Local FBI agent Raymond Deare dispelled some myths about the FBI and explained some of their terrorist investigation techniques to Professor Ken Holland’s senior level constitutional law class yesterday.
“Most people have the belief that the FBI knows everything about everybody, right?” Deare asked. “Wrong. We’re not allowed to do that.”
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People say, "you should have known." You get the issue there of individual rights versus what’s good for the nation. --FBI agent Raymond Deare |
Through television and movies, a lot of people get the wrong idea that the FBI can easily gain access to all kinds of information, Deare said. There are actually many restrictions placed on the agency through U.S. law, which prevents them from gaining access to a great deal of information unless the agency can prove probable cause.
“That’s where we get hammered sometimes as an agency,” Deare said. “People say, ‘you should have known.’ You get the issue there of individual rights versus what’s good for the nation.”
Deare warned that cell phone and regular conversations can easily be picked up by anyone with a scanner, though the FBI is not allowed to record them.
The FBI has to have a court order to wire tap a phone, and this an extensive process, Deare said.
“It’s worse than writing the worst college term paper you’ve ever seen,” Deare said. “It’s almost a book.”
There are about 10,000 FBI agents nationwide, and 80 in the state of Tennessee. About 40, Deare among them, are stationed in the Memphis field office. Deare said that terrorism has always been a high priority for the FBI, and since the Sept. attacks, it has become the number one priority.
The FBI has a master list of several hundred people wanted for questioning in relation to the terrorist attacks, Deare said. The names on the list are all Arabic, many of them common for that particular region, and this causes some problems for investigators.
“What I’m concerned about, what the whole state is concerned about, is that it reeks of racial profiling,” Deare said.
Deare said when he has to question someone, he generally asks for identification and determines what the person is doing. He said that individuals purchasing a one-way airline ticket with cash would raise more suspicions than a vacationing family.
Another hindrance to investigations is the altering of names that occurs when filling out paperwork, Deare said. In the United States we have a three-part name system (first, middle, last), but in other countries this is often different. In Latin America, for example, a four-part name system that includes the individual’s mother’s maiden name is more commonly used. Thus, when foreigners fill out U.S. paperwork they often must Americanize their name to fit into the U.S. system
Deare pointed out the difference between the CIA and the FBI — specifically the nature of each of these agencies’ investigations. The CIA is responsible for everywhere outside of the U.S., while the FBI is responsible for everything inside the continental U.S.
Because the FBI is limited to the U.S., they aren’t directly involved in locating bin Laden’s group. But the CIA and FBI do pass information on to each other on a regular basis, Deare said.
