Rick Francona is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, having served with the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. His tours of duty include Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, with operational travel in virtually every country in the Middle East. Since early 2003, Francona has been a Middle East military analyst for NBC News and can be seen regularly on NBC, MSNBC and CNBC.

Heather Mac Donald is the John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor to City Journal. A non-practicing lawyer, Mac Donald has clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She was recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize for Outstanding Intellectual Achievement. Her writings on national security issues have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the New York Post, National Review Online and the Washington Post.

David B. Rivkin Jr. is a partner in the Washington office of Baker & Hostetler LLP, a visiting fellow at the Nixon Center, and a contributing editor of the National Review and National Interest. He specializes in regulatory and litigation work, with a particular emphasis on constitutional, international law and public policy issues. Before to returning to the private sector, Mr. Rivkin served in a variety of legal and policy positions in the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, including stints at the White House Counsel’s office, Office of the Vice President and the Departments of Justice and Energy.

Jack Cloonan is a 25-year veteran of the FBI and an internationally respected security expert. Since retiring from the FBI, where he received commendations and awards for counterterrorism and investigations, he has served as a counterterrorism consultant and commentator for ABC News. Cloonan is currently the president of Clayton Consultants, a global-risk and crisis-management firm that assists victims of kidnapping around the world.

John D. Hutson is a retired rear admiral, having served as the Navy’s judge advocate general from 1997 to 2000. He currently serves as the president and dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire. As the judge advocate general of the Navy, Admiral Hutson presided over the JAG Corps — 1,600 officers, enlisted and civilian personnel in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marines — and advised the secretary of the Navy, the commandant of the Marines, and the senior leadership of the Navy in all legal matters related to military justice.

Darius Rejali professor of political science and chair of the political science department at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, is internationally recognized as an expert on government torture and interrogation. He is a 2003 Carnegie Scholar and the author of Torture and Democracy (2007).