Naveed Alexis Jamali (born February 20, 1976) is an American commentator on national security and former

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

asset. He worked for the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

as an intelligence officer in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

. He is the author of the non-fiction book ''How to Catch a Russian Spy'' (). He also co-chairs the Swatting Mitigation Advisory Committee for the

Seattle Police Department The Seattle Police Department (SPD) is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, United States, except for the campus of the University of Washington, which is under the responsibility of its own police department ...

Biography

Jamali was born to a French mother and a Pakistani father who met while attending graduate school in New York. They later opened a research procurement agency in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, Fascient Books, Inc., which specialized in finding academic and open-source material. Starting in 1988, they cooperated with the FBI, which was interested in Soviet (and later Russian) intelligence agents after they came into their office requesting to do business. Jamali graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

(1999) with a degree in Political Science and Government. After 9/11, he contacted the FBI to offer his services as his parents were nearing retirement. He later became a

double agent In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organ ...

when a Russian

GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...

member named Oleg Kulikov attempted to recruit him. The ruse lasted from 2005 to 2009. During this time, Kulikov paid Jamali for what he thought were classified documents. The operation ended with Jamali being "arrested" by the FBI in front of Kulikov, blowing Kulikov's cover as a diplomat in the United States. Following the operation, Jamali was sworn in to the

as an Intelligence Officer. Since then, he has become a contributor to

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and a senior

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at the

Foreign Policy Research Institute The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world as well as ...

, an American

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

. In 2015, Jamali and

Ellis Henican Ellis Henican (born October 9, 1958) is an American columnist at ''Newsday'' and AM New York as well as a political analyst on the Fox News Channel. He hosts a nationally syndicated weekend show on Talk Radio Network and is the voice of "Storm ...

co-wrote a book, ''How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent''.

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

purchased the film rights for the book; it was announced that

Mark Heyman Mark Heyman (born 1979) is an American screenwriter and film producer who is best known for co-writing ''Black Swan'' (2010) and ''The Skeleton Twins'' (2014). Early life Heyman grew up in New Mexico. He attended Brown University, where he major ...

will write the screenplay with Marc Webb directing. On November 27, 2018, Jamali announced a run for the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-l ...

, representing District 7, after the incumbent,

Sally Bagshaw Sally G. Bagshaw is an American politician and former member of the Seattle City Council. She was first elected in 2009 after winning in the nonpartisan primary election and defeating David Bloom in the general election with 69 percent of the vot ...

, announced her retirement. He lost the primary, garnering 3% of the vote.

Reporting

In 2019, Jamali joine
Newsweek
first as a columnist, then as an editor-at-large. He has reported extensively on matters of National Security and Intelligence and was part of the team that broke the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi raid

References

External links

*
Russian-diplomat eviction only scratches surface of spy network
2017 article by Jamali in ''Military Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Jamali, Naveed Living people 1976 births New York University alumni American people of French descent American people of Pakistani descent Federal Bureau of Investigation agents People from Dobbs Ferry, New York United States Navy reservists MSNBC people