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Security should be top priority
© St. Petersburg Times WASHINGTON -- It's not news to anyone that the work of the FBI has often been seriously flawed. Yet the recent disclosure that the agency overlooked important evidence that might have prevented the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 is mind-boggling. Many news organizations -- including this one -- have not given the subject all the attention it deserves. I'm talking about the memo sent to FBI headquarters from the Phoenix office late last summer, suggesting that the agency should look more deeply into why Arab immigrants were training at a U.S. aviation school. No one acted on the memo, and so perpetrators of the attacks continued their flight training without interruption. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., predicts the memo "is going to come to be one of the most important documents in our national discussion about whether we did enough to protect America from the attacks of Sept. 11." FBI Director Robert Mueller last week apologized for this mistake, even though it preceded his tenure at the agency. He said it was "something that we should have more aggressively pursued." But Mueller has been far too quick to conclude that the FBI probably could not have prevented the attacks, even if it had looked into the warning from the Phoenix office. And he is way off base when he suggests the agency already has taken steps to correct the underlying problems that led to this blunder. These are conclusions he reached, he admits, without even knowing all the facts. He has no idea whether his predecessor, Louis Freeh, ever saw the Phoenix memo. It seems no one at the agency has bothered to ask Freeh about it. Great investigative work, huh? It seems the memo from Phoenix called for what Mueller described as "a monumental undertaking" that the FBI was not prepared to do. In other words, it would have been too much trouble for the FBI to check it out. The memo was overlooked, in part, because the FBI has never taken seriously its mandate to prevent crime. Despite all of the warnings that a number of international groups were looking for ways to terrorize our nation, the agency was focused instead on solving old crimes. No one pays much attention to a new threat until it has already taken its toll. A good example of this backward-looking strategy: Many of the agents sent to Dallas and several other cities to investigate the savings and loan scandal in the early 1990s have never been redeployed. Congress also has loaded the FBI with work that could be done just as well by local law enforcement. Much of the FBI's antidrug activity stems from laws that were passed in election years with the purpose of making members of Congress appear to be tough on drugs. Nor is terrorism the only big new challenge facing the FBI. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson notes the agency has not done enough to counter foreign intelligence services that send agents to the United States to steal our technology secrets or criminal activities in cyberspace. "Refashioning a large organization takes not only a reformer's zeal, but also a craftsman's patience," says Thompson. "But the task of transforming the bureau is a national priority, and worth a large expenditure of effort by all of us involved." It often seems that reformer's zeal and craftsman's patience are the two things most lacking in the federal government, particularly when it comes to responding to a threat recognized by all Americans. Instead, the politicians would rather pander to the ideological prejudices of a few. The tenure of Attorney General John Ashcroft has been marked by many gestures designed to endear him to the right wing of the Republican party. Last week's news that the Justice Department is trying to refashion the government's interpretation of the Second Amendment is a good example. And in response, Democrats on Capitol Hill would prefer to fault Justice Department officials for a lack of attention to such liberal issues as racial profiling and affirmative action. In my view, racial profiling and gun ownership are issues that can wait until the Justice Department and the FBI have taken the necessary steps to secure the nation's future. National security is no longer the sole domain of the Defense Department.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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Times columns today It's nothing personal, but voters like term limits Beware the hope a Rays win breeds Security should be top priority |
