Editor's note: Bob, Zach, Your ProbateShark hates to sound like a stuck record...However,...The greatest danger to the citizens of Chicago are the crooked judges and lawyers in the Probate Court of Cook County. No law enforcement bodies in Chicago or the suburbs will even make well being checks on court victim relatives as these requests are considered "probate matters". Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
Chicago FBI boss faces balancing act
City's violent crime, nation's counterterrorism efforts vie for new chief's attention
Robert Holley, the FBI's new special agent in charge in Chicago, spent several years working in Washington. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune / December 9, 2013)
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One of the most significant terrorism cases prosecuted in Chicago started with a needle-in-a-haystack moment: a phone number passed without fanfare from a foreign intelligence service to the FBI.
A young agent at the bureau's office started pulling on the thread, and it wasn't long before it became apparent they were on to something big, according to Robert Holley, then head of counterterrorism in the FBI office in Chicago.
"We started with that phone number, and it turned into David Headley," Holley said of the Chicago man who admitted he helped a Pakistan-based terrorist group carry out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks and a separate plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. "That's how they happen, with something that's innocuous when you first get it, and you just pull on it and pull on it."
Holley, the new special agent in charge of the FBI in Chicago, told the Tribune that stopping new terrorist attacks remains the bureau's No. 1 priority more than 12 years after Sept. 11. But much like new U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, Holley, in charge of 850 agents, analysts and support staff, faces increasing pressure to help Chicago police combat street violence.
While Holley said gang- and drug-related violence will continue to be a priority, he's not sure how many more assets he can spare to fight violent crime, especially given recent budget woes in Washington that have led to a freeze in hiring. In addition to terrorism and violent crime, the FBI investigates everything from cyberattacks to financial fraud, bank robbery and political corruption, he said.
"We will go after the worst of the worst, and we will go after the gang leadership. That has to be our focus," said the 18-year FBI veteran, who has met with Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and plans to speak with Mayor Rahm Emanuel next month. "(But) if I put more resources on violent crime, I'd have to take away from other things. ... I'm not prepared to accept that risk right now."
Holley said he has selected Special Agent Matt DeSarno — who had specialized in white-collar crime — to head his gangs unit.
An Indiana native, Holley, 54, has maintained his modest Midwest demeanor in spite of years in top jobs at FBI headquarters in Washington. During a recent hourlong interview with the Tribune, the Ball State University graduate sat in shirt sleeves in his 10th-floor Near West Side office overlooking the city's skyline, the walls decorated with a replica Tommy gun, two Louisville Slugger bats and a bumper sticker calling for a ban on whining.
The son of a career Air Force man, Holley served nine years as an infantry officer in the Army before joining the FBI in 1995, days shy of the age cutoff of 37 for new agents. In addition to his time in Washington, Holley had two previous stints in the Chicago FBI office and for a brief time led the field office in Indianapolis. He said coming back to Chicago to head up the bureau's fourth-largest field office represents a perfect way to cap his career.
"I've done my time on the East Coast," he said with a smile.
Like most agents, Holley started his career on the street, working criminal cases and spending time on the SWAT team and bomb squad. When he entered management he had to give up those "hobbies," he said. But running a team of people was his true calling, and he rose quickly up the ranks. In 2010 Holley was appointed section chief in the counterterrorism division, where he was responsible for U.S.-based international terrorism investigations
After the bombings at the Boston Marathon this year, Holley was one of the ranking FBI officials quickly dispatched to the scene to help coordinate communications and logistics as the chaotic events unfolded, ending days later with a shootout with the suspects and a wild manhunt across Boston.
"There is not a tabletop exercise, or any exercise really, that you can do to prepare for an event like that," Holley said. "It was very intense, very labor-intensive. There were a lot of tired people up there."
Holley said the Boston bombings underscored the various fronts being fought in the continuing war on terrorism, from core al-Qaida cells in the Middle East to homegrown jihadists such as Headley, or lone actors such as brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev who became "self-radicalized."
Holley said he makes "no apologies" for undercover investigations that critics say have coaxed targets into following through with attacks that they might not otherwise have the means to carry out. Three such terrorism plots have been charged in Chicago in the last two years.
"They're not up on the radar," Holley said. "They work by themselves. Those are the individuals that are the hardest to find. You are looking for some threads of information to put you on them."
