Dell Dailey

Dell Dailey retired as a lieutenant general of the United States Army, whose career was spent in special operations. On his retirement in 2007, he was named counterterrorism coordinator for the U.S. Department of State, with the rank of Ambassador-at-Large. His last military assignment was heading the Director of the Center for Special Operations. Some of his current projects involve terrorism in Africa, using "soft power" rather than military force. When you hold elections, there are certain benefits, like assistance in security and law enforcement and economic development. The three pillars of trying to defeat terrorism and build a good society are development, good governance and security. In Mauritania, they were moving in that direction. The coup was extremely disappointing

Turkey is one of his high priorities. On the day of a summit dealing with their insurgency, he said the US and Turkey "have intelligence sharing comparable to no other cooperation among other world states"

Military career
An Army aviator, he commanded the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) as a colonel, and later the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) as a major general; he led the latter in the Afghanistan War (2001-) and Gulf War.

His leadership is controversial. "Dailey was known as a pit bull: once he latched onto a concept he would rarely let it go -- or as Dailey's own staff quipped, he was determined to shove a marshmellow into a piggy bank," When asked about this, he laughed and said: "Not a marshmallow, but a gold brick into the bank."

While he is secretive about his Army duties, he does tell of the time he felt afraid: running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in 1979. "I ran the Estafeta, the narrowest part of the run," he said. "I did it for the excitement after reading 'The Drifters' by James Michener. I was a captain in Germany, and I drove there with my girlfriend. I ran with the bulls while Spanish guys were chasing the woman who became my wife," he said. "I learned a lesson about priorities."

He is a 1971 graduate of West Point.