Nancy Floyd was the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent whose association with the undercover informant Emad Salem helped reveal and break up the conspiracy by the followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to bomb New York City landmarks. She was a specialist on tracking Russian agents, but her contact and subsequent involvement with Salem transformed her career. Ultimately this association hurt her FBI career because of her outspokenness about how her superiors had mishandled the Salem affair.
Floyd, who was born in 1960, had wanted to be in government service from an early age. Her father was an officer in the U. S. Air Force who reached the rank of major before suffering a fatal heart attack at age 53. She moved around with her family, living both in Europe and at various air force bases in the United States before she ended up living in Dallas, Texas. She attended the University of Texas at Arlington, where she received a BS in criminal justice. After graduating in 1982, she worked at various other jobs before applying to join the FBI in 1985. Floyd was one of 8 women out of 60 trainees in her class at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
Most of Floyd’s FBI career has been spent at the New York City field office. However, her first assignment was as a special agent in the Savannah, Georgia, field office. After a couple of years, she was transferred to the New York City field office. Once there, she was assigned to Branch A in the Bureau’s Foreign Counterintelligence Division (FCI). The mission of the FCI was the gathering of intelligence on the intelligence unit of the Russian Army (Glavnoe Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenie [GRU]). Her mentor was the legendary agent Len Predtechenskis.
Floyd first made contact with Emad Salem while trying to locate Russian agents. Salem was working at a down-and-out hotel when Floyd approached him for information about a Russian agent who had possibly been using the hotel. Salem rounded up the information she had asked for, and then began volunteering other information. It was Salem who alerted her to how dangerous Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was to the United States. Salem also showed an eagerness to do undercover work, but he was more comfortable dealing with Floyd than with his two FBI handlers. His only stipulation regarding his services was that he would not wear a wire.
Salem soon began to produce first-class intelligence on the extremists who were centered around the al-Kifah Refugee Center. He learned about possible bombmaking activities when the extremists approached him about working on a bomb, but he was not told where they planned to plant the bomb.
At this critical stage, a change of supervisors led to the termination of Salem’s undercover work for the FBI, much to Floyd’s disgust. The new supervisor, Carson Dunbar, insisted that Salem wear a wire so that a court case could be pursued against the terrorist targets. Dunbar was suspicious of Salem and questioned his reliability. Dunbar was also critical of Floyd’s close personal relationship with Salem. Salem refused to wear a wire and his employment with the FBI was terminated at a key juncture in 1992.
After the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, the FBI changed its mind and rehired Salem. Salem still had confidence only in Floyd, but he was persuaded to wear a wire. His secret recordings led to the break-up of a plot to bomb key New York City landmarks. His lack of trust in the FBI culminated in his recording his contacts with various FBI agents. On some of these secret recordings, Floyd had made disparaging remarks about her FBI superiors, which caused these supervisors to report her for disciplinary action.
For the next five and a half years, Floyd’s conduct during the Salem affair was investigated. The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) began an investigation of Floyd that ruined her career. Any chance of promotion to higher positions in the FBI for Floyd ended during the investigation. Ultimately, the OPR investigation concluded that Floyd was guilty of insubordination against Carson Dunbar.
The original penalty was suspension for 30 days, but her appeal reduced the suspension to 14 days. Floyd remained in the New York office until she decided to request a transfer to a remote field office. During this time, she received a direct order not to have any contact with Salem. She was still in New York City on September 11, 2001.
Stephen E. Atkins
See also Federal Bureau of Investigation; Kifah Refugee Center, al-; New York City Landmarks Bombing Conspiracy
Suggested Reading
Lance, Peter. 1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI; The Untold Story. New York: ReganBooks, 2003.
World History
