• Event: I

Type of event: Interview·",'

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

I(FBI New York Field Office analyst) Interview

,.. 71(},"~",\~j~,rrA;NED

Date:! September 2, 2003 .,....,"' -,£: ~~1I,~ttZi2.e U<.-/p

Special Access Issues: None,
Prepared by: Caroline Barnes
Team Number: 6
Location: ,
FBI New York .Field Office
Participants - Non-Commission: FBI Assistant General Counsel Randy Blair

Participants - Commission: Barbara Grewe and Caroline Barnes

Background
,1,' Iwas recruited by the FBI in High School (she took the FBI exam, passed,
!i and the Bureau contacted her), and entered on, duty with the New York Field Office
!,!(NYFO) while in college, in February of 1986. She attended the Borough of Manhattan

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!; Community College and received an Associates Degree in Business Administration.
,,'I [initially worked in the Mail Room. She had wanted to work in the Steno Pool, but
/ this was not possible because the NYFO lost her typing test. She spent five months in the
Mail Room, and then transferred to Imprest Funds, where she processed vouchers (travel,
etc) for FBI employees. She then worked in a secretarial position for five, years (while
still in college). In 1992 she became an Integrated Intelligence Information Application
(Ill A) Analyst, doing searches of the lITA system, data entry and link analysis.

Approximately 2 years ago, just prior to 9/11 (probably around May 2001), she was made
an "All-Source Analyst" and her duties changed. Her supervisor decided that the NYFO
was no longer going to enter data into IlIA, and that all IlIA analysts would become all-
source analysts instead, as assigned to squad 1-49, the UBL Squad, led by SSA
I I(no:, . However, all of the analysts in the National Security
: side (I.e., iion-oriiiiiiia matters were assigned for rating purposes)d I
and] Fhose the analysts' assignments. ",/

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IlIA Analyst PositIon
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,--Whenshe was an Ill A analysf [read through FBI files and entered certain data into
the 'system (names, events.itelephone numbers, associations, etc.), looked for associations
and patterns, and identifiedlinks. Sometimes Special Agents (SAs) on the squad she was
supporting would direct her to enter specific data by stamping the files to indicate that

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data in thosefilesneeded to be entered, and sometimes it was left ~pJ.o"herd ~aid
shefocused primarily on the top cases the squad ~asworkiri!rafthat time. The IlIA Unit
,,~(FBtHQwould then review,~h.G"work;'espeClaiTy,,~YJink,charts'l
.' . .
land

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/jf'\ ....
I· Iwere thetw4Fp~Q IlIA ~~~()l1Il:elsh~ ~entioned). She and the other
IlIA analysts ran monthly reports oncertain namedindividuals regarding meetmgs or
sightings of these individuals f;dr th,¢~$,Asfor awhile (sometimes these were requested
and other times self-gener~ted),~,buf',~hen began to do it less-frequently. These were set
reports that the ~ystert'~its~ifwbhld ge4~rate upon request thatdid not involve any real
analysis on th~,:part:6fthe:;analYsts. S~~-. st~pped entering data wheq I
told her to stop.
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All-Sou~"ce:,:\~ti.'.~lystPosition
r--lstated that she tWoUght ~er title w"hs:'Changed from IlIA Analyst to All-Source'
~t because FBmQ "was ~rying to make-things more uniform" in the analysis field.
This new position is ~titl in th6 Intelligence Research Specialist (132) series, but offered
Inore upward mobility/than the ,lIrA position. ' , ,

As an All-Source AnklystJ .. ~s no 10ng~enFe~rig data into IlIA, but is doing

research:'using the Internet, Lexis/Nexis, Choicepoint, and Intelink - when it's working.
I ~escribed l1:e#job as involving "a lot of'researchand link charts." She researches
and links individuals, groups, and telephone numbers, and writes them up in FBI
Electronic Communications (E¢s) that are then placed in the relevant case files (AI-
Qaeda has 40 sub/$J1es, for example), She works.one-on-one with the Agents on these

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project~. She also!.'has cre,ated a.photo database o~ de'i:es;:~t .was unable to finish it
before It crashed;' $~X months ago and she lost the data. '\ ,." till ends updoing a lot of
what she referred/to as "IA work" because there are no "-.st vestigative Assistants)
assigned to the squad, She described lA work as lower-level, administrative work that a
secretary might typicallY do, SlGh as printing out emails fd~ the S~uad Supervisor, "
pnntmg out leads, etc. aid that she does not have time for ":,'ongolng projects
like the photodatabase,
There is only/C\ne analyst on theother Al-Qaeda squad
was a secretaryduring 9/11. There was another analyston the'... squad (
\t:_ts
because'there are only two analysts 6n the Al-Qaeda squad.
I person

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fb,ut she was sent or a temyrary duty assignment'(TfrY) to Philadelphia
and then left ¢ri maternity leave. said she spends most of her time processing
leads (five per/day or so) sent to her by SAs on the squad that involve researching the
databases referenced above for certain names, etc. She hasspecific leads assigned to her
b~ fhese leads may be something such as is this person !:liesame as the person
with this ot er name. She addresses these leads right away. I !sets requests from
SAs to modify PowerPoint slides (changing the classification markings, etc.) and to help
them create presentations. These requests sound to be fairly administrative and non-
substantive.' If she had the time, she would prefer to finish the photo database, read the
intelligenceinformation that comes in that she can never get to, and address projects that
have been placed "on the back burner." For example, months ago she started to put
together a briefing on Al-Qaeda, which she has never had the chance to finish. She said
that it is now quite dated.

