After 9/11, the United States federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies began an unprecedented shift, refocusing on intelligence and surveillance abilities, rather than traditional crime-fighting. Phase 3: Institutionalizing the changes made to date by altering the command structure to meet the demands of our increased pace of operations and build the foundation for the future.

FBI Announces Restructuring | FBI | JUL 26, 2006

Director Robert S. Mueller announced structural changes to support the next phase of the FBI’s transformation efforts. “The initial phase of our post-9/11 transformation was our immediate response to the new terrorist threat. The next phase focused on developing enhanced intelligence capabilities.”

“Today we are aligning our organization to better support our priorities. This includes a strategic approach to human resources, IT, science and technology, facilities, and budget. This last phase is about institutionalizing the changes we have made to date, and building a foundation to support us into the future.”

The FBI began a huge transformation after 9/11. The Bureau’s leadership shifted their focus from fighting conventional crime to fighting terrorism. Director Robert Mueller, describes the structural change as three phases.

Phase 1: The immediate response to 9/11, which included the investigation, establishment of new priorities and the shift toward countering terrorism.

Phase 2: Developed enhanced intelligence capabilities, including the creation of the Directorate of Intelligence and doubled the number of intelligence analysts.

Phase 3: Institutionalizing the changes made to date by altering the command structure to meet the demands of our increased pace of operations and build the foundation for the future.

In July, 2006, Mueller publicly announced the FBI’s advance into the final phase.

A Redeployment at a Realigned FBI | LA TIMES | JUL 27, 2006

WASHINGTON — The FBI broke with one of its most storied traditions Wednesday, announcing changes in its top management that, rather than elevating onetime agents, tapped officials with extensive experience outside of the bureau for several key positions.

Former officials of BP, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the CIA are named to lead branches as the bureau shifts its focus from crime to terrorism. – The changes leave FBI careerists in charge of the bureau’s criminal and intelligence branches. Mueller also named a longtime agent to fill a new position of associate deputy director, but he created three positions that he filled with bureau employees who made their mark elsewhere:

Donald E. Packham, a former BP senior executive, will oversee human resources and training.

Kerry E. Haynes, a former CIA director of technical collection, was picked to run a new science and technology branch.

Chief Information Officer Zalmai Azmi, whose resume includes a stint as a project manager at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was given expanded duties in his role overseeing the bureau’s computer operations.

Vahid Majidi, a scientist formerly at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, would take command of the newly established weapons of mass destruction division.

Kerry Haynes: Former CIA

FEB 23, 2004 | FBI Director Mueller Names Kerry E. Haynes Assistant Director, Investigative Technologies Division | FBI

Prior to this appointment, Haynes served as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Directorate of Science and Technology’s detailee to the FBI.

As Assistant Director of the Investigative Technology Division, Haynes will lead efforts to develop and provide state-of-the-art technical support and expertise to enhance the FBI’s investigative efforts. He will also oversee forensic services related to the collection and processing of computer, audio, and visual media to ensure such evidence is fully exploited for its intelligence value.

Director Mueller said, “For the FBI to successfully address evolving threats, we must develop new investigative technologies as well as tools to turn digital evidence into useful intelligence. Kerry Haynes is uniquely qualified to head up these efforts, and I am confident that he will keep the FBI’s investigative technology on the cutting edge.”

Haynes brings to his new position decades of experience managing sophisticated technical operations. Early in his career, he served in three CIA Directorates in various operational capacities. Haynes has managed programs related to technical collection operations, equipment development, and intelligence community partnerships. Over the course of his federal service, Haynes received several prestigious awards, including the Donovan Award for extensive accomplishments in counterterrorism, and a Certificate of Merit for performance under wartime conditions.

