FBI names new executive assistant director of its National Security Branch

FBI's Douglas

Stephanie Douglas was named on Oct. 3 executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch by agency director Robert Mueller.

The National Security Branch is responsible for protecting the U.S. from weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and foreign espionage. It combines counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, weapons of mass destruction and intelligence elements under the leadership of a senior bureau official. It also houses the Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), which contains information about all known or suspected terrorists. A number of different government agencies, including federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, the U.S. State Department, the Citizenship and Immigration Services directorate of DHS and the Transportation Security Administration, use the resource.

Douglas had most recently served as special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division, said the FBI on Oct. 3. She succeeds Mark Giuliano, who has been named special agent in charge of the Atlanta Division, it said.

“I am confident that under Stephanie’s leadership, the National Security Branch will continue to protect national security and make further strides in its goal of fully integrating intelligence into operations,” said director Mueller.

Douglas became a special agent with the FBI in November, 1989, first reporting to the Washington Field Office, where she worked violent crime, public corruption, and national security matters. While there, the FBI said she played a significant role in key espionage investigations and prosecutions of FBI Supervisory Special Agent Earl Pitts and CIA Officer Harold James Nicholson. Pitts was arrested at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA in 1996. He was charged with being a mole within the organization, spying for the Soviet Union and Russia in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s for cash payments. Nicholson was charged with providing intelligence national defense information, including photographic negatives Russian intelligence organizations between 1994 and 1996.

Between 2000 and 2007, Ms. Douglas served in several positions, said the FBI, including FBI detailee to the CIA’s Counterintelligence Center; assistant inspector with the Inspection Division; supervisory special agent for a counterintelligence squad at the Washington Field Office, directing sensitive national security investigations; and assistant special agent in charge in the San Francisco Division, overseeing the counterintelligence and security programs.

Douglas returned to FBI Headquarters in 2007 as an inspector, handling national security matters and conducting field office and headquarters inspections, said the agency. A year later, she was promoted to deputy assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division, with responsibility for strategy, budget, and personnel resources. She was then appointed special agent in charge of the San Francisco Division, it said.