Kevin Newton

The following is based on the account of Operation Nightfall from Findings at CTU, which was later retconned in 24: Nightfall.

Kevin Jason Newton was an American serviceman and judge advocate attached to the office of General Donovan C. Henderson, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency's Special Unit for Counterintelligence Initiatives. In the wake of the calamitous events on the day of the California Presidential Primary, Newton was called before the House Special Subcommittee to answer questions regarding Henderson's involvement in Operation Nightfall and Victor Drazen's subsequent imprisonment.

Biography

Early life and career

Newton was born in Richmond, Virginia, about thirty-one years before the hearings. He was divorced from his ex-wife, Cheryl Clemson-Newton.

Newton graduated from Carlisle Military College with a Bachelor of Arts in Military History, and later from Georgetown University with a Master of Arts in Law and the Military. He was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army, serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Somalia in 1993. Following this term of duty, he shifted to practicing law, graduating from the Law and Special Operations Program at Fort Bragg's John F. Kennedy School of Special Warfare. For the next several years he served as judge advocate in numerous capacities: with the Center for Law and Military Operations from 1994 to 1997, with the I-FOR initiative in Kosovo from 1998 to 2000, and the Capture Management Program in Albania in 2001.

At the time of Operation Nightfall, Newton was assigned to General Donovan Henderson with the DIA's Special Unit for Counterintelligence Initiatives, the group that orchestrated Victor Drazen's capture following the failed mission to assassinate. It was in this capacity that he was called upon by the House Special Subcommittee to shed light on the capture and the secret prison network where Drazen was held. (Findings at CTU)

Testimony

Chairman Fulbright contacted the office of the Secretary of Defense and requested a representative to appear before the committee and testify regarding the Mobile Underground Detention and Detainment network where Victor Drazen was held prisoner. Lt. Col. Newton was sent the same afternoon. Although he claimed that his office wanted to cooperate fully, he often was defensive and secretive.

Pressured by the committee to reveal the names of some of the MUDD prisoners, he revealed several: IRA soldier Liam O'Shea and terrorist suspects Ichiro Nakada and Abdullah Ahmed Al-Adel. He also explained the nature of Victor Drazen's threat to the U.S. and the source of Drazen's apparently vast resources. Newton categorically denied Jack Bauer's accusation that the military had set up Operation Nightfall to fail so that the Department of Defense could secretly take Drazen prisoner. (Findings at CTU)

Memorable quotes

• Lt. Col. Newton: I'm sure I don't need to remind you, ma'am, that Osama bin Laden is a two-bit thug, too, and that his nontraditional use of power - his asymmetric threat activities - managed to damage our country and murder thousands of our citizens. Remember also that Victor Drazen nearly assassinated a United States presidential candidate on the day of the California primary. Frankly, the value in holding him captive seems quite clear to me.