Clare M. Lopez

Clare M. Lopez is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on national defense, Islam, Iran, and counterterrorism issues. Currently a senior fellow at the anti-islamic Center for Security Policy and the anti-Islamic Clarion Fund and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, she formerly was a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms. She was named a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2011. She serves on the Clarion Fund's Advisory Board with Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. and Daniel Pipes. The Center for Security Policy was at the forefront of opposition to the proposed Park51 Muslim Community Center, located two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks. CSP head Frank Gaffney insisted the community center, dubbed the "Ground Zero mosque," was "designed to be a permanent, in-our-face beachhead for Shariah, a platform for inspiring the triumphalist ambitions of the faithful.”

Ms. Lopez is deputy director of the U.S. Counterterrorism Advisory Team for the Military Department of the South Carolina National Guard and serves as a member of the Boards of Advisors/Directors for the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, the Clarion Fund, the Institute of World Affairs, the Intelligence Analysis and Research program at her undergraduate alma mater, Notre Dame College of Ohio, and United West. She has been a Visiting Researcher and guest lecturer on counterterrorism, national defense, and international relations at Georgetown University. Ms. Lopez is a regular contributor to print and broadcast media on subjects related to Iran and the Middle East and the co-author of two published books on Iran. She is the author of an acclaimed paper for the Center, The Rise of the Iran Lobby and co-author/editor of the Center’s Team B II study, “Shariah: The Threat to America”.

Ms. Lopez received a B.A. in Communications and French from Notre Dame College of Ohio and an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. She completed Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia before declining a commission to join the CIA.

Beliefs regarding Islam
Lopez has stated that she believes that Sharia law is entirely antithetical to human liberty, and that unless steps are taken, believers in Islamic Sharia law will overrun Europe. In a March 11, 2011 interview with Anthony Martin of the conservative Examiner, Lopez stated: "But, the bottom line really is that, unless ethnic Europeans begin to have an awful lot more babies, the forces of shariah Islam will inherit Eurabia by sheer dint of their numbers."

Sourcewatch resources

 * Clarion Fund

External resources

 * CIA's Clare Lopez on Lowell Green show, CFRA hosted by Nick Vandergragt, January, 2011 (radio interview), discussing the threat/suffering supposedly posed by Sharia law and Islam.
 * Sharia Action Network Interview with Clare M. Lopez on Islam and the Enemies of America, January 6, 2012 (The Sharia Action Network describes itself as "A Coalition of Citizens who through strategic action will prevent the implementation of Sharia Law in America."