CIA versus FBI at a raid
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The CIA-FBI difference at a raid is John Kiriakou's compressed illustration of what the two agencies are actually for, drawn from the joint raid teams, half CIA, half FBI, that worked together in Pakistan in 2002.

Two procedures

The Bureau's method he describes as evidentiary and methodical: "the FBI goes in and they put little sticky notes on the four walls, wall one, wall two, wall three, wall four. Then they open all the drawers and they take pictures of what's inside the drawers. Then they look for papers and they collect all the papers."

The reason is the destination of the material: "because they're going to build a case."

His own agency's method takes one sentence: "CIA, you go in, you bust down the door, you grab all the guys and you send them to Guantanamo."

The fiction in the operations order

The contrast is not merely observational. In briefing the assault teams before the Site 13 raid, Kiriakou told the room that every man was to be cuffed because this was an open criminal investigation and "our friends from the FBI are going to begin collecting evidence."

His own assessment of that justification, delivered immediately: "which was total horseshit."

See also

- John Kiriakou
- Site 13
- CIA-FBI interagency rivalry after 9/11
- Abu Zubaydah
