Loretta Napoleoni is the author of Terror Inc., a book on the economics of terrorism. She is an economist who has worked for a number of international organizations including the IMF, the UN and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. She is also a journalist who has worked as a foreign correspondent for several Italian newspapers and is a regular columnist in the European press. She has conducted numerous interviews with former members of the Red Brigades and other Italian and South American terrorist organizations as well as members of Islamist armed groups. She currently advises the US Department of Homeland Security on terrorism.