Pubdate: Wed, 02 Jan 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Section: Editorial/Op-Ed
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Referenced: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/30/national/30TERR.html
Author: Joseph D. McNamara
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism)
Note: Writer's attribution as published in source.

To the Editor:

Re "Planning for Terror but Failing to Act" (front page, Dec. 30):

Last May, Louis J. Freeh, then the director of the F.B.I., testified before 
Congress on the nature of global terrorism and the bureau's actions to 
prevent it. Mr. Freeh asked for only eight additional agents to combat 
terrorism. During the last few years, Congress has increased the number of 
Drug Enforcement Agency personnel by 26 percent while adding only 2 percent 
to the F.B.I.

The magnitude of the country's drug problem remains undiminished. On the 
other hand, if the F.B.I.'s paltry 11,500 agents (New York City has 40,000 
police officers) had been expanded by 26 percent to work against terrorism, 
the many federal blunders that permitted a devastating act of war against 
our country most likely would have been avoided.

JOSEPH D. MCNAMARA, Stanford, Calif., Dec. 31, 2001

The writer, a retired police chief of San Jose, Calif., is a research 
fellow at the Hoover Institution.
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