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| FBI to reorg... |
| 2002-11-29 |
| The FBI is considering a dramatic redeployment of agents across the nation that could involve closing or consolidating some of the bureau's 56 field offices as a way to put hundreds more agents on anti-terrorism duties, senior FBI officials say. FBI officials have concluded that 520 agents shifted to anti-terror duties in May — mostly from anti-drug assignments — are not nearly enough to support counterterrorism efforts that have become the bureau's top priority since the Sept. 11 attacks. More than 2,500 of the FBI's 11,500 agents now are assigned to anti-terror duties. I'd guess it'll take three times that number to do the job right, especially with a world-wide mission... A source familiar with an ongoing review of FBI staffing says that bureau executives have discussed shifting "several hundred" more agents to counterintelligence and anti-terrorism operations in places that have drawn the most interest in terrorism probes. FBI officials would not identify those locations, but agents seeking to uncover potential terrorist threats have been particularly active in Detroit, Seattle, Atlanta, Florida, Southern California and suburbs of New York City. Start where the smell's strongest and work out from there... Changing the FBI's field office structure would be one of the most significant and politically provocative moves by the bureau since it began shifting its emphasis from traditional criminal probes to preventing domestic terrorism. The field office structure — which includes 56 U.S. offices, more than 400 smaller satellite branches and 40 more field offices abroad — was established by former bureau director J. Edgar Hoover and has been the backbone of the crime-fighting FBI. Actually, I'd think that it would make more sense to establish a parallel organization — not that I'm usually in favor of building new federal organizations — and to put it directly under the Homeland Security office. There is a legitimate domestic crime mission, and there's a legitimate antiterror mission. Both should be performed by specialists, with coordination where necessary. As we've noticed in the past year, most terrorists play at being crooks, too, but most crooks don't play at being terrorists. Revising the field offices could further distance the FBI from its longtime role of assisting local and regional authorities in criminal probes. FBI officials say investigations into matters such as drug trafficking will not suffer, but some local officials who fear that a greater burden will fall on them are skeptical. Seems like those functions could be transferred to BATF and DEA, where they should have been to start. Too bad the INS is such a total loss with no insurance — that would seem to be the logical place to put a terrorism tracking organization. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |