W2LTMF

In 150 words share your thoughts about the post below. Do you have any added knowledge or postivie feedback about his experience. Did you think anything he said was interesting or wanted to know more about. Need to cite and reference to support answer.

Hello Class I will provide you some insight into some opportunities that have presented themselves to me during my career.  We must never forget and be cognizant that the safety of the homeland is never over.  It is a constant vigil.

On 9/11 like most other law enforcement agencies mine changed immediately.  When the second plane hit the World Trade Center I was on the telephone with a friend who had called to tell me what was going on in downtown Manhattan. 

He was gathering his officers' together to render what assistance they could.  When he was in the vicinity of the WTC (one block away) the first tower started to come down.  Some of his officers went south and some north.  He went north and hearing the roar behind him and dove under a fire truck.  The movement of debris and dust picked the fire truck up and slammed it down.  He suffered a minor head wound and was covered in dust and debris.  Some of his officers that went south died. 

Instead of helping, he was now being helped.  He went on to be the Deputy Commission for Training for the NYPD and then the Commissioner of the White Plains Dept. of Public Safety. 

I dispatched several of my agents (We were in Miami) to the FBI to assist in the thousands of leads that came in over the next several months.  The majority of the hijackers had lived in Florida (Atta for a time lived 2.4 miles from my residence in Coral Springs) and thus a significant amount of intelligence and interviews took place in Florida. 

On March 11, 2002, I was having breakfast at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia.  I was there taking one week of Media Relations training. 

The President came on CNN and he was very upset and mad.  Apparently a flight school in Venice, Florida had received the INS I-20 forms notifying the owner of the school that the applications for Atta and Alshehhi had been approved in July and August 2001 respectively.  The President ordered the Attorney General to investigate how this could happen.  Attorney General Ashcroft was next to speak and he stated he ordered the Inspector General, Glenn Fine to investigate this matter immediately.  At just that moment, my cell phone rang. 

It was Glenn Fine.  It was a surreal moment.  He asked where I was and I told him I was in FLETC.  He dispatched me to put together a team of agents, who would work this matter and said let him know within one hour who and what else I needed. 

I called my ASAC (Assistant Special Agent in Charge) and provided her with a list of things and people we needed to coordinate with and assemble. 

I checked out of FLETC and within 27 minutes was on my way to meet with the head of INS investigations and the FBI in Tampa. 

You can read the report at: 

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0205/fullreport.pdf

In mid October my college roommate called and asked if I would assist him in drawing up a graduate class on terrorism for St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.  He and I were college roommates for three years and consider each other best of friends. 

He spent a career in Military Intelligence, with an area of expertise in the Middle East.  He left the military as a Lt. Colonel.  He then had a career with the New Jersey State Police and the NJ State Commission of Investigations as an Intelligence Analyst and Investigator.  He has lectured throughout the US and Scotland Yard on intell.  I do not know many experts in the field of intelligence, but he is one.

Over four days in early November we developed the program course for St. Joe's.  It was the first chance I had to reflect about what things I had in my past career that concerned terrorism. 

I call it the Tale of the Dinosaur.  In 1977, my commander, who was a former Lt. Detective with the NYPD received a call from some of his former squad, which was the FALN squad.   

FALN was a Puerto Rican terrorist group whose members were unknown at the time.  They had over the years blown up a significant amount of financial institutions in New York City. 

Willie was incarcerated in the Queens House of Detention for a period of time.  A long story short: through a source I had in the QHD it was arranged for him to be Willie's roommate.  Since Willie could not write he used our source to write hidden messages for him.  These messages lead law enforcement to the FALN in Chicago and NY and ultimately a number of their arrests. 

Egyptian Revolution had killed a number of Israeli diplomats in Egypt and then they hijacked the Egyptian Air flight.  In May 1987 they attempted to kill three of our US Embassy employees on their way to work.   

Along with a small number of other personnel in Cairo we hunted them for 3 months until we caught all those in country we could locate. 

My contribution to the effort was:  My third basemen (I played and coached a softball team - we played 80 games of softball a year in Cairo) provided some of the most sophisticated telephone equipment, which allowed us trace calls coming into the Embassy.   The left centerfielder had an Egyptian employee who was way to happy they attempted to kill Americans.  The Egyptians once provided this information effectively followed and disrupted his part of ER.   

Several of my friends at the golf association in Cairo, who witnessed the shooting, did not want to come forward; however, they trusted me to broker an interview with the Egyptian and American's investigating the matter. 

At 1:00 AM, 17 hours after the shooting I woke up an artist friend to come do a drawing of what the witnesses witnessed.  His drawings of three of the suspects proved to be extremely helpful to our Egyptian counterparts. 

At 3:30 AM with the witnesses we drove the crime scene and recorded their voice as we recreated the things they witnessed.  At 6:00 AM as promised I had them on a flight so they could go on their scheduled holiday. 

For 90 days we did not go home per se.  We slept on cots at the Embassy and set up our War Room, hunting those who attempted to murder the Regional Security Officer, Assistant RSO and the Administrative Officer.  With some talent and luck we talked a member of the group into cooperating and the ER for the most part was dismantled. 

One year late, I along with a few members of the group in a small ceremony received a small medal and plaque for our efforts. 

The award states: 

Meritorious Honor Award: In recognition of outstanding investigative efforts and for professional contributions in a highly classified joint Egyptian/American investigation which was of significant magnitude and impacted on the lives and safety of all American Embassy employees in Cairo, Egypt. 

In all the years working in law enforcement, I never would have thought that the assistance of two fellow softball players, two women golfers, and an artist would bestow on my colleagues and me such an honor.  For the honor was theirs.  Without them, we would not have found this group as quickly.  

In the days to come, perhaps I will go into how Amir Kansi came into our investigation net.  Until then, see what you can find on Amir Kansi AKA Amal Kansi Amir AKA Kansi Amir.  There are a number of variations of his name.

Enjoy the hunt.  The posting to this that are substantive count as participation.  Thank you.