FEB 16, 2011 | Newly Released Documents Detail FBI’s Plan to Expand Federal Surveillance Laws | ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION

EFF just received documents in response to a 2-year old FOIA request for information on the FBI’s “Going Dark” program, an initiative to increase the FBI’s authority in response to problems the FBI says it’s having implementing wiretap and pen register/trap and trace orders on new communications technologies. The documents detail a fully-formed and well-coordinated plan to expand existing surveillance laws and develop new ones. And although they represent only a small fraction of the documents we expect to receive in response to this and a more recent FOIA request, they were released just in time to provide important background information for the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing tomorrow on the Going Dark program.

What is the “Going Dark” Program?

The name “Going Dark” is cryptic, and the FBI’s public statements about the program are even more so. Nevertheless, FBI’s Operational Technology Division states that the program is one of the FBI’s “top initiatives” and has “gotten attention so far from high ranking officials in other federal, state, and local agencies and from industry.” (GD4, p. 110).1 The FBI has told reporters in emails that Going Dark is:

“the program name given to the FBI’s efforts to utilize innovative technology; foster cooperation with industry; and assist our state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners in a collaborative effort to close the growing gap between lawful interception requirements and our capabilities.”

The FBI has also said that the term “Going Dark” does not refer to a specific capability,

“but is a program name for the part of the FBI, Operational Technology Division’s (OTD) lawful interception program which is shared with other law enforcement agencies. The term applies to the research and development of new tools, technical support and training initiatives.”

The FBI’s “Five-Prong” Going Dark Strategy

The FBI states the Going Dark program is a “five-prong strategic approach to address the lawful ‘Intercept capability gap'” (GD3, p. 10). These five prongs are:

modernization /amendment of existing laws, enhancing authorities to protect industry proprietary and [law enforcement] sensitive lawful intercept information, equipment and techniques, enhancing [law enforcement] agencies’ coordination leveraging technical expertise of FBI with other [law enforcement] entities, enhancing lawful intercept cooperation between the communications industry and [law enforcement agencies] with a “One Voice” approach, and seeking new federal funding to bolster lawful intercept capabilities.

The FBI Has Been Working on “Going Dark” Since at Least 2006 and Has Lobbied Congress and the White House to Support the Program with More Money and Stronger Laws

In March 2008, staff from the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science visited the FBI’s Operational Technology Division and had a briefing on Going Dark with Kerry Haynes, the Assistant Director of the Investigative Technologies Division. Topics discussed included “unfunded requirements, level of cooperation/understanding/assistance from DNI, level of sharing and cooperation with IC/telecom and [international] partners, consolidation of tech efforts across industry, working groups/detailees [sic] to consolidate efforts, the ‘data coordination center’ concept.” (GD1, p. 32).

Signalscape, Board of Directors | SIGNALSCAPE | JAN 17, 2017

Edward L. Allen – Chairman of the Board (former FBI)

Jhan K. Vannatta – President and CEO (former SPARTA, CONUS, OCONUS)

Barbara A. McNamara – Director (former NSA, CIA)

Kerry E. Haynes – Director

Director Kerry Haynes was the FBI’s Executive Assistant Director, Science and Technology Branch with responsibility for oversight of the Special Technologies and Application Office, and the Criminal Justice Information Services, Laboratory, and Operational Technology Divisions. Prior to this, Mr. Haynes served in various positions with the CIA and FBI, including Assistant Director, Operational Technology Division. In this capacity he was responsible for providing the vision, leadership, and direction to ensure the operational availability of state-of-the-art technologies, support and expertise necessary to enable and enhance the FBI’s investigative efforts, as well as ensuring the application of forensics services related to the collection processing and exploitation of computer, audio and visual media in the Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Criminal Investigative and Cyber programs. Mr. Haynes retired from federal service in 2007.

Signalscape, About Us | SIGNALSCAPE | MAY 15, 2017

Since 1997, Signalscape™ has supplied engineering services and products used by our country’s security, intelligence, defense, and law enforcement services to combat crime, fight terrorism, and provide for homeland security. Located in the technology-rich Research Triangle area of North Carolina, Signalscape has become a premier provider of specialty wireless systems and our expertise includes audio, video, and data transmission systems for mission critical applications.

