The New Justice Department

Recently, Attorney General John Ashcroft testified to the Senate about the full-scale reorganization underway at the Department of Justice in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

It is important to note that for decades the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is under the department’s supervision -- mainly served as after-the-fact investigatory and legal agencies. The FBI would collect and analyze evidence, seek out suspects, and make arrests for federal crimes already committed. The Justice Department, in turn, prosecuted cases once arrests had been made.

Because of FBI abuses in the 1960s and 1970s, strict limits were imposed by policymakers that severely curtailed the bureau’s ability to collect and share intelligence information with other federal agencies. As a result, neither agency had the ability to thoroughly investigate suspects before crimes were committed. Correcting past abuses was certainly an appropriate goal, but ultimately these “reforms” became excessive constraints on information gathering.

In fact, Attorney General Ashcroft’s review found that America’s ability to detect and prevent terrorism were severely undermined by these restrictions, which, as he testified, Alimited the intelligence and law enforcement communities access to, and sharing of, our most valuable resource in the new war on terrorism. That resource is information.

Prior to September 11, it was extremely difficult to adopt any changes that might make information access easier for the Department of Justice. Fearing a terrorist threat, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and I tried for a number of years to loosen some of these restrictions by giving the FBI a greater ability to conduct wiretaps of suspected terrorists and other criminals, increase information-sharing between intelligence agencies, and help the Justice Department become more proactive in preempting potential attacks. Our efforts were thwarted in the Senate, though a diluted version of our Counterterrorism Act of 2000 eventually passed too late for it to become law, however.

Ultimately, the USA-Patriot Act, passed by Congress in the days after the September 11 attack, incorporated many of those provisions, as well as others that were long needed. The Patriot Act mandated greater information-sharing between intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, such as the FBI and CIA. It allowed Justice Department prosecutors to share information with intelligence agents that was gained in grand jury proceedings and wiretaps. The law also finally gave law-enforcement agents the authority to quickly trace terrorists who use multiple cell phones or the Internet.

All of these changes coincide with a sweeping transformation of the Justice Department’s mission. As the Attorney General said, “America’s defense requires a new culture focused on the prevention of terrorist attacks. We must create a new system, capable of adaptation, secured by accountability, nurtured by cooperation, built on coordination, and rooted in our Constitutional liberties.”

In addition to gaining the investigatory tools needed to accomplish this new mission, the Justice Department has reorganized its entire department, expanding FBI-led Joint Terrorism task forces to all 56 FBI field offices, shifting more than 500 agents to counter-terrorism duties, and enhancing the counter-terrorism division at FBI headquarters to work more closely with the CIA and provide more timely and valuable information to agents in the field.

This is a breathtaking change in just a year’s time. But the unprecedented assault on American soil that took place on September 11 presented the nation a new challenge. President Bush has called on his government - and on our fellow citizens - to face this new reality just as Abraham Lincoln did as the nation faced another perilous threat - the Civil War.

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present,” Lincoln warned. Those are words that still resonate, but in a different context, as forces of terror look for new ways to strike against us.

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