FBI to boost terrorism prevention

The FBI, under fire for missing clues that might have prevented the September 11 attacks, announced plans yesterday to shift hundreds of law enforcement officials from traditional crime-fighting to concentrate on counter-terrorism activities.

"We need a different approach that puts prevention above all others," FBI Director Robert Mueller said in announcing the second stage of a massive reorganisation. "We need to change and we indeed are changing."

Under the plan, a total of 3,718 FBI agents and federal, state and local law enforcement officials will be directed to focus on counter terrorism issues, up from 2,178. This includes a shift of 480 FBI agents who will be moved from fighting drugs, white collar crime and violent crime.

In addition, an Office of Intelligence will be created and headed by a CIA agent. A total of 25 CIA analysts will be detailed to the FBI to help upgrade analytical capacities.

Mueller acknowledged the Federal Bureau of Investigation had a series of blunders before the September 11 attacks and they were only magnified afterward. "When I arrived at the FBI in September it was already clear that there was a need for change at the bureau," he said.

"I think it`s fair to say that after 9/11 it became clearer than ever that we had to fundamentally change the way we do our business," he added.

Announcing a set of 10 top priorities for the agency, Mueller said the FBI would protect the United States from terrorist attack, foreign intelligence operations and espionage, cyber-based attacks and high-tech crimes.

Under the revamp, the FBI will work to set up a more mobile and flexible national terrorism response capability which will include the use of "flying squads" to coordinate national and international investigations.

The FBI has already announced a massive campaign to recruit more than 900 new agents - many with unique skills in languages, technology or analysis.

The moves are part of a reorganization launched by Mueller last autumn, but come amid growing criticism by lawmakers and even some FBI agents that the bureau failed to properly read signals of potential trouble months before the September 11 hijack attacks that cost about 3,000 lives.

Mueller, who took over as FBI chief just one week before the attacks, has faced tough questions over whether the bureau had information that could have helped prevent the attacks, but which it failed to understand or digest.

Criticism has focused particularly on a memo written by an agent in Phoenix two months before the attacks on New York and Washington expressing concerns that Middle Eastern men linked to Osama bin Laden were taking lessons at U.S. flight schools.

The memo was sent to FBI headquarters, where it languished without action. Agents failed to connect it with the August arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen who was detained after raising suspicion at a flight school in Minnesota.

Last week, an agent in the Minneapolis field office took the unusual step of writing to Mueller complaining about how the FBI director and other top FBI officials were handling questions related to how the bureau handled the attack.

Agent Coleen Rowley said field agents were hampered by FBI headquarters, which she said should have approved a request from the Minneapolis office for a search warrant in connection with the Moussaoui investigation.

Officials now believe Moussaoui, charged with conspiracy, intended to join the 19 men who allegedly hijacked four passenger planes on September 11.

Lawmakers have demanded changes at the FBI, which has been hit by series of blunders ranging from the discovery of a spy for Russia in its ranks to the belated disclosure of documents relating to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.