The Job for the Rest of My Life
In Which Teófilo reminisces about his first days at the NDIC.
In-processing
Tuesday, February 22, 1994, couldn’t arrive fast enough. That morning, I dressed in one of my two business suits, put my blue Air Force trench-coat on top, and reported to work.
I don’t recall who met me downstairs at the Penn Traffic building. Penn Traffic used to be a major department store. Its architecture reminded me of Macy’s, in New York. Penn Traffic was also the home of the Federal court and the IRS, and multiple law firms. Pretty soon I was riding the elevator to the 5th floor, where NDIC was headquartered.
Our hosts shepherded us to the only conference room then available, the one later renamed “The Ball Room” after NDIC’s first Director, Mr. Doug Ball. We did some initial paperwork and took our oath of office:
I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
This was the oath, so similar to the one I’d taken in the military, that would guide my conscience thereon.
We had our pictures taken, and badges made. Then they assigned us to our desks. I made my first call from my desk to Mercie, to let her know my new business number. Then I called the county’s assistance office and beaming with pride, thanked them for their help and asked them to discontinue the assistance.
We spent the rest of the week getting passwords, training, and doing other in-processing tasks. I also got to know many of my new coworkers, most of whom would belong to my analyst class. I also found out that I had been assigned to the Document Exploitation (DocEx) Section, thanks to the influence of my Air Force friend who had relocated to Johnstown just before I did.
What was the NDIC?
In 1989 the Bush I Administration, unveiled a National Drug Control Strategy, outlining the President's strategy for coordinating the various federal programs aimed at reducing drug use and drug trafficking in the United States. The strategy announced the development of an intelligence center aimed at uniting and improving U.S. drug-related, intelligence analysis capabilities. The Fiscal Year 1993 Defense Appropriation created the law authorizing the NDIC. Thanks to the powerful Congressman from Johnstown, Jack P. Murtha, the FBI built the NDIC in Johnstown.
Purists would say that creating the NDIC was the next logical step in the War on Drugs, a “war” policymakers declared in the 1980’s to tackle a real problem affecting thousands of families across the nation. I think no one can deny drug trafficking enriches numerous nefarious actors who enriched themselves at the expense of American citizens. I believed the miscreants had to be taken out from circulation, prosecuted, and imprisoned.
Cynics, however, would point out the obsessive American need to identify and fight an enemy. Cynics must also be forgiven for thinking that the presence of such a significant agency was due to Congressman Murtha’s efforts to “bring home the bacon.”
I think purists and cynics were both right.
Nevertheless, I saw myself as a patriot and could’ve cared less about the cynic’s views. I’d landed the groundbreaking job I’d worked so hard to attain.
I was ready to go. I was ready to make Johnstown my hometown and the NDIC my new service for our country.
What was DocEx?
Now, DocEx was as old as the intelligence craft – which is often called “the world’s second oldest profession. It consists of examining what a nefarious actor – a terrorist, a drug or human trafficker, a spy – left behind in his ordinary life. However, the Information Revolution had added a new layer of complexity to contemporary criminal investigation. Criminal organizations grew more complex and fluid. The tools to combat them had to keep up. That’s where we came in.
As NDIC DocEx teams examined documents obtained during warranted searchers, the teams identified new leads that could help investigators expand their cases. “Exploiting” this information became our bread and butter. We would identify other actors, properties, events, connected to the investigation’s subject, thereby expanding the case. The new entities the teams identified new connections to other cases of regional or national significance. DocEx offered a huge investigative potential and the ability to identify major drug traffickers infesting our streets.
Issued IBM Thinkpad notebook computers, we were ahead of paper and pencil, but barely so. Our workflow – data reduction, input, and processing – would see great changes in the immediate future thanks to a crop of very brilliant analysts I had the privilege to meet and work along with.
But that was still ahead of us on from that day in February 1994.
It’s time to introspect. I’ve said I was ready, but what was I bringing to the mix? Where was I as a young man in my late twenties? We’ll see that next…
Bonus Link
Center for Drug Intelligence Opens, But Some Ask if It Is Really Needed, at the New York Times Archives.