Darrell M. Blocker is a former American intelligence officer who served for 28 years with the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. He held prominent positions including deputy director of the

Counterterrorism Center The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Mission Center for Counterterrorism (often referred to as the Counterterrorism Mission Center or CTMC, formerly the Counterterrorism Center, or simply CTC) was established in 1986, and is a division of the CI ...

(CTC), Chief of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Division, and Chief of Training at Camp Peary, Virginia, better known as "The Farm". Within the intelligence community, Blocker was known for participating in a number of semi-professional musical ensembles during his postings abroad. He retired in 2018 as the most senior black officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations. Since 2019 Blocker has been

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

of intelligence and advisory firm MOSAIC, and a contributor for

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

. In November 2020,

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

reported that president-elect Joe Biden had included Blocker among his shortlist of candidates to nominate for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency; in the end, the position went to

William J. Burns William John Burns (October 19, 1861 – April 14, 1932) was an American private investigator and law enforcement official. He was known as "America's Sherlock Holmes" and earned fame for having conducted private investigations into a number of ...

Early life

Blocker grew up in Hephzibah, Georgia, in an Air Force family. While growing up he also lived in Japan, Italy, Texas, and

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

. In Augusta he attended Windsor Spring Elementary, Glenn Hills Junior High School, and Butler High School. He then attended the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, where he sang in a church choir and was part of the glee club, in addition to serving in

Air Force ROTC The Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) is one of the three primary commissioning sources for officers in the United States Air Force and United States Space Force, the other two being the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) ...

. He graduated in 1984 with a degree in psychology.

Intelligence career

Blocker began his career as an intelligence analyst for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. He served for four years, from 1987 to 1990, before separating honorably. He then joined the

's (CIA) Directorate of Operations, formally known as the Clandestine Service, around 1990. Blocker wrote his CIA entrance essay about the

First Palestinian Intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian p ...

, and concluded that: "every nation in history that has fought and won actual territory, actual ground, them giving it back — it just hasn’t happened." Blocker was a CIA operations officer,

Chief of Station A station chief is a government official who is the head of a team, post or function usually in a foreign country. Historically it commonly referred to the head of a defensible structure such as an ambassador's residence or colonial outpost. In ...

, deputy director of Counterterrorism Center (CTC) under

Michael D'Andrea Michael D'Andrea (born 1954) is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer who played an instrumental role in American counterterrorism efforts during the War on Terror. He served nine years as director of Counterterrorism Center (CTC), and ...

, and later Chief of Africa Division. Subsequently, he went on to lead the CIA training division at Camp Peary, Virginia, better known as "The Farm". Throughout his 28-year career, Blocker served in 10 countries, among them Senegal, Burundi, Uganda (undercover; beginning in 2003), Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Morocco, and Pakistan. He said: "I’ve had 27 addresses in my 56 years -- 22 of those as an adult." He recruited and developed undercover sources and spies who would provide intelligence about potential threats and targets in his area of responsibility. He began playing music as part of his espionage duties in Senegal in 1996. While undercover in Uganda, Blocker became a minor celebrity as lead singer in a popular local band in the capital city of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, known as the "Kampala Jazz All-Stars". He began learning about Judaism while he was in college, and began wearing a chai as a pendant. In 2017 Blocker

converted to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. " ...

, after two years of study. He identifies as a

Conservative Jew Conservative Judaism, known as Masorti Judaism outside North America, is a Jewish religious movements, Jewish religious movement which regards the authority of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions as coming primarily from its people and com ...

Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal of the CIA

Blocker retired from the CIA in 2018, as the most senior black officer in its Directorate of Operations. He had a rank equivalent to a 3-star general. Upon retirement, he was awarded the CIA's

Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal The Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal is awarded by the Central Intelligence Agency for an individual's cumulative record of service reflecting a pattern of increasing levels of responsibility or increasingly strategic impact and with distin ...

Later career

In 2019 Blocker became the

of the multinational security firm MOSAIC (Multi Operational Security Agency Intelligence Company). In August 2019 Blocker joined

as a contributor, appearing on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'' and '' This Week'' as a subject matter expert on Africa, Iran, North Korea and Terrorism. He now lives in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. He also consults on projects in the entertainment industry, including for

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

and

Skydance Skydance Media, LLC (formerly known as Skydance Productions) is an American production company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films with ...

on season 2 of CONDOR, a television adaptation of ''

Six Days of the Condor ''Six Days of the Condor'' is a thriller novel by American author James Grady, first published in 1974 by W.W. Norton. The story is a suspense drama set in then-contemporary Washington, D.C., and is considerably different from the 1975 film vers ...

'' by

James Grady James Grady may refer to: * James Grady (footballer) (born 1971), Scottish footballer * James Grady (author) James Grady (born April 30, 1949) is an American writer and investigative journalist known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels on ...

, which features a young CIA analyst as the primary protagonist. Blocker also serves on the board of nonprofits Peace4Kids and HumanSlavery.com, organizations dedicated to improving the future of youth in foster care, and ending human trafficking and exploitation, respectively. In November 2020,

reported that Blocker was among President-elect Joe Biden's shortlist for Director of the CIA. Axios reported that insiders viewed him as a front-runner; but reporter

Spencer Ackerman Spencer Ackerman is an American journalist and writer. Focusing primarily on national security, he began his career at ''The New Republic'' in 2002 before writing for ''Wired'', ''The Guardian'' and ''The Daily Beast''. He won a 2012 National ...

characterized Blocker as "a long shot". In the end, the Biden nominated

References

External links

"Darrell M. Blocker - His Journey in the CIA as a Real Life 007 Secret Agent,"
''The Deal with Danny Brown'', September 16, 2019 (video)
"The Spy Whisperer - Darrell M. Blocker,"

International Spy Museum The International Spy Museum is an independent non-profit museum which documents the tradecraft, history, and contemporary role of espionage. It holds the largest collection of international espionage artifacts on public display. The museum opened ...

, February 18, 2020 (video).
"What's Your Water? Episode 11: Darrell Blocker, former CIA Operative,"
GED Productions, May 21, 2020 (video).

Darrell Blocker, ABC News, January 20, 2021 (video). {{DEFAULTSORT:Blocker, Darrell Year of birth missing (living people) Living people United States Air Force officers People of the Central Intelligence Agency Central Intelligence Agency operations American intelligence analysts University of Georgia alumni People from Hephzibah, Georgia People from Augusta, Georgia ABC News people African-American United States Air Force personnel African-American Jews American Conservative Jews American chief operating officers Converts to Judaism from Christianity People from Santa Monica, California Military personnel from Georgia (U.S. state)