Evaluating the FBI

How has the FBI performed in addressing domestic and international terrorism since 9/11? That's the big question for a newly formed, commission mandated by Congress that has Cadwalader white collar investigations counsel Joe Moreno. He was recently appointed a consultant, supporting commissioner Ed Meese, former Rep. Tim Roemer, and prof. Bruce Hoffman. There's a particular focus on more modern threats: domestic radicalization, cyber-terrorism, and al Qaeda affiliates.

Joe joined the US Army Reserve in April 2001 and went from a corporate lawyer at Skadden to prosecuting cases for the Army in Germany, then in Iraq and Kuwait. When he returned to the US, he switched from corporate work to litigation. He later became a counterterrorism prosecutor for the DOJ's National Security Division. As special assistant US Attorney in the EDVA in 2010, he helped prosecute attempted "DC Metro Bomber" Farooque Ahmed, who took a 23-year guilty plea. Ahmed's an example of the "domestic radicalization" that the FBI is fighting. 

Aside from propelling Joe toward litigation and counter-terror work, the Reserve is where he met his wife during a JAG conference. Terra's a paralegal who was deployed for a year to Iraq and with whom he now has four children under age six and a fifth on the way in October. (The two are in Balad, Iraq, above.) Joe's the first in his family to either join the Army or be a lawyer; he tells us his parents are doctors and were pushing for an MD or CPA; "law was definitely a distant third choice!"