FBI Honors Community Leaders

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Video Transcript

Director Robert S. Mueller, III: We’re here to honor a number of individuals today who have embraced the highest ideals of citizenship. And they have offered their time and talent to make our communities safer and our nation stronger and we are privileged to recognize you as our partners.

We in the FBI are indeed fortunate to have so many partners. We work shoulder to shoulder with our partners in law enforcement, whether in Washington or across the United States or indeed around the globe now. Some of those partners are here receiving awards today.

Marsha Thompson, Investigative Reporter/Anchor for WLBT television station in Jackson, Mississippi: I’m a television journalist, I’m a news anchor. And so we created a program called Most Wanted. So every Wednesday night at 10 o’clock we feature several most-wanted fugitives. And these are people wanted by local law enforcement, as well as the U.S. Marshals task force and the FBI. It’s been extremely successful. I was a little not so sure of this program at first, if would garner any success. But we probably have had about 70-, 75-percent success rate when it comes to apprehensions and captures.

Chris Duque, President of the Honolulu InfraGard Member Alliance: I’ve been working with the FBI as, I’m president of the local Infragard chapter in Honolulu. And we just finished doing an Internet safety video awards contest. It’s the second time we had it in Hawaii, which is an outreach program working with the teens in Hawaii and we tasked them to create a 25-second PSA on the topics of Internet safety—cyber bullying, plagiarism, piracy, and online predators.

Yahya Hendi, Imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick, Maryland: I have worked for many years trying to help the FBI reach out to the Muslim community and to the Arab community. But also try to help Muslims and Arabs reach out to the FBI. After all, I believe the FBI has been there for us. And we, the community, need to be there for the FBI.

Mueller: We come from different backgrounds. We have different jobs. We hold many different beliefs. But we share common goals: creating a safer world for our children, protecting our neighborhoods from crime and violence, upholding the rule of law, and ultimately defending the freedoms that we all cherish.

I want to thank all of you here today who are receiving the awards, and your families and supporters and mentors, for your vision, for your leadership and for your commitment. Thank you for your trust. And most of all, thank you for your partnership. It is a privilege for all of us in the Bureau to serve you. And it is an honor to serve beside you.