9/11 Law Enforcement Privacy

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\ "\::,:'.',:<::.',~:.':.'.'"" [Unclassified]

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

\~Yrntlpi"""-,,,,-, ----- ...~CE-Customs, Miami FBI-JTTF.

\,YP,~o{ event: "Interview

D'~~e:'\"Sep,tember,,?O,2003
SpecialAccess
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Issues:
",
None
Preparedby: "'~eter Rundlet
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Team ~u~~,~r: \~... "

Location,~, FB~~Ml'~~j Field Of~,ce
ParticipaD',~ - N'~~-C<>~mission: 'S~~ O'Neill, Associate General Counsel, FBI.
Participants',:~ COIn,~isslQ,n: Peter Run~~~t and Caroline Barnes

BaCk~~,~und~"1lhas been with the Customs Service since 1983. He

began as a Customs Patrol Officer in New York; He came to Miami in 1985 and became a
Special Agent inI 986, dealing with drug smuggling, particularly smuggling involving freighters.

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In 1987, he began-to work with Operation Greenback, which was a money laundering task force
that included Customs, the IRS, the'.'I;>EA,and state andlocal law enforcement. In 1992, he went
to Ft. Lauderdale for...six months to work on a DEA Task"f:o. came back to Miami to
work as a Senior Special Agent on a new Narcotics Group: oted that Customs agents
are permitted to do warrantless arrests for.interdiction. He I t IS or a year and then requested
a transfer to work on "Exodus," which was.more strategic work involving goods going to or
coming from countries we are forbidden from trading with, such as Iraq and Iran. He referred to
military goods, but said he worked on a big blender case. He did this sometime between 1997
'. and 1229 ~nd he characterized the work as "proactive -like the outbound currency cases."
I ~ame to the FBI i~ 1999. He said that h~ did not "put in" for it, but that his (Customs)
SAC (Special Agent in Charge) put his name in andso he got transferred. He called it a "good
shock." \... \..,

Joining the JTTF. At the time he came to theio.int Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in
Miami, there was only one JTTF",~quad, which was led byl He said that he was more I
experienced in investigation than ~yone in the group, but counterterrorism work was new to
him. He was on the same squad as1 I
He had one or two cases, and at least one of those
was a money laundering case. He said that the "Wall" (between intelligence and criminal cases)
was new to him. He mentioned that under the 199 and 265 category system, the criminal side
can share information with the intelligence side, but not vice versa. He said the criminal side of
his case did not go anywhere, but the intelligence (199) side might have. He said the distinction
was awkward because he could see certain photographs because they were viewed as "199

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information, "

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~...:.<::: ... "w _.

\"·"\{;:;i~~jrT~~;;9/U.1 COMMI,::: ::~::T:O:ld perform "a lot" of checks on

: \''. T~~S (the'Tr.~~sury'EnfQr~'emen.t..~omputer System). He also did a lot of currency transaction
• ~ \:rep:qt1~(C'I'Rsffor other teams. Hesaidhe would frequently have to go to Customs to do the
\ ~arc~~, because "'We,,~ere all fighting, forthedial-up line." He said that he is "an assist guy - I
\ help an:yC!~e
who asks."] Isaid''thathe didgoout on some interviews and that it took
\ him, a wh~~:~::~~,
get his Top Secret clearance. " """ "" "'" "'"

\. '. 9/1'1::1' <>...

Isaid that the Acting Supervisor ~tthe'JT!F on '9/rl-ha<L~nly three years
'~ of experience-as-an ..!BI Special Agent. He said that was "one ofthe,b,~g problems."] .. ..
\ said that-he and ..pis ..partner pulled all of their Customs text on the hijackers.iHe said that he
:;\ called a CustomsSpecial Agent "across the country" to fax Customs Declarationsto h ..im-.-in ..........
\ Miami andthen he..sent.them to New York. He said that now everything is on TEC'S>~I__ .....
\\ mentioned that about) outof 50 hits has the right U.S. address, but that they have good
\-: historical information 'b,n t~CS. On 9/11, he was on the IT (International Terrorism) JTTF
\\,squad. In the immediate.aftermath he did a lot of checks, and he got called out a few times. In
\:,particular, he recalled a "scare'vatthe SeaPort - that someone was going to blow up a Carnival
\\Cruise ship. It turned out tobe ahoax.

~ Work on J1'rF NOW.-"'r0s on the T-l squad and said that he feels like he is
treated just like everyone else 0~1 ' taid that the Supervisory Special Agent
($SA) Marc Varri treats him like "one of'the guys." He said that he feels like he is treated just
l\~e everyone else on the, JTTF. He said that, he spends 95% of his time at the FBI (as opposed to
I¢,E). He said that he is the only outside representative on his squad that is there (at the FBI) full
time. He mentioned that A,~bert de la Huerta is 't~e BICE Coordinator (the person he technically
• reports to since the ICE merger in October 2002):" Isaid that he "helps out" on cases,
providing assistance, being ateam player. "I don't have cases actually assigned to me. I have
goQ..eout on a surveillance to follow a guy."

"\ When asked what groups his squad covers, he did not really know (III). His response
was\\HJcan't remember the names+ whatever it says on your list there." It later became clear
that[ lis due to retire in l S'months (and he seemed to bejust hanging on in the
meantime). He said that he hopes that he will "be here until the end." Why? "Because if I
should go into private practice, I'll have good credentials. " ,

I~aid that since 9/11. th~e is a more cooperative atmosphere. more sharing of
infonnation. He said that "the bosses buttheads but we get along fine at the ground level." He
feels like people take his advice based on his experience more and that he is less likely now to be
seen as "butting in. " \"\"

He said that he does not deal much with-the T -4 squad and hat he has no interaction with
foreign services. He said he "had no clue" what '\~4
did.

Information Sharing with Home Agency~"1 Isaid that he does not pass
information back to the Customs Service because his counterparts there do not have the

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clearances and because "they do not have a need to know." He said there is a backlog of
clearance processing for outsiders. He said that Customs will usually get the intelligence

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bulletins or reports a few weeks after the information is known to the FBI. He said that they
receive reports in Miami and that he gets the e-mails sent to the Miami office .

Analysis. I ~aid that he did not know the names of the analysts on his squad. At
another point in the interview? I lsaid that one of the analysts "sits across" from him, but
he sti 11did not know what her\~ame is. ~e said he "had no clue" what T-4 did.

Access to Computer s~stemslD~'~abases.1 ~as access to Groupwise (the

internal FBI e-mail system), but'he does not have access to the FBI Automated Case Support
(ACS) system. He said that this "doesn't matter" because he'Jl just ask someone else to do it for
him. I ~aid that he got direct access to TECS at the JTTF "about a year ago" through
FBINET, which he can sign onto. \This made his job much easier. He said that the only thing he
cannot do no,:" is Write rj0rlS. He,s~~ that ifhe has ~ces$ to ACS t~ough FB~T, he was
I
not aware of It.
'",
_~as unfamiliar with both Trilogy and the VIrtual Case FIle system.
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9/11 Classified Information

Training.1 ~~id\~at h~\~tten~s in-house/"stuff' conducted in the Miami office

and that he "likes to read a lotxespeciallythe e-mails in Groupwise." Somewhat inexplicably he

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9/11 Law Enforcement Privacy

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