CI Centre Staff: David G. Major, ret. FBI Supervisory Special Agent

President

David G. Major Associates, Inc.

The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies

CI Centre Professor David Major has made a 30-year commitment to the practice of counterintelligence, having served in top leadership roles at the FBI in counterintelligence as a Supervisory Special Agent, as well as on the National Security Council as the Director of Counterintelligence, Intelligence and Security Programs (photos). Major was the first FBI official ever to be appointed to the NSC.

During his employment at the FBI from 1970 to 1993, Major became a nationally recognized counterintelligence and security/countermeasures technical expert, strategic planner, practitioner, advocate and spokesman for national counterintelligence and security countermeasures programs. During his time with the NSC from 1985 to 1987, he was involved in every aspect of these disciplines, with extensive operational experience at the highest level of government.

Major handled many joint Department of Defense and FBI double agents in support of DoD Special Planning Activities. He handled defectors and the recruitment of foreign intelligence officers and agents. Major investigated, supervised and was directly or indirectly involved in most of the 100 public espionage cases in the last 25 years.

While at the NSC, Major was responsible for formulating the policies and programs which led to the first and only mass expulsion of Soviet intelligence officers (80 KGB and GRU) from the United States in October 1986. The successful strategic counterintelligence program is recounted in "Operation FAMISH: The Integration of Counterintelligence into the National Decisionmaking Process" (Defense Intelligence Journal, Spring 1995).

Following his work at the NSC, Major returned to the FBI where he was in charge of the section within the Intelligence Division of FBI Headquarters responsible for managing all intelligence and counterintelligence strategic and operational analysis, policy and plans formulation, budget formulation, resource management, automated data processing, and counterintelligence training of FBI, DoD and counterintelligence community personnel.

To ensure that the counterintelligence programs were integrated into the Executive Agencies' decisionmaking process, Major served as the architect for the Counterintelligence Operations Board in 1989 (now known as the National Counterintelligence Operations Board). This interagency board is responsible for all strategic counterintelligence operational planning and threat assessments for the Intelligence Community. Its membership included the Directors for Counterintelligence from the DoD/OSD, NCS, FCA, AFOSI, Chief of the CIA/CIC, and the FBI.

From 1988 until his retirement in 1993, Major was the FBI's principal representative in the national intelligence policy formulation process. As such, he was the principal FBI drafter for the National Security Review (NSR) 18 and National Security Directive (NSD) 47. Signed by President Bush in October 1990, NSD 47 set forth the nation's counterintelligence and security countermeasures policy and plans to address the intelligence threat in the 1990s. Major also worked as the FBI's representative to the NSD 47 Working Group to ensure the full implementation of this executive directive.

Major was the principal architect of the National Security Threat List (approved by the Attorney General in December 1991) to meet the ever-changing challenges of the foreign intelligence threat in the 1990s. The National Security Threat List strategy became the primary document which directly governs all DoD counterintelligence programs.

Major's deep and persistent commitment to training future counterintelligence professional leaders from the DoD, FBI and CIA to think strategically about counterintelligence led him to formulate a new counterintelligence community course, "Strategic Approaches to Counterintelligence." This course was the first step in the development of a diverse gamut of courses Major later designed and currently conducts for the Intelligence Community.

As President of David G. Major Associates, Inc. parent company of The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Major has committed himself to increasing the number of personnel who have a broad and in-depth understanding of the counterintelligence discipline within the Intelligence and National Security Communities, various federal agencies, Congress, media, academic, corporate sector, and among the public. Through the CI Centre, Major has worked vigorously to conduct research, analysis, training and direct strategic counterintelligence planning to assist in expanding awareness of key strategic concepts.

Major has published numerous articles on counterintelligence. He served as an adjunct professor for the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC where he designed and taught from 1992 to 2000 the graduate-level course "Counterintelligence in a Democratic Society". He also lectured at the "Intelligence and Policy" and "Intelligence and Protective Security in the Post-Cold War Era" courses at the Institute.

Major is the host of CI-TV, an internal government counterintelligence TV series with over 131 episodes. He has been extensively interviewed by print, radio and TV media from all over the world on counterintelligence issues, cases (such as the Hanssen case) and events. He serves as a consultant and advisor to producers of documentaries, books and movies dealing with spies and espionage. Major is on the Board of Advisors of the International Spy Museum which opened in Washington, DC in 2002.

Major is a graduate of Syracuse University and served as a US Army Captain in the Chemical Corps and then the Armor Branch from 1966 to 1968.

David Major Links

Photos: Major at White House

Photos: Gordievsky meeting with the President

CBS 60 Minutes II interview with Major re Hanssen case

Video: Major talks about how Hanssen viewed the Soviets.

CBS 60 Minutes II interview with major re Daniel King case

Interview on PBS' "Red Files: Secret Files of the KGB." (Look under 'Deep Background, Interviews')

CNN interview with Major regarding SpyDrive

London Times interview with Major re SpyDrive

ABC interview with Major re SpyDrive