Friday, Sept. 3, 2004 | 8:59 a.m.
Editor's note: Today's guest Where I Stand columnist is Ellen Knowlton, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Las Vegas Division. Knowlton was asked how the FBI has handled its evolving mission, including in a post-9/11 world. I AM OFTEN confronted with the perception that the FBI is an inflexible organization incapable and unwilling to move into the 21st century. Reflecting back on over 22 years as an FBI agent, however, nothing in the Bureau has been more of a constant than change.
The FBI's priorities and activities have always been flexible. In fact, change is so ingrained in the FBI's culture that some agents have a saying, "If you don't like the work, just wait -- it will change."
While recognizing the significant threat of terrorism to our nation, the FBI is unique in that every field division can tailor its efforts in other areas to counter the most serious crime problems affecting their area. This is evident locally in the number of public corruption investigations conducted by the FBI.
When I received my appointment as a special agent in early 1982, I was first assigned to work on a violent crimes squad where I investigated some of the FBI's traditional criminal violations, such as kidnappings, bank robberies and extortions. Five weeks after graduating from the Academy, I saw firsthand the cold-blooded ruthlessness with which gangs could terrorize a community.
In the course of investigating a string of violent bank-takeover robberies, suspected to be committed by a street gang, my fellow agents and I were involved in a shoot-out with gang members at a bank that left an agent and a gang member wounded and another gang member dead.
Despite the fact that the oldest member of the gang was only 21, these criminals were responsible for a string of violent crimes, including murder, within the community of Stockton, Calif. In response to the wave of gang-style warfare plaguing many of our communities nationwide, the FBI initiated the Safe Streets Task Force program, which targets violent gang activity using the combined talents of state, federal and local law enforcement.
Throughout the '80s the FBI retooled itself, as its responsibilities continued to grow, including going after criminals involved in illegal drug trafficking or pursuing those engaged in fraud involving either financial institutions or health care.
As the '90s approached, the Berlin Wall came down, creating yet another challenge -- and a global one at that -- for the FBI. New openness between countries that had traditionally been adversaries took place at an alarming rate, and the FBI began to expand its presence around the world. To meet the growing number of requests for information and assistance from foreign governments, and to accomplish the FBI's mission, new legal attache offices staffed by FBI agents were opened in several countries.
Today the FBI is represented in over 45 different countries. Despite new relationships with emerging governments, efforts to target U.S. national security interests by foreign intelligence services have not abated.
During the mid to late '90s, several penetrations of the U.S. intelligence community by foreign intelligence services were uncovered, including, most notoriously, my former colleague, Robert Hanssen. His betrayal, which spanned the better part of two decades, shook the very foundation of the FBI and dealt a blow to the morale of the men and women whose hard work he compromised.
The FBI responded by developing and implementing a series of reforms designed to detect and deter future acts of espionage at the earliest stage.
It wouldn't be until Sept. 11, 2001, that a crisis of greater magnitude would engulf the FBI and threaten to destroy our American way of life. Taking advantage of the very tenets of our open society, al-Qaida operatives were able to plan and stage the worst act of terrorism to ever occur on U.S. soil.
That awful day and many following it was like one long, hellish nightmare. My initial disbelief in watching, via CNN, the planes crashing into the Twin Towers gave way to shock and fear. From my office window at FBI Headquarters, I saw smoke from the Pentagon and F-16s on the horizon.
Many government and office buildings in Washington, D.C., were being evacuated, and rumors were circulating that our FBI Headquarters complex might be a terrorist target. Nonetheless, I and countless others raced toward our Strategic Information and Operations Center, the FBI's International Command Center located at FBI Headquarters.
As hundreds of agents, analysts and other professional support employees came streaming in, we all began the process of initiating the largest, most complex investigation in the history of the FBI.
In the nearly three years since that day, major organizational changes have been implemented within the FBI and the intelligence community as a whole.
Additional personnel and other resources have been devoted to fighting terrorism. Analysis and information sharing have advanced light years. Ongoing automation efforts are providing electronic connectivity, replacing the use of human couriers and facilitating real-time information sharing that was not uniformly in place in the years, months and days leading up to 9/11.
With the 9/11 Commission report serving as a blueprint, additional realignments are slated to occur as well. While the organizational changes under way within the FBI today are certainly the most far-reaching and radical in the history of this organization, it is our culture to adapt and change, and we will continue to do so in order to meet and defeat new and emerging threats to our American way of life.
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