Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002
Source: Daily Press (VA)
Copyright: 2002 The Daily Press
Contact:  http://www.dailypress.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585
Author: Mike Dorning, Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau

FBI TO SHIFT FOCUS FROM DRUG CRIME TO ANTI-TERRORISM

*400 Agents To Be Reassigned; 'Flying Squads' To Be On Call

*Agency To Form Closer Links To CIA, Set Up Office Of Intelligence

*New Guidelines Put More Decision-making Power In The Field

WASHINGTON -- FBI Director Robert Mueller will announce a reorganization of 
the FBI today that envisions a major retreat from the agency's past 
commitment to fighting drug crime as it focuses on preventing future 
terrorist attacks, sources in the Justice Department and Congress said.

The shift, which includes moving 400 agents out of anti-drug work, is aimed 
at bolstering the bureau's counterterrorism operations, including improving 
the agency's ability to analyze intelligence and the creation of "flying 
squads" of agents, who would be on call to pursue terrorism investigations 
around the world.

Mueller would use the agents freed by the redeployment to supplement new 
counterterrorism agents that Congress already has agreed to fund. About 
1,770 field agents would be permanently assigned to counterterrorism duty, 
vs. 1,151 before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The reorganization has been in the works for months, but the announcement 
comes as the FBI is under criticism that it should have paid more attention 
to clues that hinted at the Sept. 11 attacks. The attacks occurred a week 
after Mueller took over as director.

According to officials in Congress and the Justice Department who have been 
briefed on the plan, the reorganization includes reassigning one of every 
five FBI agents from drug enforcement and related activities. The plan also 
calls for a more modest reassignment of agents assigned to violent crime 
cases and white-collar crimes. The bureau has about 11,500 agents.

As a result, the burden of enforcing the nation's drug laws would fall more 
heavily on the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as state and local 
police agencies.

Since President Ronald Reagan recruited the FBI into the war on drugs 20 
years ago, the number of agents devoted to the cause has swelled, standing 
at about one-fifth of the bureau's agents on the eve of Sept. 11. But in a 
reflection of how much the bureau's mission has changed, a list of 10 
priorities for the reorganized FBI -- presented to key members of Congress 
before today's announcement -- did not mention drugs.

The realignment could come at a cost of higher crime rates and, despite the 
focus on terrorism, it presents some long-term political risks for the Bush 
administration, observers say.

Local police chiefs already complain that they are overwhelmed, and a drop 
in tax revenues from the economic slowdown has added to budget pressures on 
state and municipal governments. The DEA may need a large funding increase 
to take up the slack from the FBI's reduction in anti-drug work

Politically Sensitive

Drug-related crime has been a politically sensitive issue for some time, 
with candidates in the past few decades frequently using public perceptions 
of out-of-control narcotics traffic to rally voters. In addition, the 
Clinton administration's highly visible focus on street crime helped 
nurture links in public opinion between the White House and the falling 
crime rates of the 1990s.

Still, Mueller's plan won initial praise from Senate Judiciary Committee 
Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., whose committee oversees the FBI.

"The FBI cannot be all things to all people, and that means making some 
hard choices, and these should not and will not be the last of them," Leahy 
said. "The FBI needs to become agile enough to respond to the changing 
needs of the country."

The reorganized counterterrorism division would have closer links to the 
CIA and a new Office of Intelligence to improve the agency's ability to 
spot patterns of suspected terrorist activity from diffuse field reports.

Mueller's plan also calls for an overhaul of the FBI's outdated computer 
systems and the aggressive use of technology to mine electronic data on 
terrorist organizations. He would establish regional computer forensic 
laboratories run by the FBI.

Recently, members of Congress from both parties have criticized the FBI for 
failing to pursue a memo that an agent from its Phoenix field office sent 
two months before the Sept. 11 attacks warning that Middle Eastern men 
later linked to Osama bin Laden and another terrorist suspect were taking 
lessons at U.S. flight schools.

Connection Not Made

The memo spurred no action, and counterterrorism agents failed to connect 
it with the August arrest in Minneapolis of Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui, 
who has been charged with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, aroused the 
suspicions of flight instructors because of his unusual training requests 
and because he paid for his lessons in cash.

Last week, a senior agent in the Minneapolis field office took the unusual 
step of writing Mueller, criticizing him and other supervisors for their 
handling of the Moussaoui case and forwarding copies to congressional 
intelligence committees.

In another development, The Washington Post said Attorney General John 
Ashcroft is revising Justice Department guidelines to give FBI officials in 
the field authority to open terrorism investigations and undercover probes 
without clearance from headquarters. The changes, also scheduled to be 
announced today, are intended to place more decision-making power in the field.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens