Biographical Sketch

Bill Gertz, 55, is a defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, a position he has held since 1985.

Bill is the author of five books. His 1999 book, “Betrayal: How the Clinton Administration Undermined American Security,” (Regnery, May 1999) was a national bestseller. His second book, “The China Threat: How the People's Republic Targets America,” (Regnery) was released in November 2000. His book, "Breakdown: How America's Intelligence Failures Led to September 11," was published in August 2002 and was a national bestseller. The updated softcover edition was published in May 2003.

Bill wrote "Treachery: How America's Friends And Foes Are Secretly Arming Our Enemies," in 2005, a candid look at the growing problem of arms proliferation. The book was a national bestseller. His most recent book is "Enemies: How America's Foes Steal Our Vital Secrets -- And How We Let It Happen," a critical look at recent spy cases and counterintelligence failures. It also calls for using aggressive counterintelligence techniques to stop Islamist extremists in the global war on terrorism.

He writes a weekly column called Inside the Ring, a chronicle about the ups and downs of the U.S. national security bureaucracy. Bill is also an analyst for the Fox News Channel.

He also has written articles for National Review, The Weekly Standard and Air Force Magazine. Bill also has been a media fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, California.

Bill has an international reputation. Vyachaslav Trubnikov, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, called him a "tool of the CIA" after he wrote an article exposing Russian intelligence operations in the Balkans. A senior CIA official threatened to have a cruise missile fired at his desk at The Washington Times after he wrote a column critical of the CIA's analysis of China. China's communist government also has criticized him for his news reports exposing China's weapons and missile sales to rogues states, accusing him of "spreading lies about China." The U.S. State Department's spokesman, Nicholas Burns, only half-joking, once compared him to Moamar Gadafi and Saddam Hussein.

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey stated: “When I was DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] Bill used to drive me crazy because I couldn’t figure out where the leaks were coming from. Now that I’ve been outside for two years, I read him religiously to find out what’s going on.” Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson told the author: "We talk about your stories at Cabinet meetings.” Defense Secretary William S. Cohen remarked recently that Bill "has access to more intelligence information than anyone I know." Senior CIA officials, too, have criticized him during closed hearings before Congress regarding his news reporting based on extraordinary access to classified information.

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld once told him: "You are drilling holes in the Pentagon and sucking out information."

Among his major newspaper exclusives were reports on how a Chinese submarine secretly sailed undetected within 5 miles of the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk in October 2006, how the Pentagon had activated its missile defense system in June 2006 in preparation to shoot down a North Korean missile launch; China's deployment of a new class of attack submarines; details of Russia's covert involvement in removing weapons from Saddam Hussein's Iraq; and details of North Korean government involvement in counterfeiting U.S. currency. Other exclusives have included reports that North Korea test fired a new 100-mile range cruise missile, and how French and U.S. companies violated U.S. export rules by selling oil-related equipment to Iran.

He also was the first to disclose how China is building up short-range missiles opposite Taiwan, and how China had exported ballistic missile technology to Pakistan, a disclosure that led to the imposition of U.S. economic sanctions against China and Pakistan. He also was the first to report that the U.S. National Security Agency issued a top-secret intelligence report warning of a terrorist attack in Yemen – hours after terrorists attacked the guided missile destroyer USS Cole in Aden harbor.

Bill has been a guest lecturer at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.; the Central Intelligence Agency; the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Washington, DC; and the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. He has participated in the National Security Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

He studied English literature at Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and journalism at George Washington University, Washington, DC. In September 1999, Bill was awarded the Western Journalism Center award for investigative journalism. The United States Business and Industrial Council awarded him the "Defender of the National Interest Award" in June 1998, and in 1997 he was recognized by The Washington Times for excellence in achievement.

Bill Gertz can be reached at The Washington Times at 202-636-3274.