Former CIA’s Michael Morell Talked Terrorism to Aspen Wye Fellows

Michael Morrell, former Deputy Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency and twice its Acting Director, briefed 130 Aspen Wye Fellows Sunday, December 13, on America’s fight against terrorism from Al Qaida to ISIS, considered the greatest national security threat facing the US since the Cold War. The discussion took place at the Aspen Institute’s 1,000-acre campus in Queenstown.

Michael Morrell is one of the country’s most prominent national security professionals, and spent 33 years with the Central Intelligence Agency. In his remarks, he described being at President Bush’s side on 9/11/2001 when terrorists struck America, and advising President Obama in the White House Situation Room on 5/1/2011 when America struck back killing Osama bin Ladin. For several years, Mr. Morrell briefed the President every morning on international security issues, travelling with the President throughout the world. In his dialogue with the Fellows, Morrell looked retrospectively over the last twenty years with the CIA and forward to what comes next in America’s and the world’s struggle with international terrorism.

The presentation was part of the Aspen Institute’s program to expose the Aspen Wye Fellows to world thought leaders in a variety of disciplines.In addition to Morell, speakers during the Fellows’ current Tenth Year Season include Admiral Mike Mullen, USN (Ret.), former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff; Peter Wittig, Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Dr. William Adams, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities; Lisa Mensah, US under secretary of agriculture for rural development; Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs and associate dean for academic affairs at The Milano School of International Affairs, The New School; Judge S. Jay Plager, senior circuit judge for the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, and Admiral Robert J. Papp, Jr., USCG (Ret.), US State Department Special Representative for the Arctic.

The Aspen Wye Fellows are a group of Eastern Shore residents who provide support to the Aspen Institute, its Wye River Campus, and its international program of fostering leadership based on enduring values. The Institute, based in Washington, DC, provides a nonpartisan venue for discussing and acting on critical issues through its policy programs, public conferences and events, seminars and young leader fellowships around the globe.

For information regarding Aspen Wye Fellows membership, interested individuals may contact Judy Price, Manager of the Aspen Wye Campus, at 410-820-5432 or [email protected].