Counterterrorism Blog

Last night, the NBC Nightly News featured a report that left the inference that the FBI has significant problems in their Counterterrorism operations because certain officials could not distinguish between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. In addition, the report focused on an Arabic speaking Agent, who has a civil law suit pending against the FBI for discrimination concerning counterterrorism promotional opportunities. In addition to the above issues, the story mentioned the lack of Arabic speaking Agents and cultural understanding in the FBI.

Unfortunately, the NBC News report was narrowly focused and one sided. It named two former Senior Counterterrorism Executives who could not explain the difference between Sunnis and Shiites during tape recorded depositions taken in the civil law suit mentioned above. A third Senior Executive discussed the importance of leadership capability over investigative experience during his deposition, which was aired by NBC. What the NBC report failed to disclose was that there were many, many, many more FBI Executives, Agents and Analysts who could distinguish the difference between Sunnis and Shiites and who understood cultural considerations. I was one of them.

In addition to last night’s NBC Nightly News report, a few months ago, the NY Times ran an Op-Ed piece (CTB Editor's correction from original post with link to the op-ed) wherein an FBI Senior Executive, along with other high level officials outside the FBI, could not articulate the differences between Sunnis and Shiites. Before the critics jump on this story and condemn the FBI, I would encourage them to do what NBC seemingly neglected to do in this case and conduct adequate due diligence and present all of the facts. Too often, deadline conscious reporters present their stories with a dramatic message without letting the “facts” get in the way. Therefore, I’d like to present the facts that were not included in the NBC Nightly News report.

In late 2001 and early 2002, Director Mueller mandated the transformation of the Counterterrorism Division into an entity that could effectively address the post 9/11 threat of terrorism. He appointed Pasquale (Pat) D’Amuro Assistant Director and later Executive Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division. Pat was a highly respected Executive who possessed longstanding terrorism experience in the New York Office working as the Deputy to John O’Neill, who headed Counterterrorism operations in New York.

Mr. D’Amuro reorganized the Counterterrorism Division. Along with the Director, he approved creation of a number of new Sections, to include the Terrorist Financing Operation Section (TFOS), which I formed and headed. More importantly, Pat split the International Terrorist Operation Section (ITOS) into two Sections. ITOS I was given responsibility to deal specifically with Sunni Terrorism. ITOS II was given responsibility to deal specifically with Shiite Terrorism. To mirror those operational Sections, I reorganized TFOS and designated two Units to interface with ITOS I and ITOS II. Make no mistake about it, the personnel assigned to those Sections and Units understood the differences between Sunnis and Shiites. In addition, operational personnel assigned to the field understood. It’s disappointing that NBC News omitted those important facts from their report.

Restructuring the Counterterrorism Division required significant resource enhancements. Many of the Agents reassigned to Counterterrorism, like myself, came from the Criminal Division and possessed minimal counterterrorism experience. One of the first things I did was to seek and receive as much training as possible about all facets of terrorism for myself and the personnel who worked for me. We received regular training and briefings from terrorism experts from both within and outside of the Bureau. We accomplished this while working 15 to 18 hour days.

Another focus of the NBC report was on an FBI Agent of Islamic heritage, who is an Arabic speaker. This Agent filed a civil law suit against the FBI, claiming discrimination. As this portion of the interview played out, there were three elements that warrant response. One was the case involving the Agent, the second the subject of Arabic speaking Agents and the third the amount of Counterterrorism presented in New Agent training. The later two issues involve Islamic cultural understanding.

With respect to the Agent, I am not familiar with the basis of his lawsuit. However, if his complaint is discrimination for lack of promotional consideration, this issue should be one of potential managerial competence and leadership capability and not entitlement. His investigative experience, including undercover experience, and the fact he possesses Arabic language and cultural skills, does not entitle him to automatic promotion. Possessing those attributes should be a favorable consideration, but the ability to manage and lead people should be the driving consideration. He should possess core leadership skills. The FBI has a process to identify and assess such skills. If he possesses leadership skills, he deserves promotional consideration. If he does not, then he does not merit promotional consideration. NBC inferred, as did other reports about this situation, that because the agent was an Arabic speaker he should have automatically been given consideration. They fail to realize other factors rightfully merit consideration in this process.

The subject of the lack of Arabic speakers is a justifiable concern. I’ll address this more fully in another post. In a perfect world, all Agents would speak Arabic and other languages attributed to terrorists. The fact is, in the real world environment this is not possible. The inference should not be made that if agents don’t speak Arabic, they are not capable of understanding Islamic cultural considerations. I could not speak Arabic. In fact, I have enough issues speaking proper English. However, I’m proud of what I accomplished in establishing and running TFOS and making a positive contribution to the FBI’s Counterterrorism Program. I challenge anyone to identify an Arabic speaker who could have performed better then I did under the circumstances I dealt with. I was one of many agents who could make such an assertion.

Concerning New Agent training, the fact that Agent Trainees received minimal terrorism or terrorist cultural training should not be an alarming factor. This is a topic I’ll address more fully in another post. New Agent training is basic, designed to address fundamentals and to promote awareness. Terrorism training begins on the job and in specialized schools. Criticism of terrorist training should be focused on specialized introductory and advanced training and not New Agents training.

Should FBI Senior Executives in Counterterrorism be able to differentiate between Sunnis and Shiites? Yes, they should. However, these executives understand the threats posed by terrorist groups to include Al Qaeda and Hizbollah. The conclusion that the Bureau cannot differentiate should not be drawn simply because select Executives could not effectively answer given questions on camera. In this instance, had NBC conducted adequate due diligence they would have determined FBI operational personnel were well aware of the differences between Sunnis and Shiites.