Board of Advisors
M.E. "Spike" Bowman, Esq.
Spike Bowman is a graduate of Willamette University (B.A.), the University of
Wisconsin (M.A.), the University of Idaho (J.D., Cum Laude) and The
George Washington University (LL.M., International and Comparative Law, With
Highest Honors). He was an intelligence officer in the Navy before being
sent to law school. After law school he became the first Judge Advocate assigned
to the National Security Agency. Following that, the Navy sent him back to
school for his LL.M., and then he set up the national security law program for
the Navy. Spike has had various degrees of responsibility for the
prosecution of every major spy except Aldrich Ames in the past 25 years. He
served for eleven years in the Senior Executive Service of the FBI where he was
Senior Counsel, National Security Law and Director, Intelligence Issues Group.
In 2009 he retired from public service after two years as Deputy, National
Counterintelligence Executive. He has authored numerous articles on national
security issues and is a frequent lecturer at conferences and universities both
in the United States and abroad. He teaches, adjunct, at The George Washington
University and is a "Distinguished Fellow" at the University of Virginia College
of Law, Center for National Security Law and Policy.
Neal Puckett,
Esq.
Neal Puckett is a nationally renowned military criminal defense attorney
practicing from Alexandria, Virginia. He has represented military service
members in Afghanistan, England, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Spain,
and throughout the United States. Neal appears regularly on all major cable and
broadcast networks either on behalf of his clients or as an expert commentator
on military law. He earned a B.A. degree, magna cum laude, with a
double major in Psychology and Speech Communication from Indiana University,
where he was also a Phi Beta Kappa. He holds a J.D. degree from Indiana
University School of Law; an LL.M. degree in Criminal Law from the University of
San Diego School of Law; and an M.A. degree in National Security and Strategic
Studies from the U.S. Naval War College. Immediately upon his retirement from
the Marine Corps in 1997, he served a year as an Assistant Federal Public
Defender in Pensacola, Florida. He has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at
Creighton University School of Law, and has taught numerous trial advocacy
courses, as well as college and graduate courses in political science,
government, sociology, criminal justice and the legal process. He is admitted to
practice in the State of Indiana, the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Eastern
District of Virginia and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He also
currently chairs the Board of Governors of the Military Law Section for the
Virginia State Bar.
Mark S. Zaid, Esq.
Mark S. Zaid specializes in matters relating to national security, foreign
sovereign and diplomatic immunity, international torts and crimes, defamation,
the Constitution (First and Fifth Amendments), and the Freedom of
Information/Privacy Acts (FOI/PA). He teaches CLE courses for the D.C. Bar
Association on both FOIA and defending security clearances. He was named as a
2009 and 2010 Super Lawyer, as well as a 2009 Best Lawyer by
Washingtonian magazine, for his work on national security issues. Mark
is also the Executive Director of the James Madison Project, a Washington,
D.C.-based organization with the primary purpose of educating the public on
issues relating to intelligence gathering and operations, secrecy policies,
national security and government wrongdoing. He is the co-editor of
Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws. He is a graduate of
Albany Law School of Union University (NY) and the University of Rochester (NY)
and is a member of the Bars of New York State, Connecticut, Maryland, the
District of Columbia, and numerous federal courts.
Lt. Col.
Anthony Shaffer
Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer is a senior operations officer and Military
Operations Training Course (MOTC) graduate with over 23 years of field
experience. He has held numerous leadership positions, including as commander of
Operating Base (OB) Alpha (Defense Intelligence) and as directing Task Force
STRATUS IVY – a unit that conducted cutting edge technology and information
operations from the mid 90s through the turn of the century. He has played key
roles in multiple interagency operations that were conducted with the NSA, CIA
and FBI. He has appeared as an expert on military and intelligence
operations on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, ABC, Al Hurra, Sky News and other major
TV and radio programs, and has been interviewed by the New York Times
and other publications on pre-9/11 operations focused on Al Qaeda. He has
testified before Congress on issues relating to 9/11 intelligence and
operational failures. He was awarded the Bronze Star for the first of his two
combat tours to Afghanistan and continues to be an active member of the U.S.
Army Reserve. He is a 1986 graduate of Wright State University, where he
was awarded a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies. He is the
author of Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines
of Afghanistan -- and The Path to Victory.
Dr. Doron
Zimmermann
Doron Zimmermann currently serves as a senior civil servant in the Swiss government, after departing in June 2010 from a position as Assistant Professor of International Security Policy at the National Defense University's College of International Security Affairs (CISA) in Washington, DC. He earned his PhD at Cambridge University in the UK and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Senior Fellow with the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism (CAST), and a former member of the NATO/Partnership for Peace Combating Terrorism Working Group. He specializes in counterterrorism policy and in political violence movements in Western Europe and the Middle East. He has authored or co-authored several books, most recently How States Fight Terrorism (2007).