Signalscape’s custom mission solutions include Cellular Communications, Wireless Systems, Software Defined Radio, TTL Systems, Remote Sensing, and Video/Imaging Systems.

Our design services include Custom System Design, Software Development, Hardware Design, RF/Antenna Design, Rapid Prototyping, Manufacturing/Test, Certification Services, and Project Management.

Signalscape, Customers | SIGNALSCAPE | MAY 15, 2017

Department of Homeland Security

National Transportation Safety Board

Department of the Navy

Department of the Treasury

Department of Defense

Department of Engergy

Department of Justice

Technical Support Working Group

General Dynamics

Lockheed Martin

Signalscape, Partners | SIGNALSCAPE | MAY 15, 2017

Aegis

ArtisTech

Axios

BCT

Clutch

Cyber Pack Ventures

Cydecor

Government Services Group

IT CNP

Integrated Technology Solutions, Inc.

Pro Object Training

PTR Group

Resolution Video

Summit Solutions

Toshiba Security

Trusted Silicon

Zal Azmi: Afghan national

Zalmai Azmi: From New York City to Afghanistan to the FBI | GCN | SEP 7, 2006

Azmi, who emigrated from Afghanistan with his family as a teenager, brought his fluency in five languages’Dari, Farsi, Pashtu, German and English’as an asset to the special operations work. He carried out two tours in Afghanistan during the year after the 9/11 attacks and also worked with NCTC in the capital region.

FBI director Robert Mueller III tapped Azmi for the job of evaluating the bureau’s computer systems. He was a special assistant to Mueller for two months and acting CIO for six months. Azmi rose to permanent CIO in May 2004.

‘When I became acting CIO, I started in-house evaluation of the Virtual Case File program,’ Azmi said. Later, he hired contractor Aerospace Corp. of Columbia, Md. to size up the troubled case management system.

In March 2005, the FBI walked away from the VCF program at a cost of $104 million [GCN.com/675]. Subsequently, the bureau launched the Sentinel case management project in May 2005.

Azmi noted that the anti-terrorist mission the FBI now has adopted has changed the face of the bureau’s IT, even if some projects have carried over from before 9/11.

The FBI needed an infrastructure, a case management system, and a communications and collaboration platform before the terror attacks, he said. ‘In that sense, we are working on the same projects.’

‘But 9/11 has put every one of these activities on a fast track.’ He added, ‘The sense of urgency is the biggest driver for IT transformation within the bureau since 9/11.’

Amid the urgency of standing up the new case management system, Azmi and his staff have reshaped the bureau’s IT acquisition process.

The Sentinel project is progressing through a series of design approval stages, and Azmi has established several other controls on the activities of the team led by systems integrator Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md.

‘The biggest challenge we had with VCF was ‘ accountability,’ Azmi said. ‘We had runaway requirements, we didn’t have good oversight of our contract management.’ He cited VCF’s problems with lifecycle methodology, meeting milestones, passing review gates, providing deliverables and assuring the quality of deliverables.

Intelligence IT leaders ‘concentrate on information sharing, because they all know that’s probably the best weapon and the ultimate weapon to win this war on terrorism,’ Azmi said.

Moving Technology Forward: Outgoing CIO Discusses New Capabilities | FBI | SEP 24, 2008

Today, as Azmi announces his departure, FBI agents and analysts are sharing information across top-secret networks with partner agencies around the world. More than 20,000 BlackBerrys have been distributed to FBI personnel, unfettering them from desks and providing mobile access to NCIC rap sheets and vehicle records. In full swing is a multi-phased initiative to deploy new computers and improved tools for agents managing digital case files.

The advances have not been without early missteps—a case management system called Virtual Case File (VCF) was scrapped in 2003. But in the nearly five years since Azmi signed on to help the Bureau update its information technology program, he has rebuilt it from the ground up.

