Vegas FBI agents aid terrorism fight abroad

Jace Radke

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 | 8:49 a.m.

While hundreds of Southern Nevada soldiers and airmen have been deployed to the Middle East over the past year, Las Vegas-based FBI agents have also been overseas sifting through paperwork and computers seized by the military, looking for links to terrorist cells.

Currently a local FBI agent is in Afghanistan, and two other agents spent time in Iraq and Pakistan during the past year, Las Vegas FBI spokesman Todd Palmer said.

"There is a need for agents in these places, and the field offices nationwide are contributing people," said Palmer, an FBI special agent. "The agents are making their way through information and interviews, looking for any discernible links between terrorist operations and the United States."

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI's top priority changed to protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, making assignments to the Middle East more common.

One special agent, who said he cannot identify himself for security reasons, returned home to Las Vegas in February after a six-week assignment in Islamabad, Pakistan, as a legal attache with the U.S. Consulate. He said the work agents are doing overseas is critical.

"There are things that need to be done, and I'd much rather do them over there than wait for it to get to the United States," the agent said. "We've neglected things for too long, and if we don't go over there the problems will be brought to us."

While in Pakistan gathering intelligence, the agent got a firsthand look at how different life is in the Middle East, and what it is like to face the possibility of terrorist attacks on a daily basis.

While in Pakistan the agent would only disclose to people that he worked at the U.S. Embassy, and not that he was an FBI agent. If approached on the street and asked where he was from by a stranger he would usually mention Canada or Ireland, and every time he came and went he had to check the underside of his car for explosives.

"It just became second nature to carry a flashlight to check your wheel wells," said the agent, who arrived in Islamabad days after two failed attempts on the Pakistani president's life. "I stayed in a small bed and breakfast because the larger hotels were terrorist targets.

"The bed and breakfast had 8-foot walls topped with concertina (razor-like) wire, which is similar to what most of the businesses have over there for security."

Tracking down leads and people in Pakistan was another substantial challenge for the agent. Knowing what village a person was from was often the key piece of information in finding someone because names were often duplicated, and fathers' names are often passed to other family members.

"Names are somewhat optional over there, and there aren't any large databases that you can easily check," the agent said. "You don't have something where you can plug in a date of birth and Social Security number."

The agent became friendly with Pakistani staff and security at the bed and breakfast he was staying at, and would often get into discussions about all manner of issues, including how the Pakistani people felt about Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

"Most were pro getting Hussein out of Iraq, and while the majority of the people I talked to were not pro-bin Laden they were skeptical about his involvement (in the Sept. 11 attacks)," the agent said. "I couldn't believe that and I told them that he claimed responsibility (in) videotapes, but they wonder how a cleric could bring down the towers and engender so much anger.

"They you realize that they still get most of their information through word of mouth and most of the people have not seen the videos of bin Laden accepting responsibility."

Despite the differences the agent said he found the people in Pakistan to be a lot like people anywhere else in the world.

"They were polite and insightful people," the agent said. "You had to watch out for a few wack jobs, but you have that anywhere you go."