'__ ___ _ ___ __ ___ _ _ _ __ /'_|'o'\'V'/'\|'|'__|'|'|'/'_| \_'\''_/\'/|'\\'|'_||'V'V'\_'\ |__/_|''//'|_|\_|___|\_n_/|__/ http://mprofaca.cro.net/mainmenu.html -------------------------------------- Saturday, 8 January, 2000 -------------------------------------- Deputy director of FBI well-equipped for new era http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?section=news&; pagename=story&storyid=1150210211628 Accountant with MBA, Pickard leads battle against global crime Newsday WASHINGTON -- Thomas J. Pickard looks every bit the certified public accountant. A tall, thin, bespectacled and neatly dressed man with graying hair and trim mustache, Pickard does not fit the popular conception of the larger-than-life special agent of the FBI. But he is, in fact, both CPA and FBI, not to mention an MBA. On Dec. 1, Pickard was named to the powerful post of FBI deputy director, making him the bureau's top career staff member, second only to the presidentially appointed director, Louis Freeh. "Basically, I'm the chief operating officer of the FBI," said Pickard, 49. He added, dryly, "Most people say I've got a pretty low pulse rate." Pickard's demeanor masks a more quixotic, crusading nature. Among the memorabilia in the office of the New York City native is a yellowing poster for his favorite Broadway musical, "Man of La Mancha," with its signature song, "The Impossible Dream." One of his favorite stories is about leading FBI agents to a Middle Eastern country to pick up Abdul Hakim Murad, later convicted of terrorism, only to have the local government change its mind about the extradition and temporarily block the plane. "It got a little testy," Pickard said. "But I said, `I haven't given up a prisoner yet. I'm not starting now.' " Now his job is to direct the nearly 12,000 special agents and more than 16,000 support staffers of the world's best-known law-enforcement agency into uncharted territory as the globalization of the economy is shadowed by the globalization of crime. In a world shrinking through the expansion of computers and cyberspace, Pickard said, the FBI must combat the criminal applications of new technology. "We've got to bring law enforcement into the 21st century," he said. Pickard, who lives in the Washington suburbs with his wife, Sharon, grew up in New York, the oldest of five children of a telephone installer. After graduating from college in Brooklyn, he landed a well-paying job at the accounting firm Touche Ross and during the next three years earned a master's of business administration degree at night from St. John's University. But he wasn't satisfied. He told a friend that he wanted to be an FBI agent, and the friend arranged for an interview. The 1970s were dark days for the FBI, with the death of its longtime leader J. Edgar Hoover and a stinging string of revelations of FBI abuses. Pickard was not deterred. On Jan. 13, 1975, he joined the FBI's New York field office, specializing in white-collar crime. He was in the vanguard of the new FBI. He became one of about 50 CPAs among the bureau's 8,000 agents, he said. Now it actively recruits accountants. "I wanted to somehow blend accounting and finance with investigation," he said. Pickard used his skills in a 1979 operation that would turn around the FBI's sagging reputation: ABSCAM. He posed as "Tom Green," the accountant for the fake Olympic Construction Co. He helped agents who posed as Middle Eastern potentates, and they videotaped six congressmen and a U.S. senator taking bribes. Despite complaints of entrapment, the courts upheld their convictions. "I was right on the cutting edge," Pickard said, noting that he and his colleagues "wrote the book" on new investigative techniques of covert operations using videotapes and audio recordings. In 1993, he was named to head the national-security division in the New York office, putting him in charge of high-profile investigations such as the World Trade Center bombing. The FBI is at another turning point as Pickard steps into his new job. Once again, the FBI's image has suffered, this time from its role in the deadly standoffs in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, as well as from criticism of its investigation of Chinese espionage. Congress, however, continues to expand its role. Since 1995, it has tripled the FBI's budget for counterterrorism while becoming increasingly concerned about international and cyber crime. Because crime has expanded beyond city, state or national boundaries, Pickard said, the FBI must go global. "The world has shrunk so. In the first 20 years of my career, I hardly ever traveled," he said. "In the last couple of years, I have traveled around the world twice." Originally published on Jan 9 2000 ------------------------------------------- *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to SPYNEWS eGroup members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml *** Mario Profaca, moderator mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *__ ___ _ ___ __ ___ _ _ _ __ /'_|'0 \'V'/'\|'|'__|'|'|'/'_| \_'\''_/\'/|'\\'|'_||'V'V'\_'\ |__/_|'.//'|_|\_|___|\_n_/|__/ http://mprofaca.cro.net/latest.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Looking for educational tools for your kids? 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