Houston Community News >> Houston FBI Office Stays Busy after 9/11

9/6/2006 Houston- President Bush has staked his reputation on winning the war on terror. Since 9/11, the FBI has reinvented itself and is focusing on catching potential terrorists before they strike. The FBI Houston office has agents who have cast a wide net, from Houston to Baghdad.

In the chaos and carnage of Iraq, you will find FBI agents from Houston on intelligence missions. "To glean anything that has any resonance for a domestic threat against the United States,” said Steve Gentry. In our own backyard agents look into every event that might point to trouble, like the case of two men in a Texas City apartment this summer, tinkering with the same explosives used in the London train bombings. One of them accidentally blew himself up.

And the college student who brought dynamite on board a Continental Airlines flight that landed at Bush Intercontinental. This is what it’s like for the FBI in the post 9/11 world.

Agents must look into things that 99 percent of the time may be nothing The Houston office checks out 75 leads a month. So, what is the threat to Houston?

“Is there one particular site here I think has a bulls eye on it, no absolutely not,” Steve Gentry. Assistant Special Agent Steve Gentry will head to Iraq in about a week. “Is there anything the agency is working on in Houston that is of concern right now? We don’t have any articulated specific threats right now here in Houston,” said Steve Gentry.

But these monthly FBI intelligence bulletins show areas they keep an eye on, like gang activity and even special events that could be targets, like last year’s World Series and the NBA All-Star game.

Gentry says the FBI has a strong partnership with Houston’s Muslim community.

(Contributed by Texas Cable News)