Ammar Barghouty

Ammar leads the Cyber practice at The Soufan Group. Prior to joining TSG Ammar spent 21-years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

He started his career in 1999 at the Washington Field Office investigating counterterrorism matters. As a Special Agent he had a number of extended deployments including Aden, Yemen for the the investigation of USS Cole bombing, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following both the 9/11/2001 attacks and the 5/12/2003 Riyadh housing compound attacks.

In 2006 he was appointed Assistant Legal Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, where he was responsible for the full range of the FBI’s investigative and other interests while fully integrated with the United States Intelligence Community and Country Team covering the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and Chad.

Ammar became a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI Academy’s International Training and Assistance Unit where he program managed law enforcement training sponsored by the FBI and U.S. Department of State to partners in the Middle East.  Courses included Leadership, Post Blast Investigations, Interview and Interrogation, Tactical/SWAT, and Forensics.  Countries included Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Yemen.

In late 2013 Ammar was assigned to the Washington Field Office Cyber Human Intelligence Squad where his responsibilities included spotting, assessing, recruitment and operation of Confidential Human Sources in the highly complex cyber arena. In 2015 Ammar transferred to the FBI’s Cyber Division, Cyber Terrorism Unit, as a Program Manager responsible Computer Intrusion Threats from designated terrorist organizations where he was responsible for coordinating cyber intrusion investigations across several FBI Field Offices. His responsibilities also included overseas deployments. Ammar’s program, in cooperation with the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, was responsible for the first ever capture, extradition, and prosecution of a cyber terrorism actor. He was featured as a speaker and presented the case study at the 2018 RSA Conference in San Francisco, CA, on behalf of the FBI.

His numerous awards include: 2018 U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for Counterterrorism Investigation; 2018 Office of the Director of National Intelligence Unit Citation; 2017 FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation; 2017 FBI Cyber Division Citation for Special Achievement; 2016 Office of the Director of National Intelligence Award; 2016 FBI Cyber Division Citation for Special Achievement; 2010 U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for Cyber Investigation; 2008 FBI International Operation’s Division Investigative Excellence Award; and 2005 FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterterrorism Investigation.

Ammar graduated with Bachelors degree in Accounting from Portland State University and holds multiple Global Information Assurance Certifications (GIAC). He is a fluent Arabic speaker.