Beyond Cold Blood: The KBI from Ma Barker to BTK

14. 9/11: Priorities Change

202 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 9/11: Priorities Change I was sitting in a small witness room in the Reno County Courthouse in Hutchinson, Kansas, waiting to testify in Reno County District Court in a criminal proceeding. There was no telephone or television or radio in the room. It was the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Three KBI agents, Kyle Smith, Brad Cordts, and Scott Ferris, were also waiting to testify. As we visited, awaiting our individual summons to the witness stand, my KBI pager suddenly activated, indicating that my secretary, PJ, was sending me a message. I quickly read my pager’s message: “Airplane crashed into World Trade Center, New York City, minutes ago. Many feared dead. PJ” It was a little after 8:00 a.m., Central Standard Time. I read the tragic message aloud to Kyle, Brad, and Scott. We were, of course, saddened by the news of the apparent accident, but soon, in more somber tones, we continued our casual conversation as we awaited our calls to testify in the KBI investigative proceeding . Several minutes later PJ sent a second communication on my pager: “Second plane hit the WTC! What’s going on?” As I read the second message aloud to my KBI companions we knew it was the work of terrorists. As we sat there, isolated, regretting that we each had left our cell phones in our cars, the only question we had was whether they were domestic or international terrorists. What was immediately clear to each of us was that our nation was being attacked by an enemy. But who? Within days, of course, we learned that nineteen homicidal (I decline in such situations to term the individuals suicidal) al-Qaeda fanatics, each, presumably, dreaming of heavenly virgins, and apparently armed with box cutters, fierce religious determination, and an intense hatred for America, almost simultaneously hijacked four American commercial airliners, crashing three of the four into selected targets—the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth plane’s homicidal mission (later thought by many investigators to have been Washington, D.C.—possibly the U.S. Capitol or White House) was thwarted by heroes aboard, ordinary citizen-passengers. The attacks, closely concurrent with one another, had obviously been well coordinated and planned, and tragically effective. 9/11 203 We would eventually learn that nearly 3,000 men, women, and children died when the two hijacked jetliners, heavily laden with fuel, crashed into the World Trade Center, causing the towers to collapse into a smoldering pile of twisted steel and crushed concrete. Another 189 died when the third commandeered jetliner crashed into the Pentagon, causing considerable damage to that building. The fourth hijacked airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania , killing all 44 aboard. We would also learn of the heroism of countless law enforcement officers, rescue workers, and firefighters at the World Trade Center, as well as the names of some of the American heroes on the fourth jet who prevented the criminals on board from achieving success in their mission . As a result of the worst foreign attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the post–September 11 era of new duties, new responsibilities , new challenges, and new concerns for American law enforcement had just dawned, especially for the FBI. And, as it turned out, for the KBI as well. Although appointed director of the FBI by President George W. Bush on July 5, 2001, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 2, Robert S. Mueller III took the oath of office on September 4, 2001, and therefore had actually been on the job only seven days when September 11 dawned. He inherited an agency whose national priority since 1998 was national and economic security, but whose priorities on September 10, 2001, as a practical matter, were as follows: 1. White Collar Crime 2. Violent Crimes—Major Offenders 3. National Foreign Intelligence Program 4. Organized Crime—Drugs 5. Domestic Terrorism 6. National Infrastructure Protection and Computer Intrusion Program 7. Civil Rights 8. Applicants 9. Training1 Within days of September 11, 2001, the new FBI priorities were (and continue to be) as follows: 1. Protect the U.S. from Terrorist Attack 2. Protect the U.S. against Foreign Intelligence Operations and Espionage 204 Chapter Fourteen 3. Protect the U.S. against Cyber-based Attacks and High-technology Crimes 4. Combat Public...