Raed El-Hamed is an Iraqi journalist and member of the Iraqi Journalists Union. He previously  served as president for the research and studies unit at the Baghdad Center for Strategic Research, after which he served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Windows on Culture (Nawafidh al-Thaqafiyya). He was also a consultant at the International Crisis Group. He contributed to the book The Last Stage of the American Occupation of Iraq, published by the Center for Arab Unity Studies in 2007. He has published a number of books, studies, and articles focusing on Iraq’s militias, security contractors, and the Salahuddin province for a number of newspapers including al-Hayat, Azzaman, and al-Quds al-Arabi.