Fred Burton

Fred Burton is one of the world's foremost authorities on security and terrorism. He oversees Stratfor's analysis of global security developments and consults with clients on security-related issues affecting their business assets or personal safety. He also guides Stratfor's extensive coverage of the security environment in Mexico and closely monitors Mexican drug cartels, their areas of influence and their drug trafficking routes. Before joining Stratfor, Burton was a counterterrorism agent with the U.S. State Department from 1985 to 1999.

During his 14-year career, Burton was involved in many high-profile investigations including:

• The search for Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing, resulting in his arrest
• The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
• The killing of Rabbi Meir Kahane and al Qaeda's New York City bombing plots before 9/11
• Libyan-backed terrorist attacks against diplomats in Sanaa and Khartoum
• The deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphel and Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Burton was deputy chief of counterterrorism at the Diplomatic Security Service, where he was in charge of preventing and investigating attacks against diplomatic personnel and facilities. While a Stratfor analyst, he was appointed to the Border Security Council and served as the Assistant Director for Intelligence & Counterterrorism at the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Burton is the author of the bestselling memoir, GHOST: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent (Random House, 2008), the story of his role in the fight against the burgeoning terrorist threat in the 1980s and beyond. His latest book, Chasing Shadows: A Special Agent's Lifelong Hunt to Bring a Cold War Assassin to Justice (Palgrave, 2011), follows his 35-year quest to solve the murder of an Israeli diplomat assassinated in his childhood neighborhood.

Burton has been featured as a terrorism and security expert in numerous media outlets, including ABC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Show, NBC's The Today Show, CBS's The Early Show, CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, NPR, Al Jazeera English, FOX News and the Financial Times.

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AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Terrorism Trends and Tactics
• Supply Chain Threats
• Countersurveillance
• High Net Worth Family Protection
• Terrorist Organizations
• Industrial Espionage
• Travel and Hotel Security
• Border Security
• Domestic Hate Groups
• Kidnappings