Michael Thomas Flynn (Eng. Michael Thomas Flynn) is a retired US Army Lieutenant General, 18th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (2012-2014), former commander of the Joint Command of the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Functional Component and a former member of the Defense Intelligence Council.
Place of Birth. Education. Michael Flynn was born in December 1958 in Middletown, Rhode Island. Flynn is from a banker's family, a descendant of Irish immigrants. He received a bachelor's degree in management from the University of Rhode Island in 1981, after which he served in the Airborne Forces. He then served with the 82nd Airborne Division (XVIII Airborne Corps) and the US Joint Special Operations Command. He also served with the 25th Infantry Division, the Joint Army Combat Training Center, and the US Army Intelligence Center.
Flynn received an MBA from Golden Gate University, an MBA from the US Army Command and General Staff College, an MFA in national security and strategy from the Naval War College, and an honorary doctorate from the World Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Colombia.
He served as Assistant Chief of Staff, G2, XVIII Airborne Corps (Fort Bragg, NC) from June 2001 and Director of Intelligence, Joint Task Force 180 in Afghanistan until July 2002. Flynn commanded the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade from June 2002 to June 2004
In 2004-2007, he participated in the operations of the US Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq and Afghanistan, searched for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the right hand of Bin Laden, in 2007-2008 he led the intelligence of the US Central Command, in 2009-2010 - intelligence of the multinational contingent in Afghanistan.
From 2012-2014, Flynn headed the Pentagon's Intelligence Agency. It was he who in March 2014 said that military intelligence provided the US leadership with information about the upcoming movement of Russian troops in Crimea seven days before the occupation of the peninsula began.
In August 2014, Flynn retired from both the head of military intelligence and military service, after which he founded a private firm providing intelligence services to private businesses.
Political career. The former head of military intelligence, though a Democrat by party affiliation, took an active part in the Trump presidential campaign and spoke in his support at the Republican National Conference. On November 18, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump offered Michael Flynn the post of National Security Adviser.
On February 14, 2017, Michael Flynn resigned. The resignation was preceded by criticism of Flynn for discussing the issue of sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak, in late December 2016.
Views and assessments. Flynn said that the Obama administration underestimated the danger posed by Syrian Islamists and jihadists fighting Assad, criticized the deal with Iran. Flynn considers the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi one of the worst mistakes of the United States, as these events paved the way for the rise of Islamism in the Middle East. In the fall of 2015, he fully supported the Kremlin's military operation in Syria, saying that it was directed against the Islamic State. Flynn has been interviewed by Russia Today several times, and in 2015 he attended a celebration of the anniversary of a Russian propaganda TV channel, where he was seated at the same table with Putin. He is co-author of the book Battlefield: How We Can Win the Global War on Radical Islam.
Family: married for over 30 years to Laurie Andrade. Children - two sons (son Michael Flynn Jr. - director of the private company Flynn Intel Group).
November 30, 2024