This biography is recommended for speaking engagements and reposting. Please feel free to trim it down as needed.

Frank Smyth is a journalist who has specialized in armed conflicts, organized crime and human rights, reporting from nations including El Salvador, Guatemala, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Jordan and Iraq where, in 1991, he was imprisoned for 18 days. Working for Human Rights Watch, Smyth documented the role of France in arming Rwanda before its 1994 genocide, and the role of U.S. agencies in establishing covert intelligence networks in Colombia. Through the 2000s, Smyth served as Washington Representative and Journalist Security Coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Smyth has reported, produced and filmed for CBS News radio and television, and written for publications including The Nation, The Village Voice, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, World Policy Journal, Foreign Affairs and Harvard International Review. Smyth has testified before the Organization of American States, the International Commission of Jurists, and the U.S. Congress. He is co-author of Dialogue and Armed Conflict, and a contributor to The Iraq War Reader and Crimes of War. His study, "Painting the Maya Red: Military Doctrine and Speech in Guatemala's Genocidal Acts," was published in 2010 by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Smyth has taught journalism, media studies and political history at American University and the Corcoran College of Art + Design. In 2011 Smyth founded Global Journalist Security dedicated to bringing appropriate and effective security skills to journalists in less developed nations. He is a graduate of Boston College and The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. His clips are posted at www.franksmyth.com.