pre-9/11 Intelligence Analysis on Terrorism

Join host Michael Ard for a curated discussion with Barbara Sude, JHU faculty member and former senior analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency, for a discussion on "Pre-9/11 Intelligence Analysis on Terrorism: Communication and Warning."

An adjunct lecturer in intelligence studies at Johns Hopkins University, Sude served more than 30 years with the CIA, where she specialized in analysis of terrorism, political Islam, sub-saharan Africa, and the Middle East. Sude was part of the small cadre of pre-9/11 analysts on al-Qa’ida and followed the group as a senior analyst at both CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and the National Counterterrorism Center. As a former senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, she focused on counterterrorism, asymmetric warfare, and refugees.

Sude has given several public presentations and media interviews on counterterrorism issues and is the author of the chapter “Prevention of Radicalization to Terrorism in Refugee Camps and Asylum Centers,” in The Handbook of Terrorism Prevention and Preparedness, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, 2020-2021. Sude is also the lead author of “Lessening the Risk of Refugee Radicalization: Lessons for the Middle East from Past Crises” (RAND 2015) and co-author of “Knowing the Enemy: Understanding the Islamic State and Principles for Defeating It” (RAND 2017) and “An Economic Analysis of the Financial Records of al-Qa’ida in Iraq” (RAND 2010). Sude received a Bachelor of Science in Arabic from Georgetown University and her PhD in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University.