Mr.
Schiff: Hi, welcome to "FBI 100, A Closer
Look." I'm Neal Schiff of the Bureau's Office
of Public Affairs along with FBI Historian Dr.
John Fox. John, the FBI was actually, sort of,
in the radio business during World War II?
Dr.
Fox: "Sure Neal. Radio was a very important
means of communication and the Bureau had to be
involved because our enemies were using radio
and we needed it ourselves to communicate back
and forth among our field offices."
Mr.
Schiff: How did this all come about?
Dr.
Fox: "As the Bureau was growing radio became
more and more important whether it was trying
out radios for the first time in Bureau cars so
that we could communicate to actually creating
a radio station to intercept enemy communications
and to facilitate communications across the FBI
whether it was our field office in Honolulu or
some of our undercover agents in South and Central
America."
Mr.
Schiff: And how did this work with equipment,
towers, manpower, and what they actually did?
Dr.
Fox: "We had all sorts of wireless communications
working out. We had radio stations that were set
up trying to monitor enemy communications. There
were a lot of other government agencies doing
it. The FCC, the Army and the Navy of course were
very big into that. But the FBI had to have some
of its own as well because of all the counter
espionage work that we were doing. And then of
course we also had our regular communications
so that we could communicate back and forth among
our agents."
Mr.
Schiff: Plenty of history for you on the FBI's
Internet site, www.fbi.gov. From the FBI's Public
Affairs office, along with Bureau Historian Dr.
John Fox, I'm Neal Schiff with "FBI 100,
A Closer Look."
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