Dan Senor

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Dan Senor
Born Daniel Samuel Senor
(1971-11-06) November 6, 1971 (age 41)
Utica, New York
Alma mater University of Western Ontario
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Harvard Business School
Religion Judaism[1]
Spouse(s) Campbell Brown (m. 2006)
Children Eli James Senor (b. 2007)
Asher Liam Senor (b. 2009)

Daniel Samuel "Dan" Senor (/ˈsiːnər/; born November 6, 1971) is an American writer and political adviser. He was a senior foreign policy adviser to U.S. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He is most noted for his former position as chief spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Since his Iraq service, he has been a Fox News contributor and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal among other publications. He is co-author of the book Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle (2009) about the economy of Israel and globalization in the Middle East. He is married to television news personality Campbell Brown.

Contents

Early life and education [edit]

Senor was born in Utica, New York, and grew up in Toronto, Ontario.[2] He attended the Leo Baeck Day School[3] and graduated from Forest Hill Collegiate Institute[4] and received a B.A. in History from the University of Western Ontario in 1994.[5] He attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem[6] and received an MBA from Harvard in 2001.

Career [edit]

Early career [edit]

Senor spent much of the 1990s working in Congress, as both a foreign policy advisor and Communications Director to former U.S. Senator and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (R-MI).

From 2001 to 2003, he was an investment banker at the Carlyle Group.[7]

He recently declined an opportunity to run as a Republican for the United States Senate, opting instead to initiate a new think tank, the Foreign Policy Initiative, together with William Kristol and Robert Kagan.[8]

Iraq [edit]

In the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and during the fighting, Senor was a Pentagon and White House advisor based in Doha, Qatar at U.S. Central Command Forward; he was subsequently based in Kuwait working with General Jay Garner during the final days of the fighting (Operation Iraqi Freedom ended on December 18, 2011) and in southern Iraq when the Iraqi regime fell.

Senor formally re-located to Baghdad on April 20, 2003. He traveled with General Garner’s team in the first American post-war civilian protection-unit, becoming one of the first American civilians to enter Baghdad since the fall of the regime. In Iraq, Senor served as Chief Spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, a Senior Advisor to Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, and an adviser to the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.

According to Rajiv Chandrasekaran, the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Senor was known for the zealous spin that put a good face on the disaster unfolding in Baghdad. Information he released to the press at times had little relevance to the actual situation in the city. He neither spoke nor understood Arabic and seemed to have little understanding of Iraqi concerns and customs.[9] Maureen Dowd wrote about his role in Iraq, "As the spokesman for Paul Bremer during the Iraq occupation, Mr. Senor helped perpetrate one of the biggest foreign policy bungles in U.S. history. The clueless desert viceroys summarily disbanded the Iraqi Army, forced de-Baathification, stood frozen in denial as thugs looted ministries and museums, deluded themselves about the growing insurgency and misled reporters with their Panglossian scenarios of progress."[10]

Senor remained in Iraq until the summer of 2004. His 15 months working for the CPA from Baghdad made him one of the longest-serving American civilians in Iraq at the time.[6] For his service, he was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, one of the Pentagon’s highest civilian honors.

Current activities [edit]

Senor is the co-author, with Saul Singer, of Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. The book,published by Twelve Books in November 2009, examines the entrepreneurial economy of Israel and explores the cultural and social environment supporting it.[11] The book has provoked a wide range of responses, from positive reviews that hail its research and portrayal of often-neglected facets of Israeli society, to negative reviews that claim the book implicitly justifies never-ending conflict in the region by positing the conflict of an engine of Israeli productivity and innovation.

Senor is an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.[12] He has hosted two investigative documentaries on Iraq and Iran for Fox News, where he is a contributor. He is also published frequently by The Wall Street Journal, and has authored pieces for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New York Post, and The Weekly Standard.

President George W. Bush appointed Senor in May 2008 to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel.[13]

In March 2010, national Republican leaders encouraged Senor to run against freshman Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in New York. Senor was reported to be seriously considering a challenge,[14] although he ultimately decided against it, saying in a statement this "wasn't the right time in my family and business life for me to run."[15]

Role in the Romney campaign [edit]

In 2012, Senor served as a foreign policy adviser to U.S. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.[16][17] In August 2012, Politico claimed if Romney were elected Senor "would likely get a top West Wing job, perhaps deputy chief of staff or even national security adviser".[18] He gave "intensive coaching" to vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan for the latter's debate with Vice President Joe Biden in October, 2012.[19]

Personal life [edit]

In April 2006, Senor married Campbell Brown, then weekend anchor of The Today Show on NBC[20] and host of Campbell Brown formerly on CNN. They have two children.[21][22] His father-in-law is former Louisiana Insurance Commissioner and Secretary of State James H. "Jim" Brown, a Democrat.

References [edit]

  1. ^ bloom, nate, "Celebrities", April 18, 2008. Text truncated but interpretable.
  2. ^ Brady, Lois Smith, "Campbell Brown and Dan Senor", New York Times, April 9, 2006.
  3. ^ Leo Baeck webpage (login required).
  4. ^ Slater, Joanna, "With roots in Canada, a key advisor helps Romney push for the presidency", The Globe and Mail, July 30 2012.
  5. ^ Makow, Henry, " Dan Senor - Portrait of an Illuminati Facilitator", HenryMakow.com, August 1, 2012.
  6. ^ a b "Dan Senor to Speak at the University of Florida", Accent (sg.ufl.edu), February 21, 2005.
  7. ^ Marshall, Joshua Micah; Laura Rozen, and Colin Soloway, "The Washington Monthly's Who's Who, December 2003: Special Baghdad edition", Washington Monthly, December 2003
  8. ^ Beckerman, Gal: "Senor Decides Against Running for Senate, Citing Family and Business", The Forward, 24 March 2010.
  9. ^ Chandrasekaran, Rajiv, (2007). Imperial Life in the Emerald City. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 144-147, 151-153, 229-230. ISBN 978-0-307-47753-8
  10. ^ Dowd, Maureen (September 16, 2012) "Neocons slither back: Romney and Ryan are taking their cues from hawks who got it wrong the last time." Washington Post. (Retrieved 9-17-12).
  11. ^ Senor, Dan, and Saul Singer, Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, Hachette Books (2009).
  12. ^ Daniel Senor biography, Council on Foreign Relations, accessed March 11, 2010
  13. ^ Lake, Eli, Bush Visit May Boost Olmert, New York Sun, May 13, 2008.
  14. ^ Barbaro, Michael (March 10, 2010). "Another Republican Is Encouraged to Join the Race for Senate". New York Times. 
  15. ^ Rovzar, Chris (March 24, 2010). "Dan Senor Won't Run Against Kirsten Gillibrand". New York Magazine. 
  16. ^ Acosta, Jim, "Romney would 'respect' Israeli strike against Iran, campaign adviser says", CNN, July 29, 2012.
  17. ^ "Paul Ryan selection shrouded in secrecy", Fox News, 12 August 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  18. ^ Allen, Mike, and Jim Vandehei, "Who’s on the inside track for a Romney Cabinet", Politico, August 28, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-28.
  19. ^ Dowd, Maureen, "An Irish Catholic Wake-Up", New York Times, October 13, 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  20. ^ Silverman, Stephen M., "NBC's Campbell Brown Gets Married", People.com, April 2, 2006.
  21. ^ Dyball, Rennie, "CNN Anchor Campbell Brown Has a Baby Boy", People.com, December 18, 2007.
  22. ^ "Campbell Brown Welcomes Baby Asher Liam Senor", The Huffington Post, April 6, 2009.

External links [edit]

Authority control
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