For Immediate Release
April 3, 2003
FBI National Press Office

FBI Creates Structure to Support Intelligence Mission

As part of its on-going reorganization efforts, the FBI has put in place for the first time a formal structure to prioritize intelligence exploitation and to establish strategic plans for intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination. Through a series of organizational initiatives, the FBI is elevating the analytical process above the individual case or investigation to an overall effort to analyze intelligence. New executive-level officers will be accountable for ensuring that the FBI has optimum intelligence strategies, structure, and policies in place to address evolving threats.

"FBI investigations often yield bits of information that, when viewed in the aggregate, show suspicious trends that could reveal terrorist threats," Director Robert Mueller explained. "The new intelligence infrastructure will help the FBI exploit that information for its predictive value. The steps I have announced will ensure that this sort of information is systematically collected and examined for its big-picture implications."

In earlier phases of its reorganization, the FBI quadrupled the number of strategic analysts, improved training, and upgraded its information technology. For example, all FBI field offices and resident agencies are now connected by the state-of-the-art Trilogy network, completed in March.

As part of the next phase, Director Mueller has created a new position, the Executive Assistant Director (EAD) for Intelligence, with direct authority for the FBI's national intelligence program. Maureen A. Baginski, currently the Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Director at the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), has been selected to fill the position.

As SIGINT Director at the NSA/CSS, Maureen Baginski successfully established and directed a unified program to exploit encrypted or denied information on global networks. She began her NSA/CSS career as a Russian language instructor in 1979 and went on to hold various operational management positions, including an 18-month tour as a Senior Operations Officer in the National Security Operations Center. Other highlights of her career include assignments as the SIGINT National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Executive Assistant to the Director of NSA/CSS. Her senior leadership assignments include Deputy Chief, Global Access Program; Chief, Directorate of Operations Customer Products and Services; Assistant Deputy Director for Technology and Systems and Chief, Office of the Director.

Director Mueller said he hopes Baginski will "enhance the already strong relationship between the FBI and NSA."

Director Mueller also announced creation of the Office of Intelligence which will be responsible for implementing FBI intelligence strategies, and for making sure that intelligence is properly collected, managed, and shared within the FBI, with state and local law enforcement through the 66 Joint Terrorism Task Forces, and with the Intelligence Community, including the new Terrorist Threat Integration Center. The Office of Intelligence will also supervise analyst recruitment, training, and career development, and will provide centralized oversight of the Bureau's human source program. Steven C. McCraw, a twenty-year FBI veteran, will be the Assistant Director in charge of the office.

McCraw is currently Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's San Antonio field office, and previously served as the Director of the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force.

"Maureen Baginski and Steve McCraw bring a wealth of experience and demonstrated successes to these critical posts," Director Mueller said. "They have distinguished themselves in a number of investigative, management, and leadership positions, and are uniquely qualified to fill these pivotal positions in the FBI. Baginski and McCraw will ensure that information which could help prevent a terrorist attack is collected, analyzed and exploited to protect our national security."

This new phase of the FBI's re-organization also includes establishment of intelligence units in each of its 56 field offices. In each field office, an Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Intelligence will have responsibility for a cadre of analysts who will collect, analyze, and share intelligence collected in that field office. Reports officers - a new position - will sift through information, remove anything that reveals sources and methods of intelligence gathering, and pass it to partners in law enforcement and in the Intelligence Community.

To improve information gathering, Director Mueller is finalizing a re-engineering project focusing on the administration and operation of human sources. Six teams are examining ways to expand the FBI's human intelligence base and to provide additional oversight. A number of steps are under consideration to improve accountability in management of confidential sources, increase source development, improve efficiency of operating sources, and better exploit source information.

Director Mueller said these moves will "enhance the Bureau's ability to stay ahead of volatile threats, now and in the long term."