Legendary FBI agent retires
THE legendary FBI agent in charge of New York’s counterterrorism division, Carlos T. Fernandez, is retiring after 21 years.
Fernandez, 50, was posted in Yemen after the USS Cole bombing, in Afghanistan after 9/11 and in Libya after Benghazi. He is joining Viacom as their global head of security at their Times Square headquarters. Insiders say the media giant has hired him to lead all of their security teams on a global basis, protect their offices and digital systems, and ensure the safety of Viacom staff and guests who attend their events.
NYPD Assistant Commissioner J. Peter Donald told Page Six, “There’s been no better collaborator [with the NYPD] than Carlos, and he spent his entire career protecting New York City from acts of terrorism. We’ll miss him — he’s the best.”
Fernandez, a former Marine from Washington Heights, joined the FBI in 1996, and investigated the 1998 East Africa bombings and the 2000 USS Cole attack. After 9/11, he went to Afghanistan and became the chief FBI liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command. He took part in arrests after the 2010 World Cup suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda. After the 2012 Benghazi attack, Fernandez was in charge of the investigation that tracked down accused ringleader Ahmed Abu Khattala.
He became a supervisor within the Counterterrorism Division of the New York Field Office in 2010, and in 2015 he became the Special Agent-in- Charge overseeing the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Keeping New Yorkers safe, his division has thwarted attacks such as a Times Square massacre plotted by ISIS sympathizer Mohamed Rafik Naji, who intended to drive a garbage truck into a crowd before his 2016 arrest. They also foiled a Hezbollah strike with the 2017 arrest of Ali Kourani, who cased JFK for an attack. Last week, Bronx man Saddam Mohamed Raishani was arrested for trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS.
Jeffrey Ringel, who worked with Fernandez at the FBI for 19 years, added, “Carlos is a great American, a great agent and a great friend. His retirement is a big loss for New York, but his legacy will live on at the FBI.”