Rita Katz
| Rita Katz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 (age 53–54) Basra, Iraq |
| Alma mater | Tel Aviv University |
| Occupation | Terrorism analyst |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Employer | SITE Institute |
| Notable work | Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America |
| Title | Executive Director |
| Children | Four |
| Website | siteintelgroup.com |
Rita Katz (born 1963) is a terrorism analyst and the co-founder of the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group, a private intelligence firm based in Washington, DC.
The Institute tracks global terrorist networks, and intercepts and distributes messages, videos, and advance warnings of suicide bombings from terrorist groups' communications networks.
Katz, a fluent Arabic speaker, was born in Basra in Southern Iraq in 1963 to a wealthy Iraqi Jewish family. After the Six Day War and shortly after Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party seized power in Iraq in 1968, her father was arrested on charges of spying for Israel. The family's property was confiscated by the state, and the rest of the family put under house arrest in a stone hut. The following year, after having been tortured, Katz's father was convicted and executed in a public hanging in the central square of Baghdad, witnessed by more than half a million Iraqis; the government offered free transportation to people from the provinces, and belly dancers performed for the crowd. Katz' mother managed to escape on foot with her three small children to Iran, from where they made their way to Israel.
The family settled in the seaside town of Bat Yam. While in Israel, Katz served in the Israeli Defense Forces and studied politics, history, and Middle Eastern studies at Tel Aviv University. As a committed Zionist, Katz was reluctant to ever leave Israel, saying, “I believed that Jews belong in Israel”. Nevertheless, in 1997 Katz’ husband was offered a research fellowship in endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and they moved to Washington with their three children. Katz has acknowledged that at this time she worked in violation of the provisions of her visa. This was disclosed whilst she was acting as a witness against a defendant accused amongst other things of visa fraud.
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