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| \n \n\r\n \r\n\n \n\nDecember 1, 2001<\/strong> \n\n LIBERTY AND SECURITY<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n\nAshcroft Seeking to Free F.B.I. to Spy on Groups\n\n <\/p>\nBy DAVID JOHNSTON and DON VAN NATTA Jr.\n <\/p>\n \r\nASHINGTON, Nov. 30 — Attorney General John Ashcroft is considering a plan\r\nto relax restrictions on the F.B.I.'s spying on religious and political organizations\r\nin the United States, senior government officials said today.<\/p>\n The proposal would loosen one of the most fundamental restrictions on\r\nthe conduct of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and would be another step\r\nby the Bush administration to modify civil-liberties protections as a means\r\nof defending the country against terrorists, the senior officials said.<\/p>\n The attorney general's surveillance guidelines were imposed on the F.B.I.\r\nin the 1970's after the death of J. Edgar Hoover and the disclosures that\r\nthe F.B.I. had run a widespread domestic surveillance program, called Cointelpro,\r\nto monitor antiwar militants, the Ku Klux Klan, the Black Panthers and the\r\nRev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., among others, while Mr. Hoover was director.<\/p>\n Since then, the guidelines have defined the F.B.I.'s operational conduct\r\nin investigations of domestic and overseas groups that operate in the United\r\nStates. <\/p>\n Some officials who oppose the change said the rules had largely kept\r\nthe F.B.I. out of politically motivated investigations, protecting the bureau\r\nfrom embarrassment and lawsuits. But others, including senior Justice Department\r\nofficials, said the rules were outmoded and geared to obsolete investigative\r\nmethods and had at times hobbled F.B.I. counterterrorism efforts. <\/p>\n Mr. Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, favor the\r\nchange, the officials said. Most of the opposition comes from career officials\r\nat the F.B.I. and the Justice Department.<\/p>\n A Justice Department spokeswoman said today that no final decision had been reached on the revised guidelines. <\/p>\n \"As part of the attorney general's reorganization,\" said Susan Dryden,\r\nthe spokeswoman, \"we are conducting a comprehensive review of all guidelines,\r\npolicies and procedures. All of these are still under review.\"<\/p>\n An F.B.I. spokesman said the bureau's approach to terrorism was also under review.<\/p>\n \"Director Mueller's view is that everything should be on the table for\r\nreview,\" the spokesman, John Collingwood, said. \"He is more than willing\r\nto embrace change when doing so makes us a more effective component. A healthy\r\nreview process doesn't come at the expense of the historic protections inherent\r\nin our system.\"<\/p>\n The attorney general is free to revise the guidelines, but Justice Department\r\nofficials said it was unclear how heavily they would be revised. There are\r\ntwo sets of guidelines, for domestic and foreign groups, and most of the\r\ndiscussion has centered on the largely classified rules for investigations\r\nof foreign groups.<\/p>\n The relaxation of the guidelines would follow administration measures\r\nto establish military tribunals to try foreigners accused of terrorism; to\r\nseek out and question 5,000 immigrants, most of them Muslims, who have entered\r\nthe United States since January 2000; and to arrest more than 1,200 people,\r\nnearly all of whom are unconnected to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,\r\nand hold hundreds of them in jail.<\/p>\n Today, Mr. Ashcroft defended his initiatives in an impassioned speech to United States attorneys.<\/p>\n \"Our efforts have been deliberate, they've been coordinated, they've\r\nbeen carefully crafted to not only protect America but to respect the Constitution\r\nand the rights enshrined therein,\" Mr. Ashcroft said.<\/p>\n \"Still,\" he added, \"there have been a few voices who have criticized.\r\nSome have sought to condemn us with faulty facts or without facts at all.\r\nOthers have simply rushed to judgment, almost eagerly assuming the worst\r\nof their government before they've had a chance to understand it at its best.\"<\/p>\n Under the current surveillance guidelines, the F.B.I. cannot send undercover\r\nagents to investigate groups that gather at places like mosques or churches\r\nunless investigators first find probable cause, or evidence leading them\r\nto believe that someone in the group may have broken the law. Full investigations\r\nof this sort cannot take place without the attorney general's consent.<\/p>\n Since Sept. 11, investigators have said, Islamic militants have sometimes\r\nmet at mosques — apparently knowing that the religious institutions are usually\r\noff limits to F.B.I. surveillance squads. Some officials are now saying they\r\nneed broader authority to conduct surveillance of potential terrorists, no\r\nmatter where they are.