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FBI’s Lobbyist Sets Sail
Eleni Pryles Kalisch, the FBI’s first female assistant director of congressional affairs, is leaving the bureau for the warmer waters of Royal Caribbean Cruise lines.
Who can blame the Georgia native?
Kalisch has spent most of the past five years reshaping the bureau’s image on Capitol Hill, a daunting task given the post-9/11 climate on Capitol Hill.
It has been more a constant battle to keep Congress from tampering with the FBI and to fend off attempts to replace the bureau with a domestic spy agency similar to Britain’s.
Now she will be vice president of congressional affairs for the cruise line — sun and fun instead of al-Qaida and Osama.
“It was not an easy decision,” said Kalisch, who became assistant director in 2003. “I never dreamed I would leave. I never thought I would find a job as exciting as this one.”
But when Kalisch learned about the opportunity at Royal Caribbean, she couldn’t resist.
“The pace, the volume has been overwhelming since 9/11,” Kalisch said. “It has not let up and I don’t think it will. It’s just nonstop.”
Under John Collingwood, the former assistant director in charge of congressional and media affairs, Kalisch handled congressional scrutiny of some of the FBI’s most embarrassing blunders—Robert Hanssen, the agent caught selling top secret information to the Russian government; the investigation of Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee; and the fiery siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
“I learned from Collingwood how to fall on the sword,” Kalisch said in an interview with Cox in 2002. “When we mess up, we admit it and put a plan in place to improve.”
That belief took the Georgia native far. As the bureau’s point person for terrorism and counter terrorism questions from Capitol Hill, Kalisch is highly regarded by lawmakers and staff from both sides of the aisle.
“I think I am most proud of our reputation for being responsive to both sides of the aisle in Congress,” Kalisch said.
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