As for any political pressure he's likely to feel as the leader of the Chicago field office — whether it's investigating public corruption or trying to tackle the city's gun violence — Holley said he will tell his agents to simply follow the evidence.
"If I were a political person, I would have stayed out there in D.C.," Holley said. "We investigate individuals. That's my job, and there is no political side to that."
jmeisner@tribune.com
A young agent at the bureau's office started pulling on the thread, and it wasn't long before it became apparent they were on to something big, according to Robert Holley, then head of counterterrorism in the FBI office in Chicago.
"We started with that phone number, and it turned into David Headley," Holley said of the Chicago man who admitted he helped a Pakistan-based terrorist group carry out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks and a separate plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. "That's how they happen, with something that's innocuous when you first get it, and you just pull on it and pull on it."
Holley, the new special agent in charge of the FBI in Chicago, told the Tribune that stopping new terrorist attacks remains the bureau's No. 1 priority more than 12 years after Sept. 11. But much like new U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, Holley, in charge of 850 agents, analysts and support staff, faces increasing pressure to help Chicago police combat street violence.
While Holley said gang- and drug-related violence will continue to be a priority, he's not sure how many more assets he can spare to fight violent crime, especially given recent budget woes in Washington that have led to a freeze in hiring. In addition to terrorism and violent crime, the FBI investigates everything from cyberattacks to financial fraud, bank robbery and political corruption, he said.
"We will go after the worst of the worst, and we will go after the gang leadership. That has to be our focus," said the 18-year FBI veteran, who has met with Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and plans to speak with Mayor Rahm Emanuel next month. "(But) if I put more resources on violent crime, I'd have to take away from other things. ... I'm not prepared to accept that risk right now."
Holley said he has selected Special Agent Matt DeSarno — who had specialized in white-collar crime — to head his gangs unit.
An Indiana native, Holley, 54, has maintained his modest Midwest demeanor in spite of years in top jobs at FBI headquarters in Washington. During a recent hourlong interview with the Tribune, the Ball State University graduate sat in shirt sleeves in his 10th-floor Near West Side office overlooking the city's skyline, the walls decorated with a replica Tommy gun, two Louisville Slugger bats and a bumper sticker calling for a ban on whining.
The son of a career Air Force man, Holley served nine years as an infantry officer in the Army before joining the FBI in 1995, days shy of the age cutoff of 37 for new agents. In addition to his time in Washington, Holley had two previous stints in the Chicago FBI office and for a brief time led the field office in Indianapolis. He said coming back to Chicago to head up the bureau's fourth-largest field office represents a perfect way to cap his career.
"I've done my time on the East Coast," he said with a smile.
Like most agents, Holley started his career on the street, working criminal cases and spending time on the SWAT team and bomb squad. When he entered management he had to give up those "hobbies," he said. But running a team of people was his true calling, and he rose quickly up the ranks. In 2010 Holley was appointed section chief in the counterterrorism division, where he was responsible for U.S.-based international terrorism investigations
After the bombings at the Boston Marathon this year, Holley was one of the ranking FBI officials quickly dispatched to the scene to help coordinate communications and logistics as the chaotic events unfolded, ending days later with a shootout with the suspects and a wild manhunt across Boston.
"There is not a tabletop exercise, or any exercise really, that you can do to prepare for an event like that," Holley said. "It was very intense, very labor-intensive. There were a lot of tired people up there."
Holley said the Boston bombings underscored the various fronts being fought in the continuing war on terrorism, from core al-Qaida cells in the Middle East to homegrown jihadists such as Headley, or lone actors such as brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev who became "self-radicalized."
Holley said he makes "no apologies" for undercover investigations that critics say have coaxed targets into following through with attacks that they might not otherwise have the means to carry out. Three such terrorism plots have been charged in Chicago in the last two years.
"They're not up on the radar," Holley said. "They work by themselves. Those are the individuals that are the hardest to find. You are looking for some threads of information to put you on them."
As for any political pressure he's likely to feel as the leader of the Chicago field office — whether it's investigating public corruption or trying to tackle the city's gun violence — Holley said he will tell his agents to simply follow the evidence.
"If I were a political person, I would have stayed out there in D.C.," Holley said. "We investigate individuals. That's my job, and there is no political side to that."
jmeisner@tribune.com
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