Alfreda Frances Bikowsky

Alfreda Frances Bikowsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alfreda Frances Bikowsky (b. 1965) is a career Central Intelligence Agency officer who has headed the Bin Laden Issue Station (also known as its code name, Alec Station) and the Global Jihad unit. Bikowsky's identity is not publicly acknowledged by the Agency, but was deduced by independent investigative journalists using open source materials in 2011.[1]
CIA career[edit]

Bikowsky started her CIA career in the 1990's as a Soviet analyst.[2][3](p273) She was brought into the Bin Laden Issue Station when it was created in 1996 by its first chief, Michael Scheuer.[3](p35) Sometime after the USS Cole bombing in October 2000, she was promoted to Deputy Chief of Bin Laden Issue Station.[4] Ken Silverstein reported that Bikowsky was a top candidate to be CIA deputy chief of station in Baghdad in 2007.[5] However, a CIA spokesman later wrote to Silverstein to say Bikowsky was not considered for the position and to dispute the characterization of her in the post.[6] In 2008, Jane Mayer reported that Bikowsky held "a top post handling sensitive matters in the Middle East."[7] Up until at least 2011, Bikowsky was the head of the CIA's Global Jihad unit.[8]
Pre-September 11, 2001 failures[edit]
Bikowsky was a senior staff member at the Bid Laden Issue Station in January 2000.[9] She was the direct supervisor of Michael Anne Casey, a CIA staff operations officer, who was assigned to track 9/11 hijacker Khalid al-Mihdhar at an al-Qaeda operatives' meeting in Malaysia in early January 2000.[4] Casey blocked a draft cable written by Doug Miller, a FBI agent detailed to Bid Laden Issue Station, to the FBI warning that al-Mihdhar had a multiple-entry visa for travel to the U.S.[10][11](p240) Mark Rossini, another FBI agent first assigned to the Bid Laden Issue Station in 1999,[11](p233) claims Casey also verbally ordered him to not share information about al-Mihdhar with FBI headquarters.[1][12] Rossini further claims Bikowsky told congressional investigators that she hand-delivered al-Mihdhar's visa information to FBI headquarters. This was later proven false by FBI log books.[1] The CIA shared some details about al-Mihdhar with the Federal Bureau of Investigation at that time, but not that he had a valid visa to enter the U.S.[11](pp244-7)
Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed[edit]
Bikowsky has been identified as "the redheaded former Soviet analyst who had been in the Bid Laden Unit during Michael Scheuer's supervision"[3](p273) in Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side.[4] After Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in March 2003, Mayer writes of Bikowsky:
Despite the CIA's insistence on the professionalism of its interrogation program, according to two well-informed Agency sources, one particularly overzealous female officer had to be reprimanded for her role. After Mohammed was captured, the woman, who headed the Al Qaeda unit in the CTC, was so excited she flew at government expense to the black site where Mohammed was held so that she could personally watch him being waterboarded. ... Coworkers said she had no legitimate reason to be present during Mohammed's interrogation. She was not an interrogator. "She thought it would be cool to be in the room," a former colleague said. (p. 273)[3]
Rendition of Khalid El-Masri[edit]
In January 2004, Bikowsky, as head of the Bin Laden Issue Station, made the decision to extraordinarily render Khalid El-Masri to Afghanistan for five months without any evidence in hand.[2][3](pp282-3)[8] El-Masri's name was a different transliteration of Khalid al-Masri, the name of a person who had supposedly met Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Marwan al-Shehhi on a train in Germany.[2][13] Even after El-Masri's passport was checked and his identity as a different person was confirmed in March, Bikowsky still wanted him held in detention in Afghanistan.[3](pp284-5) El-Masri was eventually released in late May.[2] The CIA Inspector General determined that there was no legal justification for rendering El-Masri.[8] Bikowsky received no reprimand for the incident, because then-CIA Director Michael Hayden didn't want to deter the initiative of counter-terrorism employees.[8]
References[edit]

^ a b c O'Connor, Rory; Nowosielski, Ray. "Insiders voice doubts about CIA's 9/11 Story". Salon.com. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
^ a b c d Priest, Dana (4 December 2005). "Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake". Washington Post. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
^ a b c d e f Mayer, Jane (2008). The Dark Side. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0307456298.
^ a b c Nowosielski, Ray; Duffy, John (20 September 2011). "Secrecy Kills - Press". secrecykills.com. Archived from the original on 27 November 2011.
^ Silverstein, Ken (23 March 2007). "Next Stop, Baghdad Station". Harper's. Archived from the original on 10 September 2011.
^ Silverstein, Ken (16 April 2007). "Missed Appointments: The CIA Responds". Harper's. Archived from the original on 12 October 2011.
^ Mayer, Jane (15 July 2008). "The Battle for a Country's Soul". New York Review of Books. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
^ a b c d Goldman, Adam; Apuzzo, Matt (9 February 2011). "CIA officers make grave mistakes, get promoted". NBCNews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
^ Nowosielski, Ray; Duffy, John (20 September 2011). "Secrecy Kills - Transcript". secrecykills.com. Archived from the original on 26 November 2011.
^ 9/11 Commission (July 22, 2004). "The 9/11 Commission Report, Notes". p. 502, note 44.
^ a b c "A Review of the FBI's Handling of Intelligence Information Related to the September 11 Attacks". Office of Inspector General. U.S. Department of Justice. November 2004. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ Bamford, James; Willis, Scott (February 3, 2009). "The Spy Factory". PBS. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
^ 9/11 Commission (July 22, 2004). "The 9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 5". p. 165.
External links[edit]

"Alfreda Frances Bikowsky". History Commons.
"Interview with a senior CIA officer regarding CIA RDI program". CIA Office of Inspector General. 17 July 2003. Retrieved 9 July 2013. Note: This interview was with a woman in the Counterterrorism Center of the CIA in 2003. Since Bikowsky was the highest-ranking officer in the CTC at that time, it is likely she is the subject.
Goldman, Adam; Apuzzo, Matt (9 February 2011). "CIA officers make grave mistakes, get promoted". NBCNews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
Nowosielski, Ray; Duffy, John (20 September 2011). "Who Is Richard Blee?" (mp3). Retrieved 11 July 2013.
Cook, John (22 September 2011). "Chief of CIA's 'Global Jihad Unit' Revealed Online". Gawker.com. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
Miller, Greg (10 December 2012). "In ‘Zero Dark Thirty,’ she’s the hero; in real life, CIA agent’s career is more complicated". Washington Post. Retrieved 3 July 2013.