Post by redjamescash on Jan 7, 2014 11:12:37 GMT -5
FBI Drops Law Enforcement as 'Primary' Mission
BY John Hudson
JANUARY 5, 2014 - 09:49 PM
The FBI's creeping advance into the world of counterterrorism
is nothing new. But quietly and without notice, the agency has finally decided
to make it official in one of its organizational fact sheets. Instead of
declaring "law enforcement" as its "primary function," as it has for years, the
FBI fact sheet now lists "national security" as its chief mission. The changes
largely reflect the FBI reforms put in place after September 11, 2001, which
some have criticized for de-prioritizing law enforcement activities.
Regardless, with the 9/11 attacks more than a decade in the past, the timing of
the edits is baffling some FBI-watchers.
"What happened in the last year that changed?" asked Kel
McClanahan, a Washington-based national security lawyer.
McClanahan noticed the change last month while reviewing a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the agency. The FBI fact sheet
accompanies every FOIA response and highlights a variety of facts about the
agency. After noticing the change, McClanahan reviewed his records and saw that
the revised fact sheets began going out this summer. "I think they're trying to
rebrand," he said. "So many good things happen to your agency when you tie it
to national security."
Although a spokesman with the agency declined to weigh in on
the timing of the change, he said the agency is just keeping up with the times.
"When our mission changed after 9/11, our fact sheet changed to reflect that,"
FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told Foreign Policy. He noted that the FBI's website has
long-emphasized the agency's national security focus. "We rank our top 10
priorities and CT [counterterrorism] is first, counterintel is second, cyber is
third," he said. "So it is certainly accurate to say our primary function is
national security." On numerous occasions, former FBI Director Robert Mueller
also emphasized the FBI's national security focus in speeches and
statements.
FBI historian and Marquette University professor Athan
Theoharis agreed that the changes reflect what's really happening at the
agency, but said the timing isn't clear. "I can't explain why FBI officials
decided to change the fact sheet... unless in the current political climate
that change benefits the FBI politically and undercuts criticisms," he said. He
mentioned the negative attention surrounding the FBI's failure in April to foil
the bomb plot at the Boston Marathon by Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Whatever the reason, the agency's increased focus on national
security over the last decade has not occurred without consequence. Between
2001 and 2009, the FBI doubled the amount of agents dedicated to
counterterrorism, according to a 2010 Inspector's General report. That period coincided with a steady decline in the
overall number of criminal cases investigated nationally and a steep decline in
the number of white-collar crime investigations.
"Violent crime, property crime and white-collar crime: All
those things had reductions in the number of people available to investigate
them," former FBI agent Brad Garrett told Foreign Policy.
"Are there cases they missed? Probably."
Last month, Robert Holley, the special agent in charge in
Chicago, said the agency's focus on terrorism and other crimes continued to
affect the level of resources available to combat the violent crime plaguing
the city. "If I put more resources on violent crime, I'd have to take away from
other things," he told The Chicago
Tribune.
According to a 2007 Seattle
Post-Intelligencer investigation, the Justice Department did not
replace 2,400 agents assigned to focus on counterterrorism in the years
following 9/11. The reductions in white-collar crime investigations became
obvious. Back in 2000, the FBI sent prosecutors 10,000 cases. That fell to a paltry 3,500 cases by 2005. "Had the FBI
continued investigating financial crimes at the same rate as it had before the
terror attacks, about 2,000 more white-collar criminals would be behind bars,"
the report concluded. As a result, the agency fielded criticism for
failing to crack down on financial crimes ahead of the Great Recession and
losing sight of real-estate fraud ahead of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.
In many ways, the agency had no choice but to de-emphasize
white-collar crime. Following the 9/11 attacks, the FBI picked up scores of new responsibilities related to
terrorism and counterintelligence while maintaining a finite amount of
resources. What's not in question is that government agencies tend to benefit
in numerous ways when considered critical to national security as opposed to
law enforcement. "If you tie yourself to national security, you get funding and
you get exemptions on disclosure cases," said McClanahan. "You get all the
wonderful arguments about how if you don't get your way, buildings will blow up
and the country will be less safe."