Thomas J. Harrington, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counter-Terrorism Division and a Mount alumnus, will offer an insider’s view of how 9/11 has affected the United States’ counter-terrorism efforts and changed the face of the FBI during a presentation on Wednesday, March 1.

His talk begins at 7 p.m. in Laughlin Auditorium and is free and open to the public.

Harrington will discuss the FBI's operations to identify and thwart terrorist activities in the United States. He will also discuss his personal experiences in Iraq as well as Afghanistan in the pursuit of al Qaeda members. The Counterterrorism Division, of which he manages, consolidates all FBI counterterrorism initiatives: to detect, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist sleeper cells in the United States before they act; to identify and prevent acts of terrorism by individuals with a terrorist agenda acting alone; to detect, disrupt, and dismantle terrorist support networks, including financial support networks; works to improve the country’s capacity to disseminate threat-related information to local, state, and federal agencies, and to the private sector as needed; and, provides timely and accurate in-depth analysis of the terrorist threat and other information of value on an ongoing basis.

"Assistant Director Harrington has been instrumental in bringing state-of-the-art techniques for intelligence gathering and dissemination of information to the forefront of the 'War on Terrorism'", states Joseph J. Vince, Jr., director of the Delaney Center for Public Sector Information at Mount St. Mary's University. "His work is an excellent example of how collecting, managing, and analyzing information can result in providing law enforcement with successful intervention, prevention as well as, enforcement tactics," said Vince.

The lecture is part of a series sponsored by the Mount’s Criminal Justice Program and Delaney Center for Public Sector Information which teaches people how to competently analyze and disseminate information/intelligence to accomplish their agency’s mission. It is an important first step in filling a critical shortage of qualified data analysts in the United States

For more information about the lecture or the Delaney Center, please contact Joe Vince at 301-447-5373.