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FBI works with local law enforcement, industry, to protect pipeline Joint terrorism task force includes FBI, Anchorage Police Department, Alaska State Troopers, U.S. Marshall Service, immigration service, customs, Coast Guard and Air Force Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Terrorism is going to be the main focus of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the foreseeable future, both nationally and in Alaska, Thomas McClenaghan, special agent in charge in Alaska, told the Alaska Support Industry Alliance Feb. 27.
And in Alaska, McClenaghan said, the energy sector is the FBI’s number one customer for anti-terrorism.
The trans-Alaska pipeline “is probably the most vulnerable key asset we have in this country,” he said. It is remote and “great lengths of it are unprotected.”
But on the plus side, the pipeline is also far away from the Lower 48.
“There are a lot more attractive targets down there,” he said.
And probably easier targets. Alaska is remote and its population is isolated.
“I’m in contact with our local chiefs (of police) all the time and I tell them, if anybody shows up in your community you’re uncomfortable with, give us a call.” Consider, he said, the difference between five or six unknown individuals showing up in Soldotna, and the same individuals showing up in New Jersey. Critical infrastructure identified The federal government has been assessing critical infrastructure since 1998, when a presidential decision directive established the effort and called for a “strong partnership” between the federal government and state and local governments” for eight critical infrastructure sectors, one of which is energy.
A National Infrastructure Protection Center was created, and housed within the FBI. The focus was computer intrusions, McClenaghan said, but the center also gathered information on infrastructure assets.
At the local level, he said, the program is coordinated through special agents in each of the FBI’s 56 field offices, including Anchorage, who maintain liaison with the private sector and government agencies.
“The objective of the key asset initiative is to maintain a database of information concerning key assets within each field office’s jurisdiction. Naturally in Alaska the primary key asset would be the pipeline and the Valdez terminal and things related to the energy industry,” he said. InfraGard includes industry The “InfraGard Program,” also administered through the FBI’s field offices, “is an organization of government, academic, law enforcement, private industry professionals who have strong interests in protecting their information systems and critical infrastructures,” McClenaghan said.
“It’s been described as the most extensive government-private sector partnership for infrastructure protection in the world,” he said.
McClenaghan said the Terrorist Threat Integration Center which the president talked about in his state of the union message, will include 250-300 FBI analysts, Central Intelligence Agency analysts, Homeland Security people and also people from appropriate Department of Defense intelligence agencies.
While the FBI and CIA have been criticized for not sharing information, he said, “for the last 20 years it’s exactly what we’ve been arguing that we need. And every time we brought the argument up we were always shouted down by the media, the civil liberty groups and members of Congress” because of fears of ‘big brother.’
Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, he said, “no one wanted the CIA and the FBI to actually talk to each other. There were actually laws in place that prevented that from happening. And we had Attorney General guidelines that prevented that from happening.”
The FBI was to operate only domestically, he said, and the CIA only outside the country.
“But now all that has changed since 9-11.” FBI lead agency in Alaska McClenaghan said national organizational changes are not going to change what the agency does in Alaska.
“Per presidential directive the FBI remains the lead federal agency for responding to terrorist activity. Our director has made it clear that counter-terrorism is the number one priority of the FBI.
“And here in Alaska it’s the number one priority at my office. And as far as I’m concerned, the energy sector is our number one customer for anti-terrorism activity.”
Before Sept. 11 the Alaska FBI office had already created a joint terrorism task force, he said.
“It’s made up of FBI agents, Anchorage PD officers, Alaska state troopers, U.S. Marshall Service, INS, Customs, Coast Guard, Air Force and we have both fulltime and part-time members on the task force and they’re housed right in our office here in Anchorage.”
The joint terrorism task force works with the FBI and investigates cases with the FBI.
Every two weeks there is a joint terrorism task force meeting which includes private companies with an interest in security, and is attended by security chiefs from major companies.
“And we discuss about what’s going on both nationwide and here locally in the counter terrorism arena. So we’ve got a tremendous working relationship with all the energy companies up here. I’m very pleased, when I came up here, to see how strong it is,” said McClenaghan, who took over in Alaska in November.
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