Special agent talks about lessons learned from 9/11 terror attacks on Inside The FBI: New York

Special Agent Frank Pellegrino talking to the camera on Inside The FBI: New York
Special Agent Frank Pellegrino talks about the fight against terrorism on Inside The FBI: New York

A counterterrorism special agent tonight talks about the lessons learned from the 9/11 attacks in the two-episode season finale of Inside The FBI: New York.

Special Agent Frank Pellegrino has been part of the FBI’s counterterrorism division since 1992. After the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 he was given lead responsibility for the arrest of ring-leader Ramzi Yousef.

He also spent a decade searching for Khaled Sheikh Mohamed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

In the first episode of Inside the FBI: New York tonight, titled Ground Zero to Chelsea, Pellegrino talks about how much things have changed in the FBI’s counterterrorism unit since he first joined.

He says: “In August of ’87 I decided to apply to the bureau. When I got to counterterrorism there were two squads, it grew to three…maybe 30/35 people. You know, and now there’s…450?”

He also talks about how differently they approach their tasks today, as he and his colleagues struggle with the lessons learned over the past quarter of a century.

He says: “We do things so differently than we did back in the 90s and even through half of the 2000s.

“But one thing I try to tell new agents is history is not one thing after another, it’s the same damn thing over and over and over again.

“Understand what has happened, so that you can understand what is happening now.”

Tonight’s second episode, titled Global Fight, sees the FBI working to prevent an attack taking place on the subway system after getting intelligence from the UK.

And the Joint Terrorism Task Force meets with a former terrorist in Uganda.

It comes as they await the verdicts of the case at the High Court of Uganda against the alleged perpetrators of the 2010 bombings in the country’s capital Kampala.

The two-episode Inside the FBI: New York season finale starts tonight at 10/9c on USA Network.

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Pam Anderson
Pam Anderson
3 years ago

Would be great if this tv show was shown in Australia. Can’t find it in DVD either.