Col. Cedric Leighton

Cedric Leighton is a United States Air Force Colonel (USAF, retired) and was a Deputy Director at the National Security Agency in 2010. Leighton was deployed five times to the Middle East and assigned to the United States Special Operations Command. Col. Leighton led a Tactical Integration Team that was credited with enabling the destruction of 95 percent of Saddam Hussein’s air defense system. He’s also decorated serviceman, having received the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Bronze Star for his work in Operation Iraqi Freedom and numerous other military awards.



Leighton appears regularly in the news media discussing military intelligence issues and foreign policy strategy on CNN, MSNBC, Fox Business News, CNBC, and is a regular contributor to Washington D.C.’s Capital Insider.