LAWYER: Do FBI supervisors who help infiltrate a group of white-supremacist bank robbers have the same skill set as FBI officials who infiltrate al-Qaida?

LEWIS: I think the answer to that is yes and let me try and explain this. This is one of the most difficult parts of our business. It's one of the most difficult parts of the agency's business is recruiting my assets. The people that are best at this ordinarily are those that have been in the business for a very long time and have through the course of their years of work become experts of sorts in interacting and dealing with other people. It doesn't make any difference whether somebody's from the Middle East or a white supremacist or from Australia. ... Some of our most successful agents are those that can push their way through that and convince these other people based on a deep understanding of all the things that make that person tick. It is not enough to have a solid Russian background. It is not enough to have spent five or six years in an undercover assignment where every day you're just working white supremacist so you think you know them. It's not enough to do that.

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LAWYER: Do you know the difference between a Shiite and Sunni Muslim?

LEWIS: You know, generally. Not very well.

LAWYER: Are you aware of any relationship between the people who did the first World Trade Center bombing and the 9/11 attack?

LEWIS: I'm aware of no immediate relationship other than all emanates out of the Middle East, al-Qaida linkage, I believe. Not something I've studied recently that I'm conversant with.

--Compiled by Sarah Abruzzese, NBC News Investigative Unit

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