Under Azmi’s watch, the FBI’s technology group:

Delivered and networked new computers and BlackBerry devices to more than 700 FBI locations around the world.

Re-engineered, streamlined, or automated more than 200 FBI work processes and changed some 100 policies to make them more efficient.

Created a platform enabling introduction of new technologies and capabilities on a rolling basis; 54 projects are currently in development and new capabilities are released almost every other month.

Eliminated barriers to searching across scores of previously compartmentalized information sources, including SIPRNet, one of the country’s largest networks of classified information.

Professionalized the IT program by recruiting and training skilled program managers; the FBI had two certified IT program managers in 2004, today there are more than 80.

Asked by Director Mueller to help the FBI sort through its technology assets and needs in late 2003, Azmi won the Director’s confidence and was appointed CIO in May 2004. Azmi inherited oversight over the Trilogy program, a comprehensive overhaul of FBI technology, which includes building new IT networks, supplying thousands of computers, and developing an information management system, Sentinel, to replace a pokey system built on old (green-screen) mainframe technology.

“My focus was on building an organization that not only can deliver the replacement for VCF, which is the Sentinel application, but also other applications, other capabilities, other things that the Bureau lacked,” Azmi said during a recent interview.

The Sentinel program is on schedule for full roll-out by mid-2010. Azmi said he told the Director in 2003 that putting FBI technology on sound footing could take three to five years. He is confident the team and the plan he crafted during his tenure will fulfill the Director’s vision—and the public’s expectation—that we utilize the best technology available, because our ability to combat terrorists and criminals increasingly depends on that technology.

Mr. Azmi was a member of the Intelligence Community and the DOJ CIO Councils. He also traveled to Europe and Middle East to collaborate with Law Enforcement counterparts’ on related technology projects and capabilities. He was an active member of the Five Eyes CIO council.

Mr. Azmi is an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, a member of the AFCEA’s Cyber and Intelligence Committees, INSA’s Cyber Council, NDIA, ISACA, IEEE, Board of Directors for InfraGard, Chair Person of the Advisory Board for University of North America, and several other industry associations

Vahid Majidi – Iranian national

Vahid Majidi | I AM IRANIAN | JAN 10, 2017

Professor Vahid Majidi was born in 1961 in Iran and came to USA as a high school student in 1979 only 18 years old when his parents fled during the fall of the Shah.

Vahid Majidi, is the FBI’s assistant director for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. He’s a chemist, most recently chief chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the FBI’s representative to the IND Steering Group that Rolf chairs.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate is responsible for coordinating and managing the FBI’s resources, activities and investigations involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD’s).

Specific accountability encompasses developing and executing an integrated approach to deny and protect access to WMD materials and technologies, to prevent WMD attacks, and to respond to WMD threats and incidents.

He’s also the highest-ranking Iranian at the FBI and among the highest ranking in the U.S. government

Dr. Vahid Majidi, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters | US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE | MAY 11, 2017

Dr. Vahid Majidi became the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters in December 2013. In this position, he is responsible for all aspects of nuclear weapon surety and the management, integration, and coordination of activities relating to the acquisition and modernization of the nuclear weapons stockpile. His office approves procedures and requirements relating to all facets of the nuclear weapons logistics and establishes procedures for review, approval, and transmittal to the Department of Energy on nuclear weapons matters.

Just prior to joining the Department of Defense, Dr. Majidi served as the Chief Scientist for TASC Inc., and was the Director of University Multispectral Laboratories. His work focused on national security, homeland security, and issues concerning advanced technologies.

From 2006 to 2012, Dr. Majidi served as the Assistant Director for the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Directorate at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His Directorate was responsible for coordinating and managing FBI’s equities, activities, and investigations involving WMD. Specifically, the Directorate was charged with developing and executing an integrated approach to deny access to WMD materials and technologies, prevent WMD attacks, and respond to WMD threats and incidents.

