Lawrence Thomas Di Rita (born March 12, 1958) is an American political advisor who served as an aide to

United States Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The ...

Donald Rumsfeld. He has also worked as a spokesman for

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

Early life and education

Born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, Di Rita received a Bachelor of Science degree from the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

in 1980 and a Master of Arts degree from the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of th ...

in 1987.

Career

He served as a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

officer until 1994, at which time Di Rita joined the

Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the preside ...

as Deputy Director of Foreign Policy and Defense Studies. Di Rita was policy director to the 1996 Presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Phil Gramm and Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison from 1996 until 2001. Di Rita served as acting

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs The Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, or ATSD (PA), is the principal staff advisor and assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense for public information, internal information, community relations, ...

and

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 ...

spokesmen under Secretary Rumsfeld. Reportedly, he was slated to become Secretary of the Army but his nomination was scuttled due to opposition in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. His prior position was Special Assistant to Rumsfeld. Throughout his time in

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

, Di Rita was considered the Defense Secretary's right-hand aide. Even after Rumsfeld's resignation, Di Rita was authorized by Rumsfeld to speak on his behalf to ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine regarding matters such as Rumsfeld's current plans and activities. In February 2001, he was one of the first to join Rumsfeld's Pentagon staff. In addition to handling legislative relations, press relations, and special projects for the Defense Secretary, Di Rita was also a regular

squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

opponent of Rumsfeld. He left the Department of Defense and joined Bank of America in May 2006. After the fall of the

regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

in 2003, Di Rita was assigned to assist retired Army general

Jay Garner Jay Montgomery Garner (born April 15, 1938) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who in 2003 was appointed as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, makin ...

, Director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA) in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. He spent nearly two months in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

helping Garner and ORHA lay the foundation for the arrival of Ambassador L. Paul Bremer and the

Coalition Provisional Authority ) , capital = Baghdad , largest_city = capital , common_languages = ArabicKurdish English (''de facto'') , government_type = Transitional government , legislature = Iraqi Governing Council , title_leader = Administrator , leader1 = Jay ...

. Di Rita returned to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and the Department of Defense, where he assumed the responsibilities as chief Pentagon spokesman and head of DoD Public Affairs. He later served as Counsellor to the Department of Defense, prior to his departure to the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

. Lawrence Di Rita has a column in the National Review Online.

References

External links

LinkedIn profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Di Rita, Lawrence 1958 births Living people People from Detroit American people of Italian descent United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni The Heritage Foundation United States Assistant Secretaries of Defense Michigan Republicans