<\/p>\n Senior career F.B.I. officials complained that they had not been consulted\r\nabout the proposed change — a criticism they have expressed about other Bush\r\nadministration counterterrorism measures. When the Justice Department decided\r\nto use military tribunals to try accused terrorists, and to interview thousands\r\nof Muslim men in the United States, the officials said they were not consulted.\r\n<\/p>\n Justice Department officials noted that Mr. Mueller had endorsed the\r\nadministration's proposals, adding that the complaints were largely from\r\nolder F.B.I. officials who were resistant to change and unwilling to take\r\nthe aggressive steps needed to root out terror in the United States. Other\r\nofficials said the Justice Department had consulted with F.B.I. lawyers and\r\nsome operational managers about the change.<\/p>\n But in a series of recent interviews, several senior career officials\r\nat the F.B.I. said it would be a serious mistake to weaken the guidelines,\r\nand they were upset that the department had not clearly described the proposed\r\nchanges.<\/p>\n \"People are furious right now — very, very angry,\" one of them said.\r\n\"They just assume they know everything. When you don't consult with anybody,\r\nit sends the message that you assume you know everything. And they don't\r\nknow everything.\"<\/p>\n Still, some complaints seem to stem from the F.B.I.'s shifting status\r\nunder Mr. Ashcroft. Weakened by a series of problems that predated the Sept.\r\n11 attacks, the F.B.I. has been forced to follow orders from the Justice\r\nDepartment — a change that many law enforcement experts thought was long\r\noverdue. In the past, the bureau leadership had far more independence and\r\nauthority to make its own decisions.<\/p>\n Several senior officials are leaving the F.B.I., including Thomas J.\r\nPickard, the deputy director. He was the senior official in charge of the\r\ninvestigation of the attacks and was among top F.B.I. officials who were\r\nopposed to another decision of the Bush administration, the public announcements\r\nof Oct. 12 and Oct. 29 that placed the country on the highest state of alert\r\nin response to vague but credible threats of a possible second terrorist\r\nattack. Mr. Pickard is said to have been opposed to publicizing threats that\r\nwere too vague to provide any precautionary advice.<\/p>\n Many F.B.I. officials regard the administration's plan to establish\r\nmilitary tribunals as an extreme step that diminishes the F.B.I.'s role because\r\nit creates a separate prosecutorial system run by the military.<\/p>\n \"The only thing I have seen about the tribunals is what I have seen in the newspapers,\" a senior official complained.<\/p>\n Another official said many senior law enforcement officials shared his\r\nconcern about the tribunals. \"I believe in the rule of law, and I believe\r\nif we have a case to make against someone, we should make it in a federal\r\ncourtroom in the United States,\" he said.<\/p>\n Several senior F.B.I. officials said the tribunal system should be reserved\r\nfor senior Al Qaeda members apprehended by the military in Afghanistan or\r\nother foreign countries.<\/p>\n Few were involved in deliberations that led to the directive Mr. Ashcroft\r\nissued this month to interview immigrant men living legally in the United\r\nStates. F.B.I. officials have complained that the interview plan was begun\r\nbefore its ramifications were fully understood.<\/p>\n \"None of this was thought through, a senior official said. \"They just\r\nannounced it, and left it to others to figure out how to do it.\"<\/p>\n The arrests and detentions of more than 1,200 people since Sept. 11\r\nhave also aroused concerns at the F.B.I. Officials noted that the investigations\r\nhad found no conspirators in the United States who aided the hijackers in\r\nthe Sept. 11 attacks and only a handful of people who were considered Al\r\nQaeda members.<\/p>\n \"This came out of the White House, and Ashcroft's office,\" a senior\r\nofficial said. \"There are tons of things coming out of there these days where\r\nthere is absolutely no consultation with the bureau.\"<\/p>\n Some at the F.B.I. have been openly skeptical about claims that some\r\nof the 1,200 people arrested were Al Qaeda members and that the strategy\r\nof making widespread arrests had disrupted or thwarted planned attacks. <\/p>\n \"It's just not the case,\" an official said. \"We have 10 or 12 people\r\nwe think are Al Qaeda people, and that's it. And for some of them, it's based\r\nonly on conjecture and suspicion.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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