Philip Mudd

John Philip Mudd (born December 11, 1961) is an American media commentator and former counterterrorism official in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Early life and education Mudd was born on December 11, 1961, to his father, who worked in real estate, and his mother, a teacher at Barry University. He grew up in South Miami, where he attended LaSalle High School. Mudd graduated cum laude from Villanova University with a B.A. in English Literature in 1983. The following year he earned an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia. Mudd returned to the CIA in January 2002 to become Deputy Director of the CTC's Office of Terrorism Analysis. There, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Director of the CTC in December 2003, and served there until August 2005. During a 2013 interview on The Colbert Report, Mudd stated in response to a question of whether he had renditioned anybody, "I signed papers to do it, to have people renditioned", also saying that he thought it was the right thing to do.

Federal Bureau of Investigation On August 12, 2005, FBI Director Robert Mueller appointed Mudd to serve as the National Security Branch's Associate Executive Assistant Director, with the task to transform the FBI into a domestic intelligency agency. Some of Mudd's new concepts were criticized by FBI officials as "vague" and concerns about "ethnic targeting" were raised. Mudd encouraged agents to postpone the arrest of terrorism suspects and argued to instead surveil them in order to gain intelligence regarding connections to other operatives as well as information about groups' financial ties, a concept he initially struggled to implement. In April 2009, Mudd was nominated to the post of Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security by President Obama. From 2009 to 2010 he was a senior intelligence adviser to the FBI.

Life after government service Mudd resigned from government service in March 2010 and later became a regular commentator on CNN. His commentary has also been published by various other networks and print publications. He has authored three books. As of March 2019, Mudd's security clearance had not been revoked.

In early 2023, Mudd retired from his position at CNN.