Daniel J. Jones

Daniel J. Jones is a former United States Senate investigator, best known for his role in leading the investigation into the CIA's use of torture in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Jones is the founder and president of Advance Democracy, Inc. (ADI), a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that conducts public interest investigations around the world that promote "accountability, transparency, and good governance."[1] Jones is also the founder of The Penn Quarter Group, a research and investigative advisory headquartered in Washington, DC.[2]

Daniel J. Jones
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvard University (MPP)
OccupationFormer FBI and U.S. Senate investigator
Research and investigative services
Years active2007-Present
Known forLeading the Senate investigation into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program
Notable work
Senate Report on CIA Torture

Jones previously worked as an investigator for the Senate and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As a staff member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he led several prominent investigations, including the largest investigative review in Senate history, "The Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program," better known as "The Torture Report."[3]

Jones was a Fellow at Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy from 2017 to 2019.[4]

Early life and education

Jones is originally from Pennsylvania and has degrees from Elizabethtown College, Johns Hopkins University, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After college, he worked as a middle school teacher with Teach For America, an AmeriCorps national service program. Jones spent four years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation before joining the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of its then-Chairman, Senator Jay Rockefeller. Jones subsequently worked for Senator Dianne Feinstein when she became Chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.[5]

Torture report

Jones was the lead investigator and author of the "Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Report of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program," the largest investigation in U.S. Senate history. According to The Washington Post, Jones worked alongside Alissa Starzak, a former CIA lawyer, who then left the committee in 2011, on an initial investigation into the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes.[6]

Based on more than 6.3 million pages of classified documents, the investigation was described by the Los Angeles Times as the "most extensive review of U.S. intelligence-gathering tactics in generations..."[7]

Jones departed the Committee shortly after the completion of the report, and Senator Dianne Feinstein praised Jones for his "indefatigable work on the Intelligence Committee staff" upon his departure.[8]

Jones' investigative work on the Senate Intelligence Committee was detailed in a three-part series in The Guardian in September 2016.[9] In 2019, his work was the subject of a major motion picture, The Report, where he is portrayed by Adam Driver.[10]

In addition to the film, an audiobook of the Executive Summary of the Senate's Torture Report, read by the cast of the film, was released in 2019.[11] Also a podcast featuring interviews with key individuals has been published.[12]

Personal life

During Jones' participation in the Americorps program Teach For America, he was named to People Magazine's 100 most eligible bachelors, alongside George Clooney and Matt Damon.[13][14] He is on the Board of Advocates for Human Rights First[15] and currently leads his own research and investigative consultancy, The Penn Quarter Group, as well as the non-profit, Advance Democracy, Inc. He was a Fellow at Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy from 2017 to 2019.[16]

Awards

Jones received the Cinema for Peace Heroes award at the Heroes event in Los Angeles on 8 February 2020.[17]

References
  1. "Advance Democracy". Advance Democracy. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  2. "The Penn Quarter Group - The PQG - Our Leadership". The Penn Quarter Group. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  3. United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Intelligence (2014). The Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture: committee study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program. Feinstein, Dianne, 1933-. Brooklyn, NY. ISBN 9781612194851. OCLC 898167778.
  4. "Daniel J. Jones". carrcenter.hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  5. "Torture Report Author Quietly Leaves The Senate". Buzzfeed. December 5, 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  6. Goldman, Adam; Nakashima, Ellen (December 9, 2014). "Investigation into CIA's interrogation program encountered a 'fog of secrecy'". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 11, 2017.
  7. Memoli, Michael A. (December 9, 2014). "Plan to release report on CIA interrogation tactics prompts warnings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  8. "Congressional Record". www.congress.gov. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  9. Ackerman, Spencer (September 9, 2016). "Senate investigator breaks silence about CIA's 'failed coverup' of torture report". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  10. Sims, David (January 29, 2019). "How 'The Report' Turned a 6,700-Page Torture Investigation Into a Political Thriller". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  11. "Audiobook: Executive Summary of the Senate's Torture Report". Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  12. "The Report". Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  13. Bach, Deborah (July 3, 2000). "Regular guy becomes Most Eligible". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  14. "Cover Story: America's Most Wanted – Vol. 54 No. 2". PEOPLE.com. July 10, 2000. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  15. "Board of Directors". Human Rights First. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  16. "Home - Daniel J. Jones". The Carr Center. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
  17. "While the Academy honor best films of the year, Cinema for Peace salute the REAL LIFE HEROES of the film award season: Daniel J. Jones and Scott Z. Burns for proving with "The Report" that torture cannot be justified". @CinemaForPeace. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
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