David Brant

Dave Brant is a retired career Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) special agent and executive. He served NCIS from 1977–2005, leading the agency as its director from 1997 until his retirement in December 2005.

Background and education

Brant received his undergraduate education at Bradley University and a master's degree from Indiana State University. During his time at NCIS, he graduated from the Senior Executive Course at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Before joining NCIS, Brant was a police officer with the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Accusations of torture at Guantanamo

A twenty-page statement issued on July 7, 2004 describes a series of high-level meetings among the United States Department of the Navy's most senior lawyers, that were triggered by reports, from Brant, that the captives being held in the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were being subjected to questionable interrogation techniques.

Alberto J. Mora's statement contained several quotations from Brant, about Brant's reluctance for the NCIS to be involved with the questionable interrogation techniques:

"Director Brant emphasized that NCIS would not engage in abusive treatment even if ordered to and did not wish to be even indirectly associated with a facility that engaged in such practices."

Television appearance

David Brant made a brief cameo appearance on the CBS drama NCIS playing a Special Agent of the same name in the episode "Frame Up" in Season 3. This episode aired on November 22, 2005 one month before his retirement. He is asked by the character Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) "I heard you were quitting" to which Brant responds "I like to refer to it as a lateral move into the recreational sector...Jethro" to which Gibbs explains to Mossad liaison officer Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) that it "...mostly means fishing and hitting a golf ball".