D'Amuro grew up in
upstate New York. He attended
Mercy College and
Niagara University from where he obtained his
bachelor's degree. Since May 1979 he worked for the
FBI. Here he got experienced in research of
bank robberies,
fraud,
organized crime,
drug traffic and comparable matters. After the
1993 World Trade Center bombing took place, his research area changed to
terrorist attacks. In the following years he was involved with the research of the
1998 United States embassy bombings in
Tanzania and
Kenya, the
2000 USS Cole bombing in
Aden,
Yemen, and the destructive
attacks of September 11, 2001, on the
World Trade Center and
The Pentagon. In course of the years he therefore became an expert on
al-Qaeda. After the attacks of September 11, D'Amuro was appointed assistant director of the counterterrorism division of the FBI. Here he led thousands of agents and implemented policy that resulted in a better exchange of data between the FBI,
CIA, the
Department of Homeland Security, and the
Department of Defense. He also ordered the composition of a centralized
Terrorism Watch List that combined all the former registers into a single and comprehensive database. In August 2003 he was promoted to director of the office of New York, which is the largest office with the highest profile. At this stage he went out to give public lectures regularly on the changes that had been effectuated at the bureau since September 11. In March 2005 he left the FBI after a service of 26 years. Afterwards he became director of Nine Thirty Capital Management and chairman of the board of
Giuliani Security & Safety. In March 2006 he became a commissary of
Mercy College and since April 2008 he is also the director of American Defense Systems. Regularly he makes his appearances as senior analyst at the television network
CNN. == Honor ==