Thomas J. Pickard

Infobox Officeholder
name = Thomas J. Pickard


imagesize = 150px
order = Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
term_start = June 25, 2001
term_end = September 04, 2001
president = George W. Bush
predecessor = Louis Freeh
successor = Robert Mueller
birth_date = birth date and age|1950|01|06
birth_place = Woodside, United States

Thomas J. Pickard (born January 6, 1950) was an acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 41 days in the summer of 2001 following the tenure of Director Louis Freeh. He was replaced just one week before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the pentagon. Born in Woodside, Queens, New York. He graduated from Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, and subsequently received his Master's degree from St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens. He is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed by the state of New York.

Pickard began his career as a Special Agent of the FBI on January 13, 1975, and after a period of training, he was initially assigned to the New York City field office. In April 1979, Pickard was transferred to the Washington, D.C., field office, where he worked in an undercover capacity on the case code-named "ABSCAM." In July 1980, Pickard was promoted to FBI Headquarters, serving in the Inspection and Criminal Investigative Divisions. In October 1984, Pickard reported to the New York City field office as a supervisor in the White-Collar Crime Section and later was appointed to be the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for all White-Collar Crime investigations and violent crime matters in New York.

In 1989, Pickard was selected for the FBI's Senior Executive Service and was transferred to FBI Headquarters, where he oversaw the FBI's finance operations and subsequently its personnel operations. In 1993, Pickard was transferred to the New York City Office once again, to serve as the Special Agent in Charge of the National Security Division, supervising such matters as the trials of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing defendants, the trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman and his co-conspirators, the Manila Air conviction of Ramzi Yousef and his associates, and the July 1996, TWA Flight 800 explosion.

On September 10, 1996, FBI Director Louis Freeh named Pickard to the position of Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington field office. During his tenure there, Pickard supervised such matters as the investigation and arrest of FBI Special Agent Earl Pitts for espionage and the capture of convicted CIA killer Mir Amir Kansi.

On February 2, 1998, Pickard assumed the position of Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters. On November 1, 1999, Pickard was appointed Deputy Director, the number two position at the FBI. On June 25, 2001, Pickard was appointed Acting Director of the FBI by Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Pickard is implicated in the destruction of FBI agent John P. O'Neill's career during the summer before the September 11, 2001 attacks. In the PBS "Frontline" documentary [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/ “The Man Who Knew.”] O'Neill's significant other accuses Pickard of leaking information to the New York Times that effectively ended O'Neill's efforts against Al-Qaeda. O'Neill would die just months later in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html Frontline: The Man Who Knew transcript | PBS] Frontline (U.S. TV series) (c) 2002