A pot production.
There was one instance Neil where I was with a Palestinian who was a Baptist Party member of Saddam Hussein. He was a Palestinian but had been brought up in Iraq. So this guy was part of the Bath Party and he was Saddam Hussein's messenger boy going into New Jersey where I lived, and he was by day he was like the manager of a country club. By day, dressed nicely, loved America. I love America. You know, I shop at Sam's Club or Costco. Look at me. I'm a great
American citizen. But by night, you know, he was something else again. And then he was taking trips. You'd go to Jordan and then over to Iraq, and then he would you know, Saddam would say, hey, we need this and that. Check out this scientist, go there, look for these to source these materials. You know, we're going to war with the United States. So so that I ended up in an apartment with him, and very uncomfortable sitting in his apartment and he I couldn't stand the guy
couldn't stand me. I had my hand on my gun the whole time I'm sitting down with him, and he says, watch this. He said, this is power. Your country sucks. This is powered. He puts a VHS tape in there and there he is in Baghdad with Saddam Hussein sitting at his table and he said, that's power. This guy is power, not President Bush, that pussy, this is power.
And he started ranting and raving and he was so excited, you know, and I said, man, this guy he could he could whack me, right, So I said, you know what I've seen enough, thank you very much. And uh, you know out I was.
Was it was it hard sometimes not to take things personal.
Yeah, I started taking it personal with this guy. You know. He he came into our field office and when I when I arrived, there was another agent was working this guy. But this person was he was snowing this person. He was bullshitting this person. He was feeding this person misdirection. You know, look look look over there, look at Oh it's the Iranians. Oh I have information on the Iranians. Oh we'll take it. We'll take that information. But that's
what he wanted us to do. Meanwhile, he's you know, stirring the pot with the Iraqis. That was his whole thing.
So Yeah, were you a part of the FBI when nine to eleven came in or you went part of it then?
No. I had moved on to another federal agency, the Department of Justice Inspector General's Office. So at that time I was based in the El Paso, Texas on the US Mexico border working. I was working corruption cases, federal corruption cases. But I remember, that's interesting, so I'm an FBI agent when I began. Now I'm investigating FBI agents, corrupt FBI agents. So the whole thing had kind of turned. And in a way, it was good because the people in my organization, many of them were not FBI. They
were from different agencies. But I knew the FBI. I knew their culture, so I was able to effectively kind of navigate in the FBI world. So I remember we were flying out to San Antonio, Texas to work a case against an FBI agent who ended up two of them got fired because of our investigation. And that's when when we got to the airport, everybody was, you know, looking up at the TV screen saying, oh shit, oh
my god, mother, for what the hell. And I'm looking up there going, oh my god, that's that's my city. That's did that building just fucking collapse? You know? It just I was. And so finally we went back to the to the office and my boss we watched TV. The whole bunch of us watched TV, and and people were just about crying. You know. We knew that a lot of people were dying out there as we were watching this. And then finally my boss said, guys, go
home to your families, take care of your families. Just go, I'll take care of it here.
It was so surreal, like when I remember when I was when I was watching it, and I just I just started doing security at like shopping centers and airports, and I just remember it, and everyone just it just went on higher left for everything, you know what I mean. And to see the planes go into the buildings, it was just like, what what the fuck is happening here? You know what I mean?
It's yeah, it was surreal, uh, Neil, And you know, I guess so, you know, later I would find out that the CIA wasn't talking to the FBI and some of these you know, these mopes were in our country for months before and uh, you know, and then there was a memorandum from an agent in Arizona. That said, I think these guys they're they're taking flight lessons. Maybe we should look into that a little harder. But it never happened, unfortunately, So I always always felt bad about that.
And in the back of my mind they always thought, maybe I wish maybe I should have stayed stayed with the FBI, maybe I could have helped. I don't know what what did, what did?
What did make you leave the FBI? How come you did? You ain't enjoying it? Or it's just onto another adventure?