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,r-----~aily assignments comefrom the Supervisor of the AI-Qaeda squad"r-r.

but the Supervisor of the Intelligence Squad (SSA Timothy Herlocker) also p~g

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assignments from the Assish~nrbitector\.jn Charge lactually sits with the

Al-Qaeda (operational) squad.not the Intelligence Squad. The two squads are actually in
different buildings. Ho:\v·~vet, s06~ all'ofthe analysts assigned to the Intelligence Squad
will all ~e ytt;:tor<;f~er in a new! spare ra.ther. than with the operational squads they are
supporting. ...: believes that this change will cause her to feel out of the loop
somewhat WIt .t -e :dper'ltional.~q.,iad as she will no longer be able to pick things up
simply by being inclose proximity to the SAs. She will only know what she reads in the
files. :. :., · :

I Ihas had two.or three titles, but believes she has been doing the work of an
Operationil1 Specialist (OS -! a new analytical 'classification).

I jadvised that there are 8 analysts working CT matters and 25 working FC] ~ about
the same numbers as before 9/1'1. She hears that the NYFO will be hiring additional CT
analysts, but they have not advertised fori:them Y,et. The Analyst position goes up to a
GS-12.

Reports Officer Position

I Isaid that there are no Reports Officers at the NYFO as the position has just been
posted. While the position goes up to a GS-14, shedoes not plan on applying for it

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because she thinks it would be "boring" -\focused mostly on repackaging reports - and
she's used to doing a/wider variety of activities, .
\ \.
Intelligence Sgua~

Herlocker is the Acting ASAC in charge of this squad.1 ~aid she is not sure
how/why this squad was created, but it happened within the last year. She said its
purpose is unclear, and it's her understanding that someone "higher up" within the FBI
(at HQ, perhapsjdirected'its creation. She thinks the goal is to allow for better sharing of
information. Shefelt there were no problems with information flow on her squad before,
although there might have been on other squads. There are now several different
agencies represented on the squad such as OIA, State Police, and NYPD, whose
representatives have access to their home agency databases. Thus, agents can go directly
to these representatives when they need information rather than contacting a poe at the

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agency. This/makes her job easier because these folks are in-house.

The analy~ts this s~ad are from the National S~curity side of the NYFO, not the
criminal SIde. . oes not have any contact WIth analysts from other agencies.
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Information Techilology Resources

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I Ibiggest problem is with the IT resources at the Office. She said that computer
support requests take a week to be addressed. I
bbtained access to Intelink for the
first time three years a!;o. She said that for years the NYFO only had two Intelink
;• terminals housed in th~
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'=;P;~~i~~t~lY3~;~~~1~haveaccess to Intelink, including all of the analysts. Now the

1\T\TfO has eightterminals, but six oftheterminals were working for only a week before
the server crashedandthey have not worked since] ~equested Intelink access
again a month ago. Shedoesnot have access to Penlink. She mentioned the MDES
system (No Further Informationr-that she used to use to perform inquiries and link
analysis, but said it did not work weit:-I Ibelieves that the Office needs more CD
burners, zip drives, and the means to upload and download software.

\\Regarding the soon-to-be-rolled out Trilogy s;~;~rn;/ baid that no one ever came to
talk to her or any of the other users in the NYFO about what they needed the system to
db.

Training

Most oij haining has been "on the job." She has had no substantive terrorism,
area studies, writing or research training. She took her first analysis course approximately
5 years ago at FBI/Quantico. The FBI is now placing a priority on sending newer
analysts to the College of Analytical Studies at Quantico, so she has not attended. She has
taken approximately 6 courses focused on rudimentary research tools, to include 12
Analyst Notebook, telephone analysis, Lexis/Nexis, and Choicepoint. She has also taken

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a CIA course on public speaking, taught in the NYFO. She has not taken any writing or
research classes .

I ~aid she would like to take writing courses, analysis courses and a course that
would provide instruction on research "short cuts. '1

Liaison with/Access to NSA and CIA

~~~~aid that prior to 9111, she had no contact with the NSA and CIA reps to the -
NYFO/JTTF. Immediately post-9/11, she would contact them by email to do name traces.
Now, an IA (Intelligence Analyst - an administrative rocesses and tracks these
requests and receives the responses for the JTTF.

··'·-,Interaction with USIC Analysts

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Language and Surveillance Specialists

she does not work with eitherof thesegroups .

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