Darlene Almont

Intelligence professional with over 30 years of military and civilian experience

Professional Experience

Adjunct Professor (& former U.S. Air Force Major) Darlene Almont’s complete intelligence career (civilian and military) spans more than 30 years: 25 military service years (10 of which were active duty – with an 11^th active duty year called up for 9/11, and the remainder in the reserves); and 21 years as a civilian intelligence officer, concurrent with her military reserves career.

The breadth and depth of Mrs. Almont’s civilian & military career has included senior positions with:

• the FBI (assistant section chief/senior intelligence officer);
• Assistant Professor, National Intelligence University;
• the Senior Defense Analyst/Military Intelligence Officer to the POTUS’ (President of the United States) Middle East (Crisis) Task Force (for the Arab Spring);
• CIA’s clandestine service, Clandestine Service Trainee Program, Special Operations Program Officer;
• DNI Exceptional Analyst research fellow;
• Joint duty assignment positions on the DNI staff, in the National Intelligence Council and the Information Sharing Program Office;
• intelligence work for the Defense Intelligence Agency as a Senior Intelligence Officer, Senior Intelligence Analyst, Branch Chief, and HUMINT collector in almost every component of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA/DI, DIA/DT, DIA/J-2/J2T and Joint Intelligence Alert Center, DIA/MARC, DIA/Defense HUMINT Service);
• DHS/TSA, serving as their sole and senior-most subject matter expert “Senior Intelligence Officer”;
• and serving as a military officer (United States Air Force, combat intelligence and HUMINT officer) at every echelon/level of the military (Air Force AND joint environments, including front-line field/combat assignments with Special Forces). F-16 fighter squadron intelligence officer; Chief of Air Threat & Tactics and Chief of Training (Central Command Air Forces); Executive Officer to the A-2 (Chief of Intelligence, Central Command Air Forces), field HUMINT Collection Officer, and hazardous duty zone Indications & Warning Duty Officer.

With the National Intelligence University (NIU), Darlene teaches or has taught terrorism, counter-terrorism, covert operations, homeland defense, intelligence analysis and advanced analysis courses, thesis development & methodology, and intelligence collection.  She also serves as a guest lecturer for Middle East and for Islam courses; and as a regular lecturer on analyzing Societal Violence for DIA’s Senior International Military Officer Fellows program.

As a military officer and DIA civilian, Professor Almont served hazardous duty assignments (both TDY & PCS) in the Philippines, Operations DESERT STORM, SOUTHERN WATCH, ENDURING FREEDOM, DESERT FOX, IRAQI FREEDOM, and Special Operations. These various intelligence assignments have taken her OCONUS, in Far East Asia and Near East Asia (the Middle East)s. Combined, her multiple hazardous duty service time totals more than two years of hazardous duty/combat zone service.

In 2008, Professor Almont deployed to Iraq, serving as a DIA civilian senior analyst supporting the most elite “tip of the spear” Army counter-terrorism front-line operators. Based on observations there, Professor Almont saw trends and developed a competitive proposal for the DNI Exceptional Analyst program.  She and her topic were competitively chosen in 2008, and she became a DNI Exceptional Analyst Fellow, culminating in a product “The Greater Middle East-Maghreb, Youth Bulge, and the Military-Aged Male; a product which forecast what two years later became known as the Arab Spring. This work marked the beginning of her 11+ year research project: “Analyzing & Forecasting Societal Violence – Terrorism, Uprising, & Unrest – For National Security government and intelligence purposes.”

Her 2008 DNI Research Fellow project (an early version of her ongoing societal violence research work) forecast what in 2010 became the Arab Spring.

Because of her DNI Exceptional Analyst Research Fellow project work in 2008, she was “by name” requested to serve as the inaugural and sole DIA Senior Defense Analyst at CIA in Jan 2011, as a senior DoD representative/analyst on the Special POTUS Arab Spring Middle East Crisis Task Force (METF) – producing hundreds of POTUS/Executive crisis products.

As a civilian analyst, Professor Almont worked seven years as a Senior Intelligence Analyst for DIA’s Middle East/North Africa Office/Center (MARC).  With DIA/DI, her positions/portfolios have included:  Libya, Maghreb, Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Iraq, Militant Islam, and Military Leadership.

Mrs. Almont has a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Foreign Languages – with distinction, from George Mason University (2001). She also obtained a University Level Graduate Certificate in Translation from George Mason University the same year; and has worked as a professional freelance technical translator. She served as adjunct faculty at George Mason, teaching in their Department of Modern and Classical Languages, until 9/11 recall to active duty.

She is professionally fluent (4+, speaking, writing, listening, reading) in French and has studied five other languages, covering every major language family (and linguistics).  She has worked as Program Manager for a Foreign Language Machine Translation Document Exploitation system evaluation (DOCEX) Evaluator/Study Lead/Program Manager for a USG DOCEX testing laboratory.

Her B.A. degree, in French, is from the University of Louisville; and she has a Diplôme d’Etudes Françaises from the Université Paul Valery, Montpellier, France.

She has lived and worked in France, the Philippines, and Japan; and she has also spent significant time (deployed, etc.) in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Morocco, Algeria, Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, and Spain.

Professor Almont is 25 years married to Christopher J. Almont – DIA’s Senior Defense Expert for the Middle East (DISL/SES subject matter expert).  They have two children, three dogs, two fish, and a bunny.  She is: a religious and aspiring “Benedictine Oblate” in discernment, a voraciously addicted reader; and also enjoys camping, cross stitch, training service dogs, gardening, and attending and supporting her college-aged son and high-school daughter’s activities.

Courses

• IWP 652 / IWPO 652: Estimative Intelligence Analysis and Epistemology