| | Gabrielle | Burger | IN - Indianapolis; MN - Minneapolis; IL - Chicago; DC - WFO; DC – FBIHQ; CA - San Diego; CA - Oakland; Bucharest, Romania | 1982 - 2006 | Chippewa Spear-Fishing, Mississippi Burning, MIBURN | Foreign Counterintelligence (FCI), Southeastern European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) | For the FBI Oral History Heritage Project sponsored by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, Inc., which holds the copyright to the material.
Special Agent Gabrielle Burger served in the FBI from 1982 to 2006. This interview took place on June 11, 2009. Interviewed by Stanley A. Pimentel
SA Burger grew up in Canada, graduating from college there before moving to the United States, where she married. She saw an early announcement that the FBI was hiring women and applied.
She entered on duty in 1982 from Indianapolis and returned there after training. One bank robbery she worked as Case Agent was the largest one in the city’s history. She transferred to the Minneapolis Field Office, continuing to work bank robberies and working her first trial, which ended in a conviction.
She then transferred to the Chicago Field Office, where she was assigned to the Public Corruption Squad and worked “Operation Greylord.” Because she is a Romanian speaker, she switched to working Foreign Counterintelligence (FCI), including an arrest for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol that made the evening news.
SA Burger transferred to WFO, continuing to work FCI and interfacing with the Office of Liaison and International Affairs (OLIA). She next went to San Diego, where she was on the surveillance of subjects who became part of the 9/11 hijacking. Thereafter, she returned to FBIHQ to OLIA as a supervisor and was responsible for the Eastern European countries with the Middle East being added later on to her responsibilities. She describes working on a joint effort called the Southeastern European Cooperative Initiative (SECI), to help combat cross-border crime.
Her next assignment was to the Organized Crime/Drug Desk in Oakland, VA, and she reports on some adventures there. Then, she was selected to open the FBI Field Office in Bucharest, Romania. She tells of the work there including a high degree of cybercrime, which was worked cooperatively by the FBI and Romanian agencies. Cases involved the South Pole servers, a high-level kidnapping, stolen art, and creating new relations with the FBI National Academy for the Romanian police officers. She continued to be involved with SECI, especially in their work on human trafficking.
SA Burger returned to FBIHQ and worked on the Executive Development Program, notably to have LEGATs and ALATs credited with their experience overseas.
She recounts Director Freeh’s visit to Romania to open the office in Bucharest. She retired in 2006 and, at the time of this interview, was working for the FBI as a contractor.
SA Burger comments on being a woman in the FBI and how well accepted she was, yet had to work hard to earn that acceptance. | Download PDF 1 | | |