Colonel Cedric Leighton (Ret.) is a former member of the Joint Staff, Pentagon under Admiral Michael Mullen and General Pace. He was the Deputy Director of the N.S.A. in 2010. His areas of expertise are in intelligence, acquisition, air combat, and foreign relations, with specialty in the Middle East and Asia.^[11] He has been on CNN describing Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Studies from Angelo State University. He speaks German, French and Spanish and was deployed to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America during his military career.

He began his U.S. Air Force career in 1984.

He spent much of his early military career in Germany.

Colonel Leighton is the recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Bronze Star for his work in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded the Joint Qualified Officer designation.

Cedric Leighton is the Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a Washington D.C. area-based strategic risk and management consultancy.

He has 26 years experience as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Air Force, retiring as a Colonel in 2010. ^[1] He is on Facebook.^[12]

Colonel Leighton was deployed to the Middle East five times.

He served in the War in Iraq and led a Tactical Integration Team that destroyed Iraq's air defense system during that war.

He has appeared on numerous television shows, including Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel, Bloomberg TV, CNN, C-Span, MSNBC, BBC, CCTV (Chinese Central TV), CTV (Canada), ABC (Australia), RT America, Fox 5 DC, Fox 29 Philadelphia, as well as Washington DC’s News Channel 8, where he is a regular contributor to the “Capital Insider” program.