cannabisnews.com: Terrorism's Toll on the F.B.I.










  Terrorism's Toll on the F.B.I.

Posted by CN Staff on September 01, 2002 at 21:31:58 PT
By Christopher Marquis 
Source: New York Times  

Over the years, F.B.I. directors have shifted resources to confront the scourge at hand. In the 1970's, Clarence M. Kelley veered away from the fight against Communism and took on organized crime. A decade later, William H. Webster put the emphasis on counterintelligence. William S. Sessions ended his tumultuous tenure with a push against violent crime.But when F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller III recently announced that the bureau would double his counterterrorism staff, in part by transferring personnel from other areas, the professional group that represents most agents voiced fears that traditional crime-solving would suffer. 
"Please give us back those bodies," said Nancy L. Savage, president of the F.B.I. Agents Association, which represents about 70 percent of agents.At the same time, criminal justice experts raised concerns that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would become a domestic spy agency authorized to snoop into citizens' affairs even when there is no evidence of illegal activity. That could plunge the bureau back into an era of blackmail and intimidation associated with another director, J. Edgar Hoover, they said."Spying on people in order to prevent them from doing undefined harm is what an intelligence agency does," said Philip B. Heymann, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. "To create an agency that will monitor Americans in no way connected with a foreign government or party, that's a little worrisome."Taken together, the fears underscore the difficulties confronting Mr. Mueller as he seeks to reshape and reorient a conservative, catch-the-crooks institution to confront an often invisible adversary that has proven its ability to move effectively within United States borders. And those difficulties seem to be mounting after the recent announcement that Dale L. Watson, the F.B.I.'s counterterrorism chief, will retire. No replacement has been named.The concern about resources is not idle. Even as its duties multiply, the F.B.I. remains a small agency, and it was already stretched thin before Sept. 11.The proposed shift toward counterterrorism comes at a time when major crime incidents are increasing. According to preliminary F.B.I. data released in June, the nation's crime index — which measures murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft — rose by 2 percent last year. Setting aside the data from Sept. 11, which skew the overall results, the F.B.I. reported the largest jumps in murder (3.1 percent), robbery (3.9 percent) and motor vehicle theft (5.9 percent), crimes routinely involving the F.B.I.Now, the director plans to transfer 518 of its 11,500 agents permanently from traditional crime-fighting duties to the battle against terrorism. This has left some critics wondering whether the bureau is forsaking its role in the drug war and the struggle against violent and white-collar crime. "You've still got a crime problem," Ms. Savage said. "Who's going to address it?" In testimony to Congress in June, Mr. Mueller proposed transferring 400 agents from drug investigations, 59 agents from white-collar crimes and another 59 agents from violent crimes. Counternarcotics would thus bear the brunt of the shift. He ordered agents to re-evaluate their involvement in drug cases and, "where possible, and without jeopardizing current investigations, reduce F.B.I. resources."Virtually no one argues with the need for the bureau to reorganize around the terrorist threat and to bolster disciplines in which the bureau acknowledges it is deficient, like foiling Internet attacks. But F.B.I. experts question whether the bureau should be cannibalizing itself at a time when its federal responsibilities are already so vast and diverse: enforcing 300 federal laws, conducting background checks on cabinet and Supreme Court nominees, training local police and running forensic laboratories.Ronald Kessler, who has written a history of the bureau, says the F.B.I. should double in size. Now, he notes, the nation's foremost federal crime agency is dwarfed in manpower by the New York City Police Department, which counts about 40,000 officers. Drawing down on existing F.B.I. resources is "a very narrow way of thinking about its potential," he said. "The bottom line is that instead of shifting agents around like this, they should be increasing the size of the F.B.I.," Mr. Kessler said. "Drugs kill more people than terrorists do." Dick Thornburgh, who served as attorney general under the first President Bush, recently complained that Congress had heaped too many responsibilities on the F.B.I. Lawmakers, responding to public pressure in recent years, have federalized crimes — from carjackings to failure to pay child support — and added to the bureau's burden. With the new emphasis on terrorism, he said, something has to give. Mr. Thornburgh called for handing nonterror crimes back to state and local control.Congress still must vote on Mr. Mueller's plan. But in practical terms, F.B.I. officials say, the reallocation has begun. Agents are allocating more and more of their workdays to following up on terrorism leads. Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration is girding for additional duties. Asa Hutchinson, the agency's director, has ordered a threat assessment to help determine how to reallocate parts of his $1.8 billion budget. He has 4,600 agents, foreign and domestic, which eclipses the new F.B.I. total of about 1,000 agents that will still be focusing on drugs."D.E.A. is going to pick up some of the slack," said Will Glaspy, a spokesman for the agency. "We'd like to work with Congress and the administration to gain additional resources to make sure we fill the holes that are left."Some law enforcement experts worry more about losing agents who are pursuing white-collar criminals. Recent accounting scandals involving companies from Enron to WorldCom has underscored the need for specialists in detecting fraud, they say."The country is in as much danger on the white-collar crime front as it is on the terror front," said Mr. Heymann. "False accounting, false pushing of stocks can do as much damage to the economy as a plane flying into the World Trade Center."Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Christopher MarquisPublished: September 1, 2002Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company Contact: letters nytimes.com Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Related Articles:FBI Shifts From Drug War to Terror http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13582.shtmlWar on Drugs No Longer Feds' Highest Priority http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13137.shtmlDid The Drug War Claim Another 3,056 Casualties? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13041.shtml 

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