9/11 Law Enforcement Privacy

', ..
"

SECItE'f
\. \ .. "\,

... \\\"""'" t: Interviewof

~'''''~''~, MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
J:i'Y 1.
4 .. .....I(FBI Miami Intelligence Research Specialist)

·..Type··Q(Event: Interview

~te: Octo~er 3,2003

SPeCi~lAccess~~ues: None

Prepared by: carOli~.e Barnes

Team nUnl~.:r: 6 .

Location: FBJ, Miami Fieid ..Office

Participants Norr-CommissionFlsf Assistant General Counsel Sean 0 'Neill

\ Participants - Commission: Caroline.Barnes and Peter Rundlet

•
\ Background ..····1 .... ··teceived her law degree in 1993 from SI.
1\homas School of Law and practiced law for six years. She spent the last two of the six
years litigating political asylum claims. As asingle parent, she joined the FBI primarily
in \order to work fewer hours and have a more stable work schedule. She applied to be a
Supervisory Intelligence Research Specialist (SIR:S}and did not get the job. In retrospect
she'is glad about that because she thinks as a SIRS she would have "bumped up against"
FBI\employees who had worked their way up ("the insider vs. outsider mentality"), and
she decided she'd be a better supervisor once she'd been-with the FBI for a time. Instead
the F~I hired her as in IRS at a grade 11. She is still a GS'~'~,I,

" lwas assigned to S9uad D-7, the Joint Drug"l:ntelligence QrIl]lD (]DIG):
located at an offsite. She worked] \.. . I
Program). She wrote comprehensive reports on the groups she wasfollowing every six.:'
months, attempting to complete a profile of these groups and validatethe reporting they
were receiving. It was difficult to obtain information on these groups because the.:"
Russian community is very insular and because there was a language barrier, There were
only two Russian speakers in the Office, and agent and an MDPD detective.J I
also produced "mini-reports" and conducted quick name checks for agents-on the squad,

Soon after 9111 she was transferred to what was then Squad NS'-3, She was tasked
with putting together the Director's Briefing Notes for briefings that took place three
times per day, Her job at first was to type up the notes of the Agent who would gather

•
the relevant information. Her supervisors didn't want her asking for the information
herself because they thought other agents wouldn't provideit to her. She did eventually
start obtaining the information herself, and some agents.were nonresponsive.

SE3C~T
9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive
9/11 Law Enforcement Privacy /:./9/11 Law Enforcement
\\~Z"<~> SECRET Sensi ti ve

\ _~:",':';:;;.>,'I then joined the telephone analysis t¢~m which-was comprised of three
'.\,,\, "<: 'agents and three analysts. Agents subpoenaed the tol ec r' ded i int

\\;:;tberel
e
hone a Iication and:: ::Si~e~~n:::ation

.....__ ...I~~ detailed to the Legat Offic~1 Ifor two

~J!llW~.l2.~W!m:.m:W~~~·~~Jll.lW~·~~ation the Legat was receiving
There were two agents
det~~.~\-~~~\~eg-a~t-p-n-o-r~~o-
..~er-a-~-.-v-a~,~u~tt~e~e-g-~~a~reque~ed~an~y~aswcll.
One re~~r"~he\yas selected-was her Spanish language ability; at that time she was one of
only two\~.alysts"'~n Miami who)poke Spanish. She catalogued all of the information
that had co~\pto 'the Office and'created a chronological briefing book which ultimately
was dissem'i~'~{e'~to F~I field.offices.and to the Department of Justice. She used her
analytical skiljs:·#t -.order to 4etennine what, of the infonnationwas relevant to the US
Intelligence COPWitmitX:-1,1 teli'tJi:at,she learned a great deal about Al-Qaeda
during her time,. ... >~\\. l -.
.:
...

• In May 2~~J\ ....\. twas assigned ~~'~",dfl:lg

squad, D-3, for one month. She
explained that this oc~m:reQ because there were only-three official CT analyst positions in
the Office and they were-filled. She was still viewed asacriminal analyst.

In June 2002, s~~.,~~\i~Signed to a terrorism Squad,'NS,,3 (now T-ll. to review

the phone activity associated ·~ith. a major case. She believes th~tI I
appreciated what she had accomplished on the telephone analysis-team and knew she
could handle large volumes 6'f data. \+n other words, he had seen what she was capable of
and knew she would get the job done>" There had been FISA coverage'oj the sU;ie;t
the major case for seven years ~d IIp analysis of the data had been done:'
y
completed a 40 page Electronic Communication (EC) on the topic which was on y er
initial analysis. She didn't have time to..go-as far as she wanted to with the data. She said
~.;:..
\\ that "the wall" still existed at that point in time. so the infOrmation she generated went
\\ onl to the intelli ence agents on the c~se'l \. . IShe implied that agents
'. the criminal agents on th~ case, did not receive her analysis.
dded that interest in the subject fizzled to some extent because he was found
"t-o"'!"'h-av-e-n-o"'direct
link to 9/11, and was arr~t~ in june 2002 (or 2003?),

ed to the

~--------~------~~~~~--~--~~--~~------~~
9/11 Classified Information
She had to learn

•
the groups on her own and it helped that she spoke Spanish' elt this was the
least analytical squad and that most of the work she did was historical in nature. She
explained that she spent one third of her time on case summaries (mini-profiles), one

SECRS'f' 2
9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive

" cre,ate ai y summary reports to provide to FBI Headquarters. Now she is 100king'atD
I Jor other cases, too. On her own initiative, she has begunto put together the "big
picture' of terrorist activity in Miami but doesn't have much time to.work on this. She
,besn't know why the Intell~~ence Squad (T-4) is not doing this work> ....

