[Infowarrior] - FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight

[Richard Forno]

FBI planning a bigger role in terrorism fight
Bureau agents will gather evidence to ensure that criminal  
prosecutions of alleged terrorists are an option. The move is a  
reversal of the Bush administration's emphasis on covert CIA actions.
By Josh Meyer
May 28, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi28-2009may28,0,694540.story

Reporting from Washington -- The FBI and Justice Department plan to  
significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism  
operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA- 
dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one  
built around transparent investigations and prosecutions.

Under the "global justice" initiative, which has been in the works for  
several months, FBI agents will have a central role in overseas  
counter-terrorism cases. They will expand their questioning of  
suspects and evidence-gathering to try to ensure that criminal  
prosecutions are an option, officials familiar with the effort said.

Though the initiative is a work in progress, some senior counter- 
terrorism officials and administration policy-makers envision it as  
key to the national security strategy President Obama laid out last  
week -- one that presumes most accused terrorists have the right to  
contest the charges against them in a "legitimate" setting.

The approach effectively reverses a mainstay of the Bush  
administration's war on terrorism, in which global counter-terrorism  
was treated primarily as an intelligence and military problem, not a  
law enforcement one. That policy led to the establishment of the  
prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; harsh interrogations; and detentions  
without trials.

The "global justice" initiative starts out with the premise that  
virtually all suspects will end up in a U.S. or foreign court of law.

That will be the case whether a suspected terrorist is captured on the  
battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, in the Philippine jungle or in a  
mosque in Nigeria, said one senior U.S. counter-terrorism official  
with knowledge of the initiative.

"Regardless of where any bad guy is caught, we want the bureau to be  
in a position to put charges on them," the official said, adding that  
the Bush administration's emphasis on CIA and military operations  
often marginalized the FBI -- especially when it came to interrogating  
suspects.

Like others interviewed for this article, the official spoke on the  
condition of anonymity because no one has been authorized to discuss  
the initiative publicly. "We have no comment on it at this time," FBI  
Assistant Director John J. Miller, the bureau's chief spokesman, said  
when asked about the initiative.

Upon taking office in January, Obama shut down the CIA's secret "black  
site" prisons and forbade the use of coercive interrogation techniques.

That opened the door for an increased role for the FBI, which for the  
last year has deployed more agents and analysts overseas to work  
alongside the CIA, U.S. military and foreign governments.

The initiative would mean even broader incorporation of the FBI and  
Justice Department into global counter-terrorism operations. Many  
national security officials said it is a vindication of the FBI, which  
before Sept. 11 had played a leading role in international terrorism  
investigations.

FBI agents for years had used non-coercive interrogations to thwart  
attacks, win convictions of Al Qaeda operatives and gain an  
encyclopedic knowledge of how the terrorist network operates. But they  
withdrew from questioning important suspects after the bureau opposed  
the tactics being used by the CIA and military -- often by  
inexperienced civilian contractors.

The harsh interrogations provided such bad information that U.S.  
agents spent years chasing false leads around the world, former FBI  
agent Ali Soufan testified before Congress two weeks ago. "It was one  
of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our efforts against Al  
Qaeda."

Bush administration officials, however, have defended the tactics and  
rejected claims that the FBI's methods would have worked better.

"With many thousands of lives potentially in the balance, we did not  
think it made good sense to let the terrorists answer questions in  
their own good time," former Vice President Dick Cheney said in a  
speech this month.

The FBI itself has been criticized, as has the CIA, for failing to  
connect the dots before the Sept. 11 attacks. In hindsight, the  
evidence pointed to a clear and intensive Al Qaeda effort to launch  
attacks on U.S. soil.

Before Sept. 11, the FBI model of "informed" interrogation -- knowing  
everything about a suspect to get them talking -- was the preferred  
method of intelligence and military interrogators.

Even veteran CIA agents said that abandoning that approach after Sept.  
11 was counterproductive. "To use a contractor to ask the questions  
and not let the FBI guy who's collected all the evidence and knows all  
of the intelligence about these guys, it makes no sense at all," said  
former CIA counter-terrorism case agent Robert Baer.

One intelligence official said the FBI's expanded role in the global  
fight against terrorism was a natural outgrowth of the Obama  
administration's new priorities. "It stands to reason because, by  
executive order, the CIA is out of the long-term detention business,"  
the official said, referring to Obama's closing of overseas prisons.

Richard Clarke, a senior counter-terrorism official in the Clinton and  
George W. Bush administrations, said the turnabout was long overdue.

"We have to return to the practice that we had before of arresting  
terrorists and putting them on trial," said Clarke, who added that the  
country's ability to do that "has atrophied."

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the agency would continue to play a  
central role in interrogations and counter-terrorism operations --  
using techniques approved by the U.S. Army Field Manual-- in  
conjunction with other U.S. agencies.

Behind the scenes, some intelligence officials are resisting a broader  
criminal justice role overseas for the FBI, contending that it could  
inhibit the flow of intelligence if their own agents, or foreign  
governments, believe top-secret sources and methods might be disclosed  
during criminal prosecutions.

Two senior U.S. officials said efforts are being made to ensure that  
intelligence-gathering and law enforcement efforts proceed side by  
side. They stressed that the CIA and military would continue to play  
pivotal roles, particularly in gaining strategic intelligence against  
terrorist groups and thwarting future attacks.

josh.meyer at latimes.com