Crispin Black Crispin Nicholas Black MBE ( born 1960 ) is an intelligence consultant and commentator on terrorism and intelligence , after a previous career as a British Army officer . He is a veteran of the Falklands War and is retained by the BBC as an expert on terrorism . He was previously an Associate Fellow at Chatham House . Education . Black was educated at the University of London and at St John ' s College at the University of Cambridge , followed by the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . Military career . On 11 April 1981 , Black was commissioned into the Welsh Guards as a second lieutenant . He commanded a platoon in the Falklands War of 1982 , surviving the bombing of RFA " Sir Galahad " , and was promoted lieutenant on 25 January 1984 , captain on 11 October 1987 , and major on 30 September 1991 . He had three tours of Northern Ireland , where one of his roles was as an intelligence officer in Republican West Belfast , and he also served with the British Army of the Rhine and the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus . After attending the Staff College , Black specialised in intelligence . In the 1997 New Year Honours , he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for his Defence Intelligence Staff work in connection with the break - up of Yugoslavia . Black was promoted lieutenant colonel on 30 June 2000 . He was on intelligence duty on the night of 11 – 12 September 2001 , and retired the service on 1 July 2002 , his last posting being a secondment to the Cabinet Office as an intelligence adviser to the Prime Minister , the Joint Intelligence Committee and COBRA ( Cabinet Office Briefing Room A ) . In the early 1990s , he and his Welsh Guards were the subject of a BBC television documentary by Molly Dineen called " In the Company of Men " . In the course of that , Black said that if John Birt ( then Director - General of the BBC ) had been a member of his regiment , he would have had him sacked , and one commentator described him as the " suavely telegenic star " of the documentary . Author and journalist . Black is a frequent contributor to major British newspapers on terrorism and intelligence matters , including " The Daily Telegraph " , " The Guardian " , and " The Independent " . In July 2004 , Black wrote of the 2003 invasion of Iraq that George W . Bush and Tony Blair had " cooked the intelligence books on both sides of the Atlantic " . He has been critical of all three major British political parties on Afghanistan , writing in 2010 " The Iraq War was a two - party stitch - up between the Labour government and an eager Conservative opposition . This time round on Afghanistan it ' s a three - party stitch - up . " He has also suggested that the outcome in Afghanistan remains a gamble and questioned whether politicians with no military experience should be left to take such decisions . His 2006 book " 7 - 7 The London Bombs – What Went Wrong ? " examines the intelligence and other failures leading up to the 7 July 2005 bombings in London . On that subject , he has commented " MI5 director general Jonathan Evans ' s persistent unwillingness to accept that his agency could have thwarted the 7 / 7 bombers if they had been more on the ball shows the petulance of a losing football manager " . Lecturer . Black has degrees from the universities of London and Cambridge , where he spent a year at St John ' s College on a defence fellowship , and has lectured at both . 2010 general election . At the UK general election of 2010 , Black stood unsuccessfully as an Independent candidate in UK Parliament constituency . Private life . Black is married , with two daughters - Cressida and Florence , and lives in Wiltshire . His brother is an attorney in Las Vegas , USA .