The FBI is undergoing radical change in the wake of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington, writes Anayat Durrani from Washington After enduring months of criticism over intelligence failures following the 11 September attack, US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller last week announced a complete overhaul of the bureau. The changes will shift the FBI from law enforcement to intelligence and counter-terrorism and place more emphasis on "prevention above all else". Mueller said the attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade Centre "marked a turning point for the FBI", adding that, "It became clearer than ever that we had to fundamentally change the way we do our business." Mueller took over the bureau a week before the 11 September attacks occurred. "We have to do a better job of communicating with others, and, as critically important, we have to do a better job managing, analyzing and sharing information," Mueller said. "We need a different approach that puts prevention above all else." Some of the FBI's top priorities will now include protecting the US from terrorist attack, together with foreign intelligence operations and espionage. The restructuring of the bureau will entail reassigning about 520 agents from domestic units to terror prevention. Nine hundred new employees will be hired by September. They will include translators, computer experts, analysts and other specialists. The overhaul will entail the creation of a national Joint Terrorism Task Force at FBI headquarters and the establishment of "flying squads" to coordinate national and international investigations. There will be more cooperation between the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), such as assigning a senior CIA manager and 25 analysts to work with agents at the FBI's headquarters. Mueller's announcement was praised by President George W Bush, who said, "We want to make sure that we do everything we can to prevent a further attack, protect America. The FBI needed to change." A day after Mueller's announcement of a reorganisation of the bureau, Attorney General John Ashcroft revealed that the Justice Department had widened the FBI's surveillance powers to monitor political rallies, places of worship, libraries, Internet chat rooms, and to search commercial databases "for the purpose of detecting or preventing terrorist activities". The FBI will also be allowed to conduct investigations without prior approval from headquarters and use informants with fewer restrictions. The new powers given to the FBI complement the bureau's efforts to transform itself into a domestic security agency whose purpose is to prevent future terrorist attacks. "Our philosophy today is not to wait and sift through the rubble following a terrorist attack," Ashcroft told a news conference. Rather, the FBI must intervene early and investigate aggressively where information exists." Ashcroft's announcement summed up the most sweeping reforms of the Justice Department's investigative code since the 1970s. Mueller called Ashcroft's announcement "an important step to help remove bureaucratic obstacles to the effective investigation of terrorist cases". Civil Rights groups, Arab-American and American Muslim organisations criticised the new terror fighting guidelines given to the FBI as serving only to infringe civil liberties. They cited the FBI's poor track record as a domestic intelligence agency and its history, under former Director J Edgar Hoover, of spying on dissident groups. The Ford Administration imposed tougher guidelines on FBI activities in the 1970s after the exposure of the bureau's Cointelpro programme, which included surveillance of political and civil rights groups as well as such prominent Americans as Rev Martin Luther King Jr. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner added his voice to those critical of the sweeping new surveillance powers granted to the FBI, saying the Justice Department "has gone too far". During the "Novak, Hunt and Shields" programme on CNN, Sensenbrenner said, "I get very, very queasy when federal law enforcement is effectively.... going back to the bad old days when the FBI was spying on people like Martin Luther King." Representative John Conyers, the top Democrat on the Congress Judiciary Committee, issued a statement last week saying the "decision decimates the Fourth Amendment", and calling the new guidelines a "step backwards for civil liberties in this country". Both President Bush and Ashcroft, however, insist the revisions will not compromise civil liberties. "We intend to honour our Constitution and respect the freedoms that we hold so dear," the president said. The restructuring of the FBI comes after criticism from Congress, the White House, the general public, and even some FBI agents. They said the bureau failed to follow up the warning signs of suspicious activity in the US that led up to the tragic events of 11 September. Criticism has centred on a 21 May memo sent from Minnesota FBI agent Coleen Rowley to Mueller. It said that FBI headquarters in Washington had hindered efforts by the Minneapolis office to investigate suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, the French-born flight school student, believed by some to be the so-called "20th hijacker". Moussaoui was arrested on an immigration charge weeks before the 11 September attacks and has since been charged with six conspiracy counts in connection with the hijackings. Mueller acknowledged that the memo had been mishandled and should have been brought to the attention of the CIA and top-ranking FBI officials. He thanked agent Rowley for her memo and criticisms and said the bureau "should have been more aggressive here in supporting them and in the future I think we will be". On the new changes in the FBI, Mueller said, "Let me be clear that, while I do not believe it is at all likely that we could have prevented 11 September, nonetheless our reforms of the FBI will and must strengthen our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks." Members of Congress' intelligence committees will address intelligence gathering and communication lapses that occurred prior to 11 September during closed-door hearings that began this week. Both Rowley and Mueller will later testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee's public hearings, reviewing intelligence failures at the FBI. Rowley is not expected to discuss the Moussaoui case at length in order to avoid compromising national security concerns and Moussaoui's prosecution. Related stories: See none, hear none, speak none 30 May - 5 June 2002
