USA>Monitor Breakfast
from the May 19, 2004 edition

(Photograph) MAUREEN BAGINSKI The FBI's executive assistant director for intelligence, MAUREEN BAGINSKI, was Tuesday's guest.
COURTESY FBI

Maureen Baginski


The FBI's executive assistant director for intelligence, Maureen Baginski, was Tuesday's guest. Here are excerpts from her remarks:

On how the intelligence business needs to change:

"There is too much information, and it is very hard to understand. The analyst can't be the passive recipient of what sensors and people can gather. The analyst must be driving what is gathered. Otherwise, you are just drowning people in data."

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On claims that FBI intelligence analysts are unqualified:

"The nation has nothing to fear from unqualified FBI analysts. The nation has much to be grateful for, for a cadre of highly trained, highly skilled professionals who do wonderful work every day."

On risks that a stronger FBI intelligence operation will lead to abuse of citizens:

"Respect for the Constitution is something that I see lived every day in the FBI. Hard lessons were learned in the 1970s.... We all learned from that."

On getting the FBI to cooperate with other law- enforcement agencies:

"I think all humans can learn to play more nicely with others. You could say the same for any large government bureaucracy. That comes out of not understanding the other person's frame of reference."

On defining US adversaries:

"They have a clear and unambiguous view of their job and their priorities. And they are enabled by technology that allows them to make decisions very, very rapidly. They are, in fact, networked."




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