43 Facts About Michael Morell

Michael Joseph Morell is an American former career intelligence analyst.

Michael Morell served as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013 and twice as its acting director, first in 2011 and then from 2012 to 2013.

Michael Morell is Senior Counselor and the Global Chairman of the Geo-Political Risk Practice at Beacon Global Strategies LLC, a consulting firm in Washington, DC.

The son of an autoworker and homemaker, Michael Morell is a native of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Michael Morell went to Saint Joseph's School and Cuyahoga Falls High School there.

Michael Morell has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Akron and a Master of Arts from Georgetown University, both in economics.

Michael Morell joined the CIA in 1980 and served there for 33 years.

Michael Morell served as Director for Intelligence, the Agency's top analyst, from 2008 to 2010.

Michael Morell served as the CIA's Associate Deputy Director, the Agency's top administrator, from 2006 to 2008.

In May 2010, Michael Morell was sworn in as the deputy director of the CIA, succeeding Stephen Kappes.

Michael Morell was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Agency's second highest honor, for his role in the bin Laden operation.

From July 1,2011 to September 6,2011, Michael Morell served his first stint as acting director of the CIA, replacing Leon Panetta after he was confirmed as Secretary of Defense.

Michael Morell announced his retirement from the CIA on June 12,2013 and left the Agency in early September 2013.

In November 2013, Michael Morell joined Beacon Global Strategies as a Senior Counselor.

In January 2014, Michael Morell joined CBS News as an on-air contributor on intelligence and national security.

In each episode, Michael Morell speaks with current and former members of the intelligence community as well as policymakers about their careers and about national security issues.

Michael Morell contributes to the media in other ways, as a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and as an expert voice on Axios.

Michael Morell has criticised Edward Snowden for exposing NSA surveillance programs, saying the damage done by Snowden to US national security was profound.

Michael Morell said that a US jury should decide whether Snowden was a patriot or a traitor.

In talking about the staffers' rebuttal on The Charlie Rose Show, Michael Morell said that, while his critique was sharper, it was consistent with the CIA's official comments on the committee's report and with the dissent published by a number of Republicans on the Committee.

Also in his book, Michael Morell apologized to former Secretary of State Colin Powell for the CIA's erroneous assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

Michael Morell noted that Powell had said repeatedly that no one from the Agency had ever apologized for sending him to speak to the United Nations with incorrect intelligence and that Michael Morell thought it time that someone did so.

In September 2017, Morell resigned from his senior fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government as a result of Chelsea Manning's appointment as a senior fellow there.

In 2017, Michael Morell was appointed to serve on the National Defense Strategy Commission, a congressionally created body designed to give Congress an independent view of America's defense needs.

In late 2020, Michael Morell was mentioned as a possible candidate for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Biden Administration.

Jones urged President-elect Biden not to nominate Michael Morell, who was acting CIA Director during a portion of the Senate investigation.

Jones said Michael Morell had failed to sufficiently discipline two CIA officials who destroyed videotapes of CIA torture incidents.

Michael Morell has written dozens of op-eds and given hundreds of media interviews since leaving government.

Michael Morell's writings and interviews suggest the world is a dangerous place and that to keep the country safe, the United States must take a leadership role in the world, it must have strong allies with whom it works together on tough issues, and it must have a strong military, intelligence service, and diplomatic service in order to deter adversaries.

Michael Morell says that "the most important determinant of a country's national security is the health of its economy and society" and that the thing that most keeps him up at night is the failure of our politicians to come together, to compromise, and to make decisions that move our economy and our society forward.

Michael Morell called on the opposition in Syria to deter Russia and Iran by making them "pay a price" for their involvement in Syria, in part by targeting their military personnel in the country.

Michael Morell called on the United States to conduct limited, precision bombings of Syrian government targets in order to bring Assad to the negotiating table.

In October 2016, Michael Morell told Rose that the United States should confront Iran's behavior in the Middle East, and he voiced support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against Yemen's Houthis, pointing out that the Iranians were supporting the Houthis as a proxy force against the Saudis.

Since retiring from CIA in 2013, Michael Morell has served on a number of boards or advisory groups related to national security.

Michael Morell currently serves on the board of the Atlantic Council, a Washington, DC think tank on international affairs.

Michael Morell serves on the advisory boards of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund, the American Media Abroad group, and the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.

Michael Morell served on the Advisory Board of the Committee to Investigate Russia, a group organized by Hollywood director Rob Reiner and The Atlantic senior editor David Frum.

Since retiring from the CIA, Michael Morell has spent time teaching and mentoring at a variety of colleges and universities.

Michael Morell is currently a distinguished visiting professor at the Michael V Hayden Center at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, where he teaches classes on intelligence and moderates on-the-record conversations on intelligence, including a March 2019 event on Congress and the Intelligence Community, titled The Hill Has Eyes: Congressional Oversight of Intelligence.

Michael Morell was later named Distinguished Senior Fellow of the center during founder Michael Hayden's medical leave.

Michael Morell spent the fall quarter of 2016 teaching a seminar as a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Michael Morell has spent time at Stanford, Dartmouth, Harvard, West Point, and his alma mater, the University of Akron.

Michael Morell is married to Mary Beth Michael Morell, and they have three children.