1. Michael Leiter grew up in Englewood, N.J., where he graduated from the Dwight-Englewood Prepatory School in 1987.
2. He received a B.A. from Columbia University in 1991.
3. He served as a naval flight officer in the Navy from 1991 to 1997. During his military service, he flew EA-6B Prowlers and participated in operations in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq.
4. After retiring from the military, he attended Harvard Law School. Leiter was elected the 113th president of the Harvard Law Review during his second year. He graduated magna cum laude with a J.D. in 2000.
5. He has experience as a firefighter and an emergency medical technician.
6. After law school, he worked as a law clerk for Associate Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court and then served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia from 2002 to 2005.
7. While a part of the Robb-Silberman commission, which dealt with intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, he helped develop the National Security Branch of the FBI.
8. President George W. Bush appointed him as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in 2008, after Leiter had served as the acting director since November 2007. He was sworn in on June 12, 2008.
9. He enjoys gardening and watching Washington Nationals games.
10. Leiter was criticized recently for taking a family skiing vacation in the days after the bombing attempt on Christmas.
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Chris Petty of GA 12:37AM January 12, 2010
Vicki of LA 5:26PM January 08, 2010
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