Michael D'Andrea was born on 1954 and is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer who played an instrumental role in American counterterrorism efforts during the War on Terror.
18 Facts About Michael D'Andrea
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Michael D'Andrea served nine years as director of Counterterrorism Center, and held a major role in the manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
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Michael D'Andrea is widely credited with revolutionizing the CIA's terrorist-hunting efforts, and vastly expanding the program of targeted killings by drone strike used heavily against Al-Qaeda.
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In 2017 D'Andrea was appointed to head the agency's Iran Mission Center, one of the earliest moves in what became the 'maximum pressure' strategy of the Trump administration against Iran.
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Michael D'Andrea's family has ties to the CIA that span two generations.
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Michael D'Andrea met his wife while working overseas with the Central Intelligence Agency, and converted to Islam in order to marry her.
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Michael D'Andrea's wife, Faridah Currimjee D'Andrea is a daughter of a wealthy Muslim family from Mauritius with Gujarati origins.
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Michael D'Andrea serves as a senior director of Currimjee Group, a business conglomerate owned by her family with holdings including print media, telecommunications, real estate, tourism, financial services and energy.
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Michael D'Andrea joined the CIA in 1979, and he was considered an underperformer at "The Farm", the CIA's training center at Camp Peary, Virginia.
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Michael D'Andrea reportedly began his overseas career in Africa, and he was listed as a foreign service officer at the Embassy of the United States in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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Michael D'Andrea served as chief of station in Cairo, Egypt and later in Baghdad, Iraq.
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Michael D'Andrea is credited with an instrumental role in the War on Terror, with The New York Times concluding "perhaps no single CIA official is more responsible for weakening Al Qaeda".
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Michael D'Andrea targeted affiliate terror groups, and was reportedly involved in the assassination of Hezbollah member Imad Mughniyah in Damascus, Syria.
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Michael D'Andrea initially became head of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center in 2006, replacing Robert Grenier.
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Michael D'Andrea later directed the analysis of competing hypotheses as to who, besides Osama bin Laden, could be in the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan where Bin Laden was later found and killed.
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From 2017 to his forced retirement in 2021, Michael D'Andrea served as leader of the CIA's Iran Mission Center, which was expanded during the hard line approach to Iran adopted by the Trump administration.
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The strike was authorized by Michael D'Andrea and CIA leadership independent of White House oversight, and killed American-born al Qaeda commanders Adam Yahiye Gadahn and Ahmed Farouq, who were the intended targets.
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Michael D'Andrea was the inspiration for the character of "The Wolf" in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.