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Hawaii’s World
MYRON R. Fuller, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Honolulu office, is responsible for countering terrorist, drug and other crimes involving Americans in this entire half of the globe. FBI chief here has
vast jurisdictionHe has an area of responsibility as big as that assigned the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific (CINCPAC) but has a force of only 160, including 85 special agents. CINCPAC commands over 300,000 active duty personnel. Fuller's "army" includes small branch offices on Guam and Saipan, also in Hawaii at Kona and on Maui.
Actually his area of responsibility is slightly bigger than CINCPAC's because Pakistan is added. This means Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama bin Laden has to be watched lest he leave his refuge in Afghanistan to step across the border into Pakistan.
Far from thinking he has an impossible task, Fuller says he "can't imagine a better job." But he's not above criticizing FBI headquarters in Washington as being over-focused on Europe, a complaint Pacific military commanders have shared. Fuller came here in 1997 and already has turned down a couple of reassignment offers. He'd be happy to retire here.
The Honolulu office is 40th in size among 56 FBI offices. Responsibility for South America rests with the Miami office. Europe is handled out of Washington, Asia-Pacific out of Honolulu.
Help in Fuller's seemingly impossible task comes through CINCPAC and the many international organizations in this community. They afford both contacts and information that make Hawaii a better place than anywhere else for the FBI to place its Asia-Pacific responsibility.
Recently the office here took part in investigating the hijacking on an Indian passenger plane. The justification: A single American was on board. Cooperation with India was excellent and led to follow-ups on some related matters that Fuller won't enumerate.
His specific international responsibilities have to do with American involvement in drugs and organized crime, white-collar crime, violent crimes, foreign counter-intelligence and terrorism when these are of an international nature.
WHEN a significant event occurs, Fuller flies to the scene to organize the FBI response. Most times, however, he can be found at his office in the Honolulu federal building and has most of his work laid out here.
He says cooperation with other law enforcement agencies is better here than in any other places he knows of, and has the experience of studying cooperation in 20 states to validate his judgment.
There are many local cases where the investigation and prosecution could be federal or local or military. Law-breakers should be aware that cooperation includes determining which jurisdiction might produce the strongest punishment.
Law enforcement personnel work so well together here that it doesn't take a referral to Fuller or other top commanders to get it started. Many determinations to join forces are made at a lower level, always subject to review from the top.
Fuller's longest previous FBI assignment was in New York -- nine years. He also served in Chicago, Dallas, New Orleans and Salt Lake City.
The Honolulu office was created in 1939 in anticipation of war with Japan to develop a plan to deal with Hawaii's large number of residents either from Japan or of Japanese ancestry. Unlike the U.S. West Coast, internments here were small in number.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.