Clare Lopez returns to EMPact Radio to talk about national security issues and current events.   Clare M. Lopez is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, and counterterrorism issues. Currently a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, she formerly was a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms.   Ms. Lopez is deputy director of the U.S. Counterterrorism Advisory Team for the Military Department of the South Carolina National Guard and serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, the Institute of World Affairs, and the Intelligence Analysis and Research program at her undergraduate alma mater, Notre Dame College of Ohio. She has been a Visiting Researcher and guest lecturer on counterterrorism, national defense, and international relations at Georgetown University.   Ms. Lopez is a regular contributor to print and broadcast media on subjects related to Iran and the Middle East and the co-author of two published books on Iran. She is the author of an acclaimed paper for the Center, The Rise of the Iran Lobby. Ms. Lopez received a B.A. in Communications and French from Notre Dame College of Ohio and an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. She completed Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia before declining a commission to join the CIA.