Q. Why?
A. Because in the Bureau I wouldn’t be responsible for the lives and safety of hundreds of other people like I had been in Iraq. That takes a toll, watching the men you command die, makes you question whether you could have done something differently… then, writing letters home to their loved ones… Death is never easy when you know the people doing the dying.
Q. How about when you don’t know the people doing the dying? How do you feel when you kill others… criminals… enemies?
A. To be quite honest, it doesn’t bother me a whole lot. Maybe that’s not healthy, I don’t know, but in every case where I’ve killed people, it was either me or them. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about who they were before they tried to kill me or what they might have been if they had chosen a different line of work. The Marines never asked me “touchy-feely” questions about killing enemy combatants, but the Bureau gets all sensitive about it.
Q. So what’s easier for you to deal with: the FBI structure or the Marines?
A. It’s not a matter of easier or even better but as an undercover agent it’s usually just me. I answer to myself unless the operation changes. Then I deal with the bureaucracy. A UC gets approval to buy illegal drugs but guns show up… a new approval’s needed ASAP. You’re authorized to buy stolen cars and your targets now want to launder money… new approvals. If the investigation implicates a judge, a politician, a member of the incumbent administration — expect FBI HQ and DOJ to go ballistic and demand lots of new approvals, which can take weeks, even months — while the UC’s butt is on the line.
Q. Did you ever talk about these frustrations with your wife, Katie?
A. Let’s come to an understanding real quickly. We’re not going to talk about my wife.
Q. Okay. So what happened on this investigation? Did the FBI “approval process,” as you call it, cause so many people to get killed?
A. We knew going in it would take more than L.A. Field Office approval to authorize the operation. Because it involved smuggling goods across the Mexican border, we had a “sensitive” circumstance from Jump Street. But we were trying to contain the violations to the L.A. Division just to avoid more Headquarters or DOJ involvement. Nobody in Washington gave a damn about counterfeit jeans and cigarettes. It seemed pretty simple at the time.
Q. So what changed? Why do you think HQ and DOJ got involved? Do you think it was personal?
A. Personal? Only so far as what they did could have gotten me — and some real innocents — killed. Look, this isn’t my first rodeo. In an operation a few years ago, we were targeting a Chinese national we knew to be the biggest importer of counterfeit cigarettes on the West Coast. I took possession of a forty-foot container of counterfeit Marlboros, about ten million cigarettes. Our guy wanted them delivered to a Russian Mafia crew operating out of Allentown, Pennsylvania. I personally delivered the container to their warehouse, which the FBI didn’t even know existed, and I watched Russian thugs affix counterfeit New York tax stamps to packs of fake cigarettes destined for New York City. It all went smoothly and I returned to L.A.
The Chinese kingpin now knew I could deliver the goods — and he ordered five more containers from his pals in Beijing. But then some genius at Headquarters, concerned this whole thing could disrupt our “relationship” with the Chinese communists, suddenly declared the operation to be “sensitive”—requiring Headquarters and DOJ authorization.
I was ordered to “cease and desist” all undercover operations until DOJ approval paperwork arrived… a process that usually takes weeks. I sent an email to the L.A. SAC reminding him that I was “dealing with Chinese and Russian crime bosses who routinely ‘off’ people in L.A. but had, to date, never killed any Bureau humps in Washington.” It took a month for the approval to come down. Meanwhile, I had to tap-dance because these guys would have killed me if they had figured out what was going on.
The SAC never offered a solution to my problem of blowing off meetings with the Chinese, but he did call me in for counseling and placed a notation in my personnel file that I had been admonished to use more professional language when communicating with Headquarters.
Q. I notice you’re gripping both arms of the chair. Does it distress you to discuss Bureau hierarchy?
A. It’s a coping mechanism. I’m okay. Next question.
Q. So have you always questioned authority?
A. No. Remember, I told you I was a Marine. I know how to follow orders. I also know the difference between a real leader and a politically motivated, butt-kissing, flagpole-hugging bureaucrat.
Q. And can you give me an example of a good leader?
A. Sure, Peter Newman. He was my regimental commander when we liberated Iraq from Saddam in 2003. He was the one who came to see me in the hospital after I was wounded. He’s the kind of leader who knows how to accomplish the mission and take care of his men. Everyone who served with him knew he always cared more about us than he did about himself. Whether he was commanding a regular Marine unit or conducting special operations, as he did later on, we all loved him for it.
Q. Interesting term, “loved.” Would you describe one of those special operations so I have a context?
A. Sure, but then I’ll have to kill you. You’re not cleared for it.… Just joking, Doc.
Q. I’ll take your word for it, Agent Kruse. But tell me, is this the same Peter Newman you called in the midst of this operation?
A. Yep.
Q. And did the two of you talk about Gabe Chong?
A. Yeah.
Q. Did you have authorization to talk to someone outside the government about this operation?
A. No.
Q. So how did you contact each other? As you undoubtedly know, none of the cell phones provided to you by the FBI for this operation have any record of the calls between you and this Peter Newman.…
A. I have already answered that question for the slugs from OPR.… But if it makes any difference to you, I still have a personal cell phone.…
Q. And according to NSA, that phone is registered in the name of your wife.…
A. I’ve already told you, we’re not going to talk about Katie and I’ve told OPR all they need to know about how General Newman and I communicated during this operation.
Q. Let me rephrase the question. Do you think it was wise to call this General Newman?
A. Look, Gabe and I were both Marines. We both served with Peter Newman, just not at the same time. After the Marines, I went to the FBI and Gabe joined the Agency. General Newman retired from the Marines in 2011, but we’ve stayed in touch. Last December he became the CEO of a company called Centurion Solutions Group. CSG has contracts with all kinds of government agencies — including the Bureau and the CIA. I’m pretty sure his security clearances are far above yours and mine. So, yeah, I think it was wise to talk to him, don’t you?
Q. Do you feel that Peter Newman or you are responsible in any way for what happened to Gabe?