Before he hooked up with James O’Keefe in an alleged bid to tamper with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s phone-lines, Stan Dai had developed an impressive resume as a precocious national-security expert.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports:
According to information Dai posted in September 2007 on the university’s online alumni directory, he lived in Naperville, Ill., helped run a “Defense Deparment regional defense counterterrorism/irregular warfare program” and then became assistant director of the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity Washington University, which prepares undergraduates for careers in intelligence.
A staffer for Trinity told TPM that they had no record of Dai being affiliated with the college. But there’s no doubt that Dai built a reputation as an earnest policy wonk who could opine knowledgeably on national-security policy.
Here he is in 2008 being interviewed at a Capitol Hill event for young leaders on the finer points of fighting international terrorism. With an earnestness that belies his years, Dai, now 24, makes the reasonable point that sustainable development should be a key part of any counter-terror strategy.
Watch: