By Karen Gullo
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2001; 8:44 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– Thomas J. Pickard, the FBI's second in command who oversees the Sept. 11 attacks and anthrax investigations, will retire at the end of November, the FBI said Wednesday.

Pickard's announcement was not unexpected but comes at a critical time for the FBI, which is embroiled in two of the biggest investigations in its history. Pickard directs both probes, although other senior officials are involved in managing them.

Pickard, 50, is the second high-ranking FBI official to announce plans to leave in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and since FBI Director Robert Mueller took charge of the bureau in July.

Neil Gallagher, head of the FBI's counterintelligence and national security programs, also plans to retire at the end of next month.

Senior FBI officials said Pickard had planned to retire last year, but stayed on during a change in leadership. Mueller told employees that he asked Pickard, a 27-year FBI veteran, to stay and said Pickard and his wife had decided that he should retire.

"While I did not want him to go, I understand why he and his wife Sharon made this decision," said Mueller in a message to FBI employees. "I am personally grateful for his service, particularly for his stewardship prior to my arrival and his tremendous assistance to me since I began as director."

Attorney General John Ashcroft praised the job Pickard has done on the attacks investigations.

"Tom has been a long-serving soldier in the ongoing war against terrorism," said Ashcroft.

Day-to-day operations of the attacks and anthrax investigations have been handled by Dale Watson, assistant director of the anti-terrorism division. His role will likely expand after Pickard leaves, said a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Pickard's successor has not been named.

The FBI said Pickard plans to return to New York, where he started his FBI career. Officials did not provide details about his future plans. Other high-ranking FBI officials have gone on to lucrative jobs in private industry after retirement.

Pickard was named deputy director in 1999 by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who retired in June after a series of controversies and mishaps at the bureau.

Pickard started his career as an agent in the FBI's New York office in 1975 and went on to work on a number of high-profile cases.

Pickard went undercover and offered congressmen bribes as part of the 1979 Abscam probe and supervised the FBI's role in trials in the first World Trade Center attack and the arrest of Ramzi Youssef, charged with plotting to blow up U.S. airliners.

He also helped oversee the probe into the explosion of TWA Flight 800, the espionage investigation of former FBI agent Earl Edwin Pitts and the capture in Pakistan of Mir Aimal Kasi, who was convicted of killing CIA workers at a traffic light outside the agency's headquarters.

–––

On the Net:

FBI: http://www.fbi.gov