Michael Sheehan was born on February 10, 1955 in Red Bank, New Jersey, USA. He was married to Sita Graham Vasan and Maria Eitel. He died on July 30, 2018 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
In 1998, as State Department's chief of counter-terrorism, he urged actions against Ossama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and his memos were not taken seriously enough.