Dr. Joseph O’Brien is a former FBI Special Agent, New York Times bestselling author of Boss of Bosses, and a key figure in dismantling the New York Mafia in the 1980s. He spent nearly 20 years in the FBI working espionage, foreign counterintelligence, and organized crime cases, often alongside the CIA.
He is the recipient of the U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor in federal law enforcement. After leaving the Bureau, O’Brien investigated the disappearance of his colleague, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished on a CIA-linked mission to Iran.
O’Brien holds a PhD in Criminal Justice, with a published dissertation on Islamic terrorism, and offers rare, firsthand insight into intelligence failures, Iran, terrorism, and government accountability.