Phil Carter
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy
In office
April 27, 2009 – December 2009
PresidentBarack Obama
SecretaryRobert Gates
Preceded bySandra Hodgkinson
Succeeded byWilliam K. Lietzau
Personal details
SpouseDemocratic
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles (B.A., J.D.)
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Army
Years of service1997-2006[1]
RankCaptain
Battles/warsIraq War
War in Afghanistan

Phillip Eugene Carter[2] is an American lawyer, writer, and former officer in the United States Army.[3][4] Carter was a founding member of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and he also served as a principal of the Truman National Security Project.[citation needed] He was senior fellow and counsel at the Center for a New American Security, and director of the CNAS research program on the Military, Veterans & Society. Beginning September 2018, he served as the Director of the Personnel & Resources Program at the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center in Washington, D.C.[1] Carter now works as senior director, corporate counsel for Salesforce, supporting the company’s public sector businesses, and teaches as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.

Education

Carter attended the University of California, Los Angeles, earning a Bachelor's Degree there in 1997, and his Juris Doctor in 2004.[4] Carter also received the Harry S. Truman Scholarship in 1996.

Legal career

Carter practiced law as an associate at McKenna Long & Aldridge, first in Los Angeles, and later in New York City.[3][5] He specialized in government contracts and national security law there, including representation of leading defense and aerospace contractors. He contributed to amicus briefs for FAIR v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Carter took a leave of absence from his law firm in 2005-06, after being called to active duty by the Army, to serve in Iraq.

In June 2008, Carter took a leave of absence to join the Barack Obama campaign as its national veterans director.[6] He returned to his position at McKenna Long & Aldridge in 2010[7][8] after resigning as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy.

In 2011, Carter left McKenna to join Caerus Associates, a strategy and design consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia, as the company's Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel.[9]

In 2013, Carter left Caerus to join CNAS, a defense policy think tank in Washington, as senior fellow and counsel. At CNAS, Carter directed the Military, Veterans, and Society research program, and also served as the think tank's counsel. In 2018, Carter left CNAS to join the RAND Corporation, where he directed RAND's personnel and resources research program for the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center, the federally-funded research and development center (FFRDC) that supports the Department of Homeland Security.

In 2020, Carter left RAND to practice law as senior corporate counsel for Tableau, a Salesforce company; he now serves as senior director, corporate counsel, for Salesforce. In addition to this work, Carter also teaches at Georgetown University Law Center as an adjunct professor.

Writing career

He wrote the "Intel Dump" blog beginning in 2002. In 2008, he began writing this blog for The Washington Post, and edited the Convictions legal blog for Slate magazine.[10][11] Carter's articles have appeared in many other publications, including the New York Times, Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal, and Chicago Tribune. In 2006, he won an award (with Dahlia Lithwick and Emily Bazelon) for a feature on torture that appeared in Slate.[12]

Government service

In November 2020, Carter was named a volunteer member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.[13]

United States Army service

Carter served on active and reserve duty for nine years in the U.S. Army as a Military Police and Civil Affairs officer.[5] He served from 1997 to 2001, including assignments in Korea, Texas and the Mojave Desert. From October 2005 to September 2006, he was an embedded adviser with the Iraqi police in Baqubah, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province.[14] His team's work was profiled by The Wall Street Journal in a June 13, 2006, front-page story, and by NPR as well.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Policy

The Washington Post reported in February 2009 that Carter was slated to be the new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, following speculation on Pentagon blogs about his appointment. [3][10][15][16] The Pentagon formally announced Carter's appointment on May 6, 2009.[17] Carter was the fourth official to be appointed to this post, replacing career diplomat Sandra Hodgkinson.

In November 2009 Carter announced his resignation, effective in December 2009, for personal reasons.[18] The exact date he submitted his resignation was not made public.[19] In his position, he traveled frequently to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan. Carter was the chief architect of the Obama administration plan to close Guantanamo Bay, and bring detainees to a maximum security prison in Northwest Illinois. His last official trip was to Thomson, Illinois, the site of a prison the Obama administration has decided to use to house some captives currently held in detention in Guantanamo, in Cuba.

References

  1. ^ a b "LinkedIn Profile".
  2. ^ "Phillip Eugene Carter Lawyer Profile on Martindale.com". www.martindale.com.
  3. ^ a b c Carol Rosenberg (April 30, 2009). "Critic of detainee policy takes a top job at Pentagon". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on May 3, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Brad Greenberg (January 1, 2007). "Renaissance Soldier: Phillip Carter". UCLA Magazine. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008.
  5. ^ a b "Biography". McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2009. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Damien Cave (October 28, 2008). "Back From War, and Increasingly Into the Political Fray". New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  7. ^ "Phillip Carter McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP". Retrieved April 5, 2011.
  8. ^ "McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP Welcomes Back Phillip Carter To Its Top Tier Government Contracts Practice". Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  9. ^ Phillip Carter bio, Caerus Associates, archived from the original on November 7, 2012, retrieved May 28, 2012
  10. ^ a b Al Kamen (February 19, 2009). "Until We Have a Playoff System, Bush Is Stuck at No. 36". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 4, 2011.
  11. ^ "About Phillip Carter". Washington Post. April 4, 2008. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008.
  12. ^ "Awards". Slate. Slate.com. February 12, 2003. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  13. ^ "Agency Review Teams". President-Elect Joe Biden. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
  14. ^ Elizabeth Bumiller (January 30, 2009). "Pentagon Memo — After Campaign Push, Obama Cultivates Military". New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  15. ^ "Names: Pentagon". Foreign Policy. February 18, 2009. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009.
  16. ^ Spencer Ackerman (February 18, 2009). "More Counterinsurgents Join the Obama Pentagon". The Washington Independent. Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
  17. ^ "U.S. Department of Defense". U.S. Department of Defense.
  18. ^ Bravin, Jess (November 24, 2009). "Point Man on Detainees Quits". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011.
  19. ^ Carol Rosenberg (November 24, 2009). "Detainee policy appointee quits Pentagon post". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on November 24, 2009.

External links

Authority control databases
Categories