• / he financial analyst assigned to T-1, is a Certified public"Accountant

~~__--~__~~~~~-----------P~~~~~~--~~
\./ CPA: '. advised that if the th h

on y connections t ey/l enti y come as a resu tot

an:1:iverhear each ,~,ther'S conversations.
ild try t'oJ
but now the
e "act t at t ey SIt near each other
" .-'
I

,/,/ : Ibelieves that it is only in t~e''i~t two months that the agents on the
squad'have come to view her as a resource-as someone who has substantive kn.Wledgi
~aed~/who "reads a lot," and whoremembers telephone numbers. Agen
/':,L-...-J.md~rstands her capabilities better than most agents because he startedhis Bureau

'iycrer~:TaIYst. Irepe'ives all of the AI- aeda Int~llige~ce InfO~atiOn Reports

! ,//:/
(IIRsYfron{other agencies from analyst nT -.4J bkims them and
/ // ,/ passes onanything relevant to theother squa ,91eih:\?ers:/She said she gets "hundreds" of
.I //:/ Iuts of'varying lengths each week and is theonlyone with the institutional knowledge to
/ ,//:/ be ~pie to go through them-and culloutwhatis signific~.t.·1 !reels that she
/ /!:/ :/~ows historical information t~at·I19·orie else does ..orrthe topic.
!llii,' ,"6ffi~ofi~~~ntg~~~~f' '~~t:~ that initially she heard there were to be

!~.
./,
./ ..!,/' ,'/:/ twodifferent aI}alyf1c:~i.·p'6s:~ti0ns:one strategic and one tactical. Now, she understands
/ {/ ....
,'./' .that there i~·to::~:e:ori~.analytical position with different "classifications" or specialties
!.::,::' """·'·:,,~.i.t~~~:~~:.:::~re·sbe belie.ves that the strategic and tactical ~pecialti~s require different
~k:10:~ets;··sheIS glad that It appears analysts can choose which specialty they would

,~;",!,i;;:':::";;;:{·······""
3
9/11 Law Enforcement Privacy
9/11 Law Enforcement Privacy
"\\~>:."" •
" " " ", SECItE'fl

\\\"::.:::~::.~:::...."
"llrefer because she feels tactical analysis is not her forte. For example, she was assigned
• -.." \\ to-write the 2003 threat assessment for the office because she is a good writer.

\ """""""""",......
. 'She also believes that now field analysts have pay parity with Headquarters
\\ analX~~s. ""'"

\-.., "A~alysi~J ~tated that because all of the JDIG analysts were located
together they were able to "feed off" of each other and communicate easily. Now, her
focus is narrower, much more tactical. When the analysts were located at the offsite the
agents complained because they felt the analysts were not as accessible as they should be,
but now that the .analysts are back at the Miami Office she doesn't feel their relationship
with the agents is any better than it was. The agents "didn't and still don't understand
how to use an analyst." That's the real issue, regardless of where the analysts actually sit.
She thinks irs an institutional problem. Analysts are viewed as "uber-secretaries" and
have alwajs done a lot of'work that is not analytical in nature, such as graphic design and
\. brochures. the agents viewed the analysts as there to do anything non -investigative in
\nature and ir"apalystswere not-willing to do this they were not viewed as team players.
~gents are not'aware of analystsvcapabilities or of the specific tools and information to
,,;hich analysts have access. Agents ..~iU work on certain projects themselves not .
realizing that an analyst can do morel Ireels she was able to do more strategic
analysis when she was working the JDIGIREI program. She prefers that kind of work to
what she is doing now, She thinks any strategic work in the terrorism area is being done
• by ~e Intelligence S<i~~d, T-4.

\\, Miami needs mot~" analysts - they cannot "catch up" otherwise.

" htated t~a~ she has "looked around" (i.e., for other jobs). She'd like to
stay with the Bureau, but if something comes along she may take it because "she feels
useless most days." The FBI needs to realize that analysts "add value." Although she
likes writing, she feels that anyi~ing that needs to be written comes to her and it's not
always an analytical assignment.'I· believes that individuals need an education
and intelligence to do quality analysis. She took a pay cut to join the Bureau, yet she
often finds herselfworking alongside former cashiers from Publix (a grocery store) who
have been promoted to the analyst position without the requisite skills.

Information Technology. There is a mapping program that analysts should

have access to but do not. They have access to Intelink and Intel Plus but often must wait
for their passwords for months for a combination of reasons, including lack of support for
and attention to the analytical program. There are so few analysts and they are so busy
that they don't really have time to use these systems anyway, so haven't really pressed
the issue .

• 4