Clare M. Lopez

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Lopez in 2017

Clare M. Lopez (born 1953)[1] is an American former CIA officer and Vice President for Research and Analysis at the Center for Security Policy.[2] She has been described as an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist.[3][4][5]

Career[edit]

Lopez received a BA in communications and French from Notre Dame College, and a MA in international relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, before completing Marine Corps Officer Candidates School.[6] She then declined a military commission to instead join the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a career operations officer, gaining deep experience in the Middle East.[6]

During her service she acquired "extensive expertise in counterintelligence, counternarcotics, and counterproliferation issues with a career regional focus on the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans," and "has served in or visited over two dozen nations worldwide, [and] speaks several languages, including Spanish, Bulgarian, French, German, and Russian."[7] Lopez worked for the CIA for two decades before later joining Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy (CSP)[4] as Vice President for Research and Analysis from 2014 to 2020.[8] In the CSP she described her work as "project manager" in the "counterjihad movement".[9]

Lopez has also been vice president of the Intelligence Summit, a senior fellow at the Clarion Project, co-founder of the Iran Policy Committee,[1] professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Senior Scientific Researcher at the Battelle Memorial Institute, a Senior Intelligence Analyst, Subject Matter Expert, and previously produced Technical Threat Assessments for U.S. Embassies at the Department of State.[7]

Views and activities[edit]

Lopez at the 2017 CPAC conference

Lopez has published papers for the Gatestone Institute and the CSP,[10] and given interviews and presentations claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood, which she considers to be a terrorist organization, has "infiltrated the United States government, and that Sharia law is taking hold in American courts."[2] She "believes President Obama and his administration have a 'pattern' of 'enabling' or directly supporting Muslim terrorist groups," and "claims that Obama and Huma Abedin, an aide of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood."[2] She has said that because Obama's father was Muslim, that "de facto makes him [Obama] a Muslim,"[1] and that the "Obama administration very clearly has switched sides in the war on terror."[11] Furthermore, she asserts that the Muslim Brotherhood has an "unholy alliance" with the Black Lives Matter movement, that 80% of American mosques promote extremism, and that there are Muslim no-go zones in Minnesota.[2]

Lopez was featured in the documentary The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America in 2008,[7] was a co-author of the CSP "Team B II" report Shariah: The Threat To America in 2010, and she has written for news websites Breitbart News and WorldNetDaily.[4] In 2016 she was an advisor to the Ted Cruz presidential campaign for national security,[5][12][13] and was later reportedly being considered for deputy national security advisor to President-elect Donald Trump.[3][4][10] According to a Trump adviser, Lopez was considered "one of the intellectual thought leaders about why we have to fight back against radical Islam."[14] Trump also cited her work to support his proposed Muslim immigration ban.[3][4]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Team B II (2010). Shariah: The Threat To America: An Exercise In Competitive Analysis. Center for Security Policy Press. ISBN 978-0982294765.
  • The Tiger Team (2015). The Secure Freedom Strategy: A Plan for Victory Over the Global Jihad Movement. Center for Security Policy Press. ISBN 978-1507756133.
  • Lopez, Clare M.; Gaffney Jr., Frank J. (2016). See No Sharia: 'Countering Violent Extremism' and the Disarming of America's First Line of Defense. Center for Security Policy Press. ISBN 978-1530234332.
  • Lopez, Clare M.; Rhode, Harold; Hull, Christopher C. (2018). Ally No More: Erdogan's New Turkish Caliphate and the Rising Jihadist Threat to the West. Center for Security Policy Press. ISBN 978-1717071675.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Potok, Mark; Smith, Janet (June 10, 2015). "Women Against Islam". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center.
  2. ^ a b c d "Factsheet: Clare Lopez". Bridge Initiative. Georgetown University. December 4, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Samuels, Gabriel (November 15, 2016). "Donald Trump considering appointing anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Clare Lopez as deputy security adviser". The Independent.
  4. ^ a b c d e Fields, Michelle (November 14, 2016). "Trump Reportedly Considering Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theorist For Deputy National Security Adviser". The Huffington Post.
  5. ^ a b Isaacs, Arnold R. (April 14, 2016). "Meet the radical anti-Islam conspiracy theorists advising Ted Cruz". The Washington Post.
  6. ^ a b Miniter, Frank (2018). Spies in Congress: Inside the Democrats' Covered-Up Cyber Scandal. Post Hill. p. 142. ISBN 9781682618042.
  7. ^ a b c "Top CIA, U.S. Secret Service, Counterterrorism and Airport Security Specialists Available for Interviews; Clare Lopez - Former CIA Officer, 30 Years Experience". PR Newswire. January 5, 2010.
  8. ^ "Speakers at 2022 NCFRW Winter Board Meeting, February 25-27" (PDF). North Carolina Federation of Republican Women. Retrieved July 25, 2023.
  9. ^ Emmons, Alex (September 14, 2020). "At Homeland Security, Anti-Muslim Activist Katharine Gorka Maintained Ties With Islamophobes". The Intercept.
  10. ^ a b Williams, Jennifer (November 16, 2016). "How to get a top national security job in Trump's administration: be afraid of Muslims". Vox.
  11. ^ Hananoki, Eric (March 23, 2016). "Cruz Adviser Clare Lopez Claims Obama "Switched Sides" On Terrorism Fight". Media Matters for America.
  12. ^ Pinkington, Ed (March 25, 2016). "Ted Cruz campaign's anti-Muslim propagandists called 'terrifying'". The Guardian.
  13. ^ Zezima, Katie (March 17, 2016). "Cruz criticized for appointing anti-Muslim foreign policy advisers". The Washington Post.
  14. ^ "Trump National Security Team Includes Surprising Names". NBC News. November 11, 2016.

External links[edit]

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