In its OPINION section on August 25, 2009, The New York Times published Terry D. Turchie’s response to a front page article that ran in the Times on August 17th "F.B.I. Agents’ Role Is Transformed by Terror Fight."
Turchie’s letter, titled "F.B.I. Agents’ New Role" by the paper, addresses the uninformed and dangerous assumption that the FBI’s dogged persistence in the struggle against terrorism by "just chasing leads" is unproductive and "burns through resources."
This misguided view was expressed in the original article by a frequent critic of the FBI, Professor and author Amy Zegart at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
In his response to both the letter and the misguided views exemplified by Zegart, Turchie notes: "Those of us who have worked in the trenches of the terror war realize that thousands of leads may need to be pursued to find the single piece of information that brings a case to a conclusion. Those of us who have gone to sleep at night knowing that we are accountable for preventing the next terrorist act against America will gladly ‘chase’ 10,000 leads to make sure it doesn’t happen."
The letter in its entirety is available on the NYTimes.com website at http://tinyurl.com/m3hhmq
Turchie, a former FBI Unit Director http://tinyurl.com/ceo68b, and with co-author Dr. Kathleen Puckett,http://tinyurl.com/ceydx3, a clinical psychologist and founder of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Program http://tinyurl.com/myy686, are co-authors of Homeland Insecurity, a book that focuses on 11 Washington politicians who, addicted to political power, have compromised national security in order to satisfy their addiction.
Homeland Insecurity received national awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association, http://tinyurl.com/lbddzx, Foreword Magazine http://tinyurl.com/m5e5zc,
and the Independent Publisher’s Association, http://tinyurl.com/qhjqq6
All three organizations serve the university and independent press.
Mr. Turchie and Dr. Puckett are also the co-authors of the award-winning Hunting the American Terrorist, http://tinyurl.com/nd3r28
Both of their books were published by History Publishing Company LLC.
