Graham Fuller
Former Vice Chairman, CIA National Intelligence Council; CIA Station Chief, Kabul.
Contributor Biography
Mr. Fuller is an American author and political analyst, specializing in Islamic extremism. Formerly vice-chair of the National Intelligence Council, he also served as Station Chief in Kabul for the CIA. A think piece that he wrote for the CIA was identified as instrumental in leading to the Iran-contra affair.
After a career in the United States State Department and CIA lasting 27 years, he joined Rand Corporation as senior political scientist specializing in the Middle East. As of 2006, he was affiliated with the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada as an Adjunct Professor of history. He is the author of a number of books, including The Future of Political Islam.
He attended Harvard University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in Russian and Middle Eastern Studies. Thereafter he took employment with the State Department of the United States, entering Foreign Service in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 1982, the CIA appointed him National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South Asia, and in 1986 appointed him Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
In 1987, he was identified as the author of a 1985 study that according to the New York Times was "instrumental" in the decision of the Reagan Administration to secretly contact leaders in Iran and "eventually led to the covert sale of United States weapons to Teheran in what became the Iran-contra affair.
He left the CIA in 1988 for the RAND Corporation, remaining as a senior political scientist until 2000. He is an active author and media spokesman.
