FBI, terrorism officials recall how 9/11 shaped their careers
Twenty-five years the 9/11 attacks, ask almost anyone, and they can tell you where they were when everything changed.
"I was going to college in Northern New Jersey at the time… I was actually able to see the towers from the top of the football stadium," said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Marcus Perry, who is with the FBI counterterrorism and crisis response branch.
"I was a state prosecutor in Suffolk County, New York. I was getting ready to go into Grand Jury when we got an announcement that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, and then a few minutes later, we got the notice that there was a second one. And we knew there was a terrorist attack," said Thomas Sullivan, Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the National Security and Cyber Crimes section.
One morning shapes work for life
For them, that morning would become more than a memory. It would shape the work they chose to do for the next 25 years.
"I, even at that age, in my early 20s at the time, realized the significance of it. The single largest loss of life on US soil committed by a terrorist organization," said Perry.
"I'd always wanted to be in law enforcement. So it was something I always wanted to do and then I went into private practice and did a lot of 9/11 litigation on the civil side, representing the Bureau of Prisons Employees, and that's sort of just the natural progression," said Sullivan.
And for the FBI, 9/11 changed more than just the people who witnessed it. It changed the agency itself, from reacting to threats, to trying to find them before they become attacks.
"It completely changed the way the FBI operates. We went from a reactive organization where we reacted to things, to a proactive organization based off threats that are intel driven," said Perry.
Today, technology can help enable terrorists
But the threats have changed, too. Today, terrorists can use the internet, even artificial intelligence, to reach people thousands of miles away.
"Obviously widespread use of the internet, but also artificial intelligence. So somebody doesn't actually have to recruit the person individually, they can have an AI bot do the recruiting for them," said Sullivan.
So the goal remains the same: find the threat before there are victims.
"Thwarting a terrorist act is always a tremendous win for us," said Perry.
So while the view of the towers may be gone, the memories certainly are not, further reenforcing the mission every day.
"Here, we have a real opportunity to stop really bad people from doing really bad things before it happens, so that is a great feeling," said Sullivan.
