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. [continues 288 words]
*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. [continues 742 words]
1999 Data: Rape, Sex Assaults Was Only Category To See Increase. WASHINGTON -- The dramatic decline in crime the nation experienced during the 1990s continued last year, as the Justice Department reported the rate of violent crimes fell by 10 percent in 1999. That is the largest one-year drop in crime rates since 1973, when the Justice Department began collecting crime data with a public survey. The levels of violence recorded are at their lowest since the survey began. The Justice Department's survey, released Sunday, asks people about their experiences with crime over the previous year. Along with the FBI's annual crime report, which is compiled from police reports, it provides law-enforcement authorities an annual snapshot to measure crime trends. The two reports have paralleled each other throughout the 1990s in showing a downward trend in crime rates. [continues 601 words]
WASHINGTON -- African-American women returning from abroad are much more likely than other airline passengers to be picked out by customs inspectors for strip searches and X-rays, according to a U.S. General Accounting Office investigation to be released Monday. The disproportionate treatment of black women was "not consistent" with the rates at which the searches turned up illegal drugs or other smuggled contraband, the GAO concluded after an analysis of records covering all U.S. Customs searches of airline passengers during a two-year period. [continues 949 words]
House Speaker Is In A Key Position To Bolster U.S. Assistance To Bogota WASHINGTON -- The arrests in Colombia this week of 31 suspected drug traffickers, including two believed by U.S. authorities to be among the most powerful in the world, underscore the attention American law enforcement officials are giving to Colombia as a leading supplier of heroin and cocaine to the U.S. The arrests by Colombian authorities, acting on indictments from a Miami federal grand jury, come as the South American nation seeks a major increase in U.S. aid to end a guerrilla insurgency by emphasizing links between the civil strife and rampant drug smuggling. [continues 1311 words]
WASHINGTON -- Responding to reported abuses of federal laws permitting authorities to seize property suspected of use in crimes, the House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to make it easier for citizens not convicted of crimes to recover property taken from them. The seizure of private property has become an increasingly popular weapon in fighting crime--and in generating revenue to fund law enforcement--since Congress expanded police power to seize assets during the 1980s as part of the war on drugs. The annual flow of cash, vehicles, houses, airplanes and other assets to the Justice Department has surged from $27 million in 1985 to $449 million last year. [continues 868 words]
WASHINGTON -- Conservative critics of President Clinton's were pretty upset in February when it was reported that a private detective hired by the president's lawyer was checking up on Kenneth Starr's investigative team. Now, it appears that a private detective was out researching a particularly tenacious critic of the leader of the House impeachment inquiry, U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde of Wood Dale. Republican Hyde denies he or anyone working under his direction hired the detective, but the House Judiciary Committee chairman acknowledges he was informed of the results of the investigation. [continues 691 words]
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Dennis Hastert's congressional district, which stretches along the Fox River Valley due west of Chicago, doesn't have factories that make fighter planes or shipyards with fancy aircraft carriers. But it does have Amurol Confections Co. in Yorkville, proud manufacturer of Stay Alert, a new caffeinated chewing gum that is said to pack the power of a half-cup of coffee in each stick. And, Cold War or no Cold War, taxpayers don't want American soldiers dozing off on the job. So, reasons the Illinois Republican and chief deputy whip in the House, why not have our troops driving trucks or walking guard duty while chewing Yorkville's own Stay Alert? [continues 813 words]
WASHINGTON -- Calling herself "probably the most investigated United States senator in history," U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.) Tuesday defended her 1992 campaign's use of its funds, responding to reports the Internal Revenue Service had sought criminal proceedings against her. The U.S. Justice Department acknowledged this week it twice turned down requests made by the IRS in 1995 to begin a criminal grand jury probe of Moseley-Braun focused on allegations she diverted campaign funds to personal use. [continues 357 words]
WASHINGTON -- The promise of the tobacco legislation before the U.S. Senate has been, from the start, a sweeping national campaign to cut back on smoking and dramatically reduce the toll it takes on American health. But funding for that ambitious public health goal has become a big loser in the fierce political struggles surrounding the measure, as funding for programs to get Americans to stop smoking and to persuade children not to start has been cut back by changes made on the Senate floor. [continues 1041 words]
WASHINGTON -- Following months of television reports suggesting customs inspectors at O'Hare International Airport have been targeting black women for strip searches, the U.S. Customs Service agreed Wednesday to release records of the race of the search targets "soon." The Customs Service decision followed a meeting of top officials with Illinois Democratic Sens. Carol Moseley-Braun and Richard Durbin. The decision to release the material was made as a nominee to head the Customs Service faces confirmation hearings Thursday by a Senate Committee on which Moseley-Braun sits. [continues 225 words]
WASHINGTON -- Backers of anti-smoking legislation suffered a setback Thursday in the Senate as lawmakers signaled their opposition to liability protection for cigarette-makers. Limits on liability awards are considered important by the architects of the tobacco package because they would give companies an incentive to voluntarily accept restrictions on cigarette advertising and marketing. If the tobacco industry were to fight the restrictions in court, they might be ruled unconstitutional. The liability ceilings, which the Clinton administration supports, failed as a result of an unusual coalition of liberals seeking tougher anti-tobacco laws and conservatives trying to scuttle the legislation. [continues 603 words]
WASHINGTON - The handiwork of suburban GOP Rep. Dennis Hastert will be on display this week as the Republican Party begins unveiling a series of anti-drug measures. The headlines probably will be grabbed by show "drug-free" initiatives, like "drug-free Congress" legislation, requiring random drug tests of elected representatives and their staffs. But the broader plan will reflect the priorities of Hastert, a less-than-flamboyant lawmaker who has focused on drug issues for years and was chosen by Republican leaders to coordinate the campaign. [continues 329 words]
House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) announced last week that he wants to "win" the war on drugs within three years. Just how to do that is a challenge left to U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) who will head a Republican task force on the issue. The ambitious but surely popular task has been enthusiastically embraced by Hastert, who has long made increased interdiction of narcotics a focus of his legislative efforts. Hastert of Yorkville said to look for a rollout of anti-drug legislation, a shift in federal spending to place a higher priority on the drug war and more congressional pressure for results from Clinton administration. [continues 134 words]
