The tragic deaths at the hands of crazed gunman remind us that we live in a very dangerous world. Because there are so many terrorist...
All Posts By Michele Rigby Assad
January Flashback: Originally published on FC, July 2014 No one is ever ready for this to happen. We can’t even entertain the possibility...
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They had been surrounded by ISIS for months. The siege continued to build as fighters managed to cut off water, electricity, and the flow...
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What’s it really like to walk into a room and debrief a terrorist who has agreed to work with the CIA? Pretty intimidating. These are...
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Facing rejection? Dealing with a string of disappointments? Not sure what you are supposed to be doing in life? I was there and I made it...
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Being “nice” has gotten a bad rap lately. The blogosphere is filled with anti-nice themes as if that is a concept we should eschew...
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The anniversary of the vicious attacks that happened September 11, 2001, is upon us. Thirteen years ago, marks a time in history that no...
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Have you ever said that to yourself? Admitted that you were exhausted by your own combative thoughts that have consistently held you...
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She’s had multiple surgeries and every time she goes back to the doctor, they find more areas of concern, which always seem to turn up as...
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You thought this moment would never come, or at least you hoped that it wouldn’t. How can it be that your precious baby is now heading...
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It was an audacious double operation. Conduct 1000 surgeries on North Korean citizens in an attempt to restore eyesight to the blind,...
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No one is ever ready for this to happen. We can’t even entertain the possibility it could happen. It sounds like a story out of a seedy...
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It’s one of the biggest threats that no one thinks they are vulnerable to until it happens to them: online exploitation. Nasty people are...
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I have never been so happy to survive a vacation as I was my first trip to India. The roads of this enormous country should be classified...
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My husband and I had a recent debate about whether to admit to the clients that we were married and not just colleagues. This might sound...
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Everyone wants to know, “How do you get hired to work for the CIA?” I remember looking at a large pile of resumes—there were...
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It was the worst kind of attack in an area of Baghdad teeming with terrorists. After leaving the meeting and driving half-way down the...
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The thing about CIA intelligence officers is that you must be tuned into your environment, aware of your surroundings, and able to spot...
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I have the worst luck when it comes to landing bad bosses. Jennifer Aniston’s character in Horrible Bosses has nothing on the people...
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The ten years I served as a counterterrorism official in the CIA kept me on my toes, in an alternate reality, in which manipulation, lies,...
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Unless you’re a drug dealer, assassin, spy, pedophile or black market profiteer, you’ve likely never heard of it. It is the electronic...
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We kept it under wraps for a long time. Only family members and a few friends knew, and they did their best to keep it a secret. It was a...