Richard Kerr

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According to his Department of Homeland Security biography, Richard J. Kerr "served in the Intelligence Community for 32 years-from September 1960 until March 1992. He started as a country analyst in CIA and ended his career as the senior professional intelligence officer in the U.S. government serving as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. During his career, he managed a full range of CIA elements, served in all four directorates, and led two of them. He also had key jobs on the Intelligence Community Staff; spent two years on the staff of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Forces Pacific; and was the President of the Security Affairs Support Association (SASA). He currently serves on corporate boards, sits on the advisory panel for DOE laboratories, and is a frequent consultant to government and industry. During his career, Mr. Kerr was awarded two National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medals for work in the Intelligence Community and two Distinguished Intelligence Medals for work in CIA. He was given the Citizens Medal-the nations second highest civilian award-by President George Herbert Walker Bush for his work in support of Desert Storm."

"Fourth public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" (cache file): Biography of Richard J. Kerr

  • Richard J. Kerr is an international consultant. From 1989 to 1992, Mr. Kerr was the deputy director of Central Intelligence. As such, he had responsibilities in the Intelligence Community and assisted in the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
  • From September 1991 to November 1991, he served as acting director of Central Intelligence.
  • From 1986 to 1989, he directed the CIA component that conducts political, military, economic, and social intelligence analysis and produced finished intelligence for U.S. policymakers. In 1986, he became deputy director for intelligence.
  • In July 1982, the director of Central Intelligence appointed Mr. Kerr associate director for intelligence.
  • From 1976 to 1982, Mr. Kerr was the director or deputy director of several analytic offices within the Directorate of Intelligence.
  • In 1976, he was named the deputy director of the office responsible for political analysis worldwide. He was also the director of the Office of East Asian Analysis and the director of the office responsible for producing the daily intelligence products, including briefing books for the president of the United States.
  • In Cuba during the 1962-1963 missile crisis, he analyzed information on Soviet forces and was the CIA representative to the commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Command. He also headed a task force planning for the use of new collection systems. Mr. Kerr also served as the deputy and chairman of the committee responsible for imagery requirements and exploitation and later as the executive officer for the Intelligence Community Staff.
  • In 1960, Mr. Kerr joined the CIA serving as an intelligence analyst primarily working on issues related to the Soviet Union.
  • He has received two National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medals for work in the Intelligence Community and two Distinguished Intelligence Medals for work in the CIA. President Bush gave him the Citizen's Medal for his work during Desert Storm.
  • Mr. Kerr holds a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Oregon, where he also did graduate work.
  • Mr. Kerr joined MITRE Corporation's board of trustees in February 1994.

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External links

  • Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay, Internal review backs CIA on Iraq, but notes lack of details, Knight-Ridder, July 2, 2003: "Former CIA deputy director Richard Kerr, who is leading the study, said he found that the spy agency was "surprisingly consistent" in reporting during the year before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Baghdad was trying to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. ... But Kerr, in a telephone interview with Knight Ridder, said the status and locations of those weapons programs was 'harder to conclude.'".
  • David Corn, More Evidence Bush Misled Nation, The Nation, July 7, 2003: "The day before Independence Day, Richard Kerr, a former CIA deputy director who is leading a review of the CIA's prewar intelligence on Iraq's unconventional weapons, held a series of interviews with journalists and revealed that his unfinished inquiry had so far found that the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been somewhat ambiguous, that analysts at the CIA and other intelligence services had received pressure from the Bush administration, and that the CIA had not found any proof of operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime. ... In other words, Bush lied."
  • John Diamond, CIA will examine raw data on Iraq, USA Today, November 19, 2003: "The probe, which has been conducted by a four-member team of former senior CIA analysts since early this year, was broadened this week. It will now extend into 20 volumes of raw intelligence reports, such as electronic intercepts, spy satellite photos and reports from human sources. Until now, the team had limited its work to a far smaller volume of finished intelligence reports and assessments. ... The expanded probe was disclosed by two intelligence officials who asked not be named, and was confirmed by Richard Kerr, former CIA deputy director and head of the four-member team."
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