Dr. Majidi was appointed by the Deputy Attorney General to serve as the Chief Science Advisor to the Department of Justice. Dr. Majidi was detailed from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to the Department of Justice, and he was responsible for coordinating science and technology policy among the Department’s component agencies and with state and local law enforcement entities. He served as the lead Department representative for biosecurity, pathogen forensics, DNA technologies, biometrics programs, and as the liaison to the scientific community.

Dr. Majidi also served as the Chemistry Division Leader at LANL before he began his assignment with Department of Justice. The Chemistry Division at LANL is a premier scientific organization with extensive research capabilities essential to national security and civilian research programs. Chemistry Division’s strategic programs included nuclear weapons-related research, non/counter-proliferation, homeland security, isotope science, applied energy, and nanoscale science & engineering.

Donald Packham: Chicago human resources specialist

Donald Packham Named Chief Human Resources Officer | FBI | OCT 11, 2005

Director Robert S. Mueller, III is pleased to announce the appointment of Donald E. Packham to be the FBI’s chief human resources officer. In this position, Mr. Packham will oversee the FBI’s human capital management functions, including recruiting, performance management, talent development, succession planning, compensation, benefits, and awards. Mr. Packham assumes his new position today.

In a 21-year career with BP (formerly British Petroleum), Mr. Packham served in a number of senior human resources roles. In his last position with BP, Mr. Packham was the senior vice president of Human Resources Americas, where he oversaw human resources functions for 50,000 employees spread across more than 50 business units in North and South America. In previous assignments with BP, Mr. Packham was the top human resources official responsible for implementing BP’s acquisition of ARCO, and was the head of human resources for BP’s global exploration and production sector.

FBI hires tech-savvy HR guru | FCW | OCT 17, 2005

An executive with strong change management skills and information technology experience is just what the FBI needs to improve the bureau’s human resources programs, experts say.

Last week, FBI officials said they found their man. They hired Donald Packham, a consultant and former senior vice president for human resources at BP, formerly British Petroleum, as the bureau’s first chief human resources officer (CHRO).

The FBI’s success in meeting its hiring, training, promotion and retention goals depends greatly on improving its administrative IT systems for human resources programs, said Rick Cinquegrana, project director of the FBI Transformation Project at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).

In September, NAPA issued a report recommending that the FBI create a CHRO position and improve its IT capabilities for hiring and training. The FBI’s existing IT capabilities are inadequate and limit the bureau’s ability to take full advantage of tools to improve its human resources productivity, Cinquegrana said. IT “basically underlies a lot of what they need to get done, the reforms they want to make,” he said.

An advocate of technology, Packham said all human resources operations are IT-based because everything about employment and employee records starts with the payroll database.

Transforming the FBI: Roadmap to an Effective Human Capital Program (PDF) | NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION | SEP 2005

Donald Packham, TCS Education System, Executive Board | TCS | MAY 13, 2017

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology | WIKIPEDIA | MAY 13, 2017

TCS is a Member Institution of Higher Education Recruitment Consortium | WIKIPEDIA | MAY 13, 2017

The National HERC was established in 2007 to support the independent but affiliated regional HERCs. It is a program of the Tides Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The National HERC is governed by an Advisory Board composed of the National HERC Director, ex officio, regional HERC directors, a member representative, and a member representative alternate from each regional HERC.

Tides (organization) | WIKIPEDIA | MAY 13, 2017

Tides has received at least $3.5 million from financier and political activist George Soros.[11]

From 2003 to 2012, Tides gave around $4.4 million to media advocacy organization Media Matters for America.[12]

Donald Packham | RELATIONSHIP SCIENCE | MAY 12, 2017

Director, Current, Jitasa, Inc.

Jitasa, Inc. provides accounting and bookkeeping services. It offers bookkeeping and accounting services for nonprofits company. The company was founded by Jeff Russell in 2008 and is headquartered in Boise, ID.