Local FBI agent leaves wary about changes since 9/11

Charles Mandigo, the high-profile head of the FBI office here, poses a provocative question as he prepares to retire later this month:

"What is the quickest way to tyranny and the best way to prevent terrorism? The answer is the same: consolidate law-enforcement agencies."

Mandigo, a lawyer and 29-year FBI veteran, will become chief of security for Seattle-based Holland America Cruise Lines.

At 56, Mandigo is a year away from the FBI's mandatory retirement age "and this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."

He leaves a $125,000 a year job supervising 130 agents but will remain in Seattle, where he has lived since 1994, with his wife and two young children.

During his four years as the Seattle special agent in charge, he saw the FBI through some of its most significant — and frustrating — investigations, from the arrest and prosecution of al-Qaida operative Ahmed Ressam to the unsolved slaying of federal prosecutor Thomas Wales.

He assumed an unusually public profile within the normally reticent FBI, speaking to civic groups and mosques about the bureau's activities.

It was the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that Mandigo says most significantly changed law enforcement during his tenure. The terrorist attacks exposed the perilous lack of cooperation among the FBI, CIA and other agencies.

"The inefficiencies in the system had made it very hard to connect the dots" in terrorism investigations, Mandigo said.

Since the attacks, some Congress members and citizens have been harshly critical of federal law enforcement for not anticipating the attacks despite ample evidence that Osama bin Laden was targeting the U.S.

At the same time, the Sept. 11 tragedy created the impetus and the will among the agencies to break down barriers that for years had hampered cooperation, he says.

Meantime, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, flinging Mandigo and others into uncharted investigative waters with new powers to pry into the lives of Americans.

So far, Mandigo believes the changes have been for the good. But continuing to give government more powers could be dangerous.

"The more you push toward consolidating law enforcement and information gathering, the closer you get to pushing the balance back toward that thing this country was founded to escape: tyranny.

"I fault a lot of people for not seeing the need for this balance."

Congress should not consolidate police and intelligence gathering under the FBI, CIA "or any other alphabet agency," he said.

A trim, compact, private person, Mandigo earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University, a law degree from William and Mary College, and a master of business administration from the University of Chicago.

He joined the FBI in 1974, when the agency was in turmoil. Its acting director, L. Patrick Gray, resigned in disgrace the year before when it was revealed he had destroyed files to protect one of the Watergate conspirators.

Mandigo was a recent graduate of law school who, after reading case law about law-enforcement abuses, thought he could make more of a difference within the FBI than from without.

But he did not find systemic problems inside the FBI. "I was wrong," he said.

Mandigo went on to work in the FBI's New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., field offices, chasing white-collar criminals and drug dealers. He also worked several years at FBI headquarters under Director Louis Freeh as a deputy chief of the office of public and congressional affairs.

Federal officials credit Mandigo for his willingness to appear before Islamic groups feeling pressured after Sept. 11 and again just before the U.S. invaded Iraq.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI agents were sent out nationwide to interview Muslim students, pilots and activists.

Mandigo expressed quiet concern about the tactic and sent his agents out often in the evenings so as not to disrupt peoples' lives or draw as much attention.

"Charlie is a man of great integrity," said John McKay, a longtime friend and the U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Washington. "He is every bit as concerned about protecting constitutional rights as the most ardent advocate of civil liberties."

Mandigo will travel extensively in his new job, overseeing ship security, working with port authorities, and getting Holland America in compliance with new worldwide security measures of the London-based International Maritime Organization, which oversees shipping treaties.

Holland America has 15 luxury cruise ships that make calls at more than 280 ports worldwide.

After 29 years in the buttoned-down world of the FBI, Mandigo sees a few flowered shirts and sandals in his future.

"I mean, I have to take a cruise or two, right? I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't."

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com