We should’ve stopped this and we should’ve known. There’s a sense of guilt that I think I’ll probably carry with me for the rest of my life, whether it’s warranted or not. But this happened under our watch, and I think a lot of us ultimately ended up feeling very guilty. As a result the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center didn’t have the kind of the funding that it has today. People weren’t just that aware of terrorism.

I think before that-foreign policy narrative at the time was very much Russia or counter-narcotics. I was in the Counterterrorism Center on September 11. How did the events of that day change your work? In your book, you mention the heightened “sense of urgency” for the work you were doing. Only a year into your work at the CIA, the attacks on September 11 occurred.

The way I’ve coped with it, which isn’t the most healthy, is keeping to myself in the workplace, with the exception of the CIA, there I was very social ironically. Most people look at me and don’t take me seriously, which is frustrating. To be honest, I feel that I have to work harder all the time, in every job that I’ve had. Given that your nickname was Malibu Barbie, did you feel you had to work harder or differently to have colleagues take you seriously? And how were you able to accomplish that? You’re so bubbly and you don’t have a hair out of place. You do not fit the Hollywood movie stereotype of a CIA member. Traveling and talking to people and the experiences that I had, it made me understand my life, America, and kind of our place in the world and how it relates to everyone else. Tracy Walder: That’s when I became truly aware of something outside of myself and my immediate world. How did working for that agency shape you as a young professional? She spent the next five years as a covert operative for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, assuming aliases, thwarting terrorist attacks, and hiding in the trunks of cars on her way to debrief terrorists at black sites.ĪNCHORA: You have quite the resume! Let’s start with the CIA. She moved right from the Delta Gamma house to the Middle East and served under an alias on the front-lines of the Global War on Terrorism.

Tracy Schandler Walder, Alpha Nu-USC, was recruited by the CIA at a campus job fair. Jayme Crowell, Alpha Pi-Arizona 02:11:15ĭirectly from the Delta Gamma house to the CIA, she spent time as a covert operative, assuming aliases, interrogating terrorists and thwarting chemical attacks. Delta Gamma - Delta Gamma Anchora Spring 2020 THE UNEXPECTED SPY

The Unexpected Spy by Tracy Walder