13 Facts About Rita Katz

Rita Katz is a terrorism analyst and the co-founder of the Search International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group, a private intelligence firm based in Washington, DC.

Rita Katz's mother managed to escape with her three children to Iran, from where they made their way to Israel.

In 1997, Rita Katz' husband was offered a research fellowship in endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and they moved to Washington with their three children.

Rita Katz acknowledged that at the time she worked in violation of the provisions of her visa.

In 1998, Rita Katz began working for a research institute called the Investigative Project, run by journalist Steven Emerson.

Soon thereafter, again disguised as a Muslim woman, wearing a burqa and wearing recording equipment, Rita Katz began attending Islamic conferences and fundraisers, visiting mosques, and participating in pro-Palestinian rallies in the US as an undercover investigator in order to expose links of American Islamic groups to foreign terrorist groups.

Rita Katz was cited in Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies, as having helped to provide information to the government on the Al Qaeda network.

Rita Katz appeared in disguise on the CBS newsmagazine, 60 Minutes, to promote her book using the pseudonym "Sarah", and wearing a wig and a fake nose, to protect herself and her family from retaliation from groups that she said were linked to al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah.

In October 2007, it was revealed that Rita Katz had discovered and issued to the Bush administration a copy of an Osama bin Laden video which had yet to be released by al-Qaeda.

Rita Katz said the premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a surveillance operation to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

Rita Katz said she has been the victim of a smear campaign and of attempts to intimidate her, adding:.

Rita Katz's dismissal was upheld on appeal unanimously by a three-judge panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2009.

Rita Katz is the subject of director Ann Shin's documentary, The Terrorist Hunter.