Yeah, you know what, you know, I'm kind of a gypsy. Really, I'm you know, was on to another another adventure. And I after three years with the bureau, these FBI guys x FBI guys contacted me. They said, hey, we heard about you, and you know, we're FBI x FBI, and there's a very well kept secret in the government. We do investigations overseas and we're a small group. And you know, you you have a Spanish background. There's an opening in Costa Rica, you know, and so maybe you think about it.
So I thought about it, and I said, I don't know, fraud investigations, these are fraud investigations. You know this is a corruption, embezzlement, theft. I don't know these things. And they said, don't worry, we'll train you in these things. And so you know, again this door opened and I walked through the door and the next thing you know, I'm I'm in Washington, d C. And then I'm in Costa Rica, then I'm in l Salvador, and I'm working cases in Egypt and all over the world.
What type of fraud are we looking at for this?
Yeah, you know this is contract fraud. Uh, and you know this could be any any type embezzlements and you know, people bribing, bribing our people to to get contracts and and you know you have to go out there and do the paperwork and show show it on paperwork, make a case, and then present it to the assistant US attorney, you know, criminal type case and then hopefully they say, yeah, let's prosecute this guy. Things like that. So you know, it was a variety of things all the way around.
It could be from a theft case to someone that there was There was one guy in Costa Rica that he was an accountant and he was a foreign national accountant and one of the one of our girls working as an accountant said I don't trust him. Uh, there's something wrong with him. In fact, he claims to be like have a PhD In accounting, but I don't think he even has a high school education. So, you know, here was a case. I'm looking at his records and
you know she was right. He hadn't even gone to college and here he was pulling down one hundred and fifty thousand bucks. So very quietly, you know, we took him to the side and said, look, here's what we found. You may want to resign. He said, yeah, you got me. But he said, but he said to me and my boss, could I take you guys to dinner?
You know, you know when you said you were investigating FBI agents before you actually started working as that, did you ever see any of that or look at someone and go are you doing the dodgy here? Or could you ever see that in in anybody when you're working alongside them?
When I when I was working alongside them, frankly, no, I mean.
Like, what are you looking for in that? Are you looking for who's getting paid off? Is that what you're looking for when you're investment?
I mean it, I mean it could be anything from a sexual harassment of other employees. You know, receiving money is from a foreign agent. You know, maybe one of these Middle East guys says, hey, you know, how about I give you money and you tell me what's going on. Yeah, you know, that type of thing. But I never, honestly, I never ran into that. Fortunately, I never ran into that.
And really, the only thing Neil that stands out in my mind is a former police officer who was now an FBI agent treating a police officer in Newark very badly. And and I thought, what, you're a former cop and you're like talking down to this guy and reaming him out and insulting him. And I'm thinking, that sucks. You're a cop, your former cop. How do you how can you do that? That's so that's really the only thing I really saw that kind of you know, so that's
that's not right. But but no, I didn't see for the most part, the men and women in my squad, the C ten squad, you know, they were really hard, hardworking people, and you know, we were handling a lot of terrorism cases from Black Liberation Army to Jewish Defense League to uh seek terrorists from you know, India. Uh you know the PLO, the IRA. I mean, it was the candy store of terrorism. It really was.
When you actually did go to kind of turn from an FBI agent and then go and investigate FBI agents. Did anyone turn against you and just go hold on? But you were on our side not long ago. Now you're investiged. Did they? Did you lose friends from that? Or you'd never had to investigate anybody in your division? You know what I mean?
No? No, no, no, thank god, No, I didn't. I was again, I was out in the Southwest, so uh, you know, I'm looking at the Los Angeles agents and Texas agents. But I didn't work with those people before. But you know, some of them would joke, hey, you know, hey, hey, Benedict, darnold you. But it was always a joke, and I always smiled along with them, and and left and then said, look, let's let's get down to breast tax. Let's let's talk about this, this allegation