The FBI At 100

How The Bureau Has Transformed From Capturing Gangsters With "Cool" Nicknames To Tracking Terrorists

(CBS)  In the movies and on TV, the FBI rarely fails to track down and capture wrongdoers. Yet, with its one-hundredth birthday just a few days off, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is under no small amount of scrutiny itself. Our Cover Story is reported now by Rita Braver.

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For the past century the FBI has made its name rounding up bad guys: bank robbers, kidnappers, spies and mobsters … for bringing to justice those whom FBI director Robert Mueller says committed "some of the most unspeakable crimes that have taken place in the last century."

But Mueller acknowledges that the Bureau today is at a turning point.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, the Bureau has made terrorism its top priority. It's no longer mostly about tracking down criminals after they've committed crimes; it's about stopping terrorist acts before they happen.

"It may be a little more difficult, and difficult in different ways than what we have been successfully doing in investigating crimes over the last 100 years," Mueller said, "but it is our mission and we will be successful at it."

But Americans are watching to see if the FBI is really up to the new challenge.

It's a far cry from the old shoot-'em-up days of the past.

It all started with a small investigative wing in the Justice Department, during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. But it wasn't until J. Edgar Hoover was brought in that the modern-day Bureau took shape:

When Hoover took over in 1924, the Bureau was mired in that political scandal of the day, Teapot Dome. The Secretary of the Interior was going to jail for taking bribes; the attorney general had been asked to resign.

FBI historian John Fox says that Hoover quickly moved to strengthen the Bureau … and burnished his own image…

"The FBI emerged in the 1930s as a nationally-known organization because of its fight against gangsters like John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson and "Pretty Boy" Floyd, you know, all those guys with the cool nicknames."

It was a gangster, "Machine Gun" Kelly, who gave FBI agents their cool nickname. As Walter Cronkite described in a 1957 CBS broadcast, "When FBI agents closed in on him, he wimpered, 'Don't shoot, G-men!' Kelly was soon forgotten, but the name 'G-Men' stuck."

Over the years, J. Edgar Hoover became preoccupied with something other than gangsters:

"Communists," he said, "have been, still are, and always will be a menace to freedom, the democratic ideals, and the worship of God and to America's way of life."

FBI critics charged that it was Hoover's obsession with communists and those he called "moral degenerates" that led to the FBI's domestic spying program. The Bureau kept files on and harassed high-profile Americans, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"I think that is something we regret," Fox said. "It is something that really shows where we should not be going."

In fact, the FBI has long struggled to balance conducting investigations with protecting civil liberties. It is something that resounds today in the fight against terrorism.

Braver asked Mueller if he is worried that investigators will round up the wrong people in order to get the right people?

"Of course, I always do," Mueller said. "But I would take exception to the word 'round up.' We do not roundup. We are very careful to show that we have an adequate basis to make an arrest of an individual, and yes, I worry about it because the credibility of the FBI is absolutely essential to our success."

And intrinsic to that success is the quality of FBI agents. Some of their training at the Bureau's academy in Quantico, Virginia has changed little over the years.

But there are more women now - about 20% - and more minorities - again, 20%.

Agents are schooled in following the letter of the law in interrogations. There is new focus on counter-terrorism training, too.

But to some, whether the FBI should be the front line against domestic terrorism is an open question:

Eric Lichtblau, a Pulitizer prize winning reporter for The New York Times and author of a recent book on the Bush adminstration and the law, says that while the Bureau has made some progress, it is still (by the assessment of outside experts) far behind where it needs to be.

Lichtblau says one cannot simply apply the skills used to disrupt organized crime or drug traffickers to catching terrorist.

"I think it requires more in the way of analytical skills," he said. "It requires cultural understanding of Middle Eastern ways, it requires linguistic and language skills … a lot of skills that the FBI doesn't have, even now, seven years [after 9/11]."

Mueller disputes accusations that the FBI was slow to pick up on terrorism as a threat to this country.

"If you look at the success of the FBI in New York bringing to justice those involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the work that was done to investigate the East African bombings, I think it was 1998, the Cole bombing …the Bureau has done substantial work in addressing terrorism."

In the early '90s, the FBI did run an undercover operation that disrupted a plot to bomb bridges and buildings in New York. But when it came to September 2001, Lichtblau said, "There were a handful of situations where the FBI certainly had information in its own files that could conceivably have altered the events of 9/11. And the lack of coordination and communication between the FBI and CIA led to the failure to identify them."

And while the Bureau helped pioneer fingerprinting, DNA analysis, and more sophisticated forensic evidence techniques, it has lagged far behind in computer technology.

"There are stories about how on 9/11, the FBI was literally unable to send files from its foreign offices to Washington with images of the hijackers," Lichtblau said.

Mueller accepts as "fair criticism" charges that the FBI had a lot of information but wasn't able to connect the dots. "So we had to put into place those capabilities," he said.

The FBI is still struggling to update its computer system, and to improve communication with the CIA and other agencies.

But some suggest the Bureau should just stick to combating traditional crime:

"The FBI's whole mission is in question," Lichtblau said, "and there's serious doubt, even now, whether or not they're up to the task of remaking themselves to prevent the next terrorism attack."

But Mueller insists that the FBI is proving its worth every day:

"I think we have done a very good job since September 11 of assuring the American people, particularly from terrorist attacks, both domestic and international, and every time I say that I knock on wood, 'cause I know we can expend our efforts. But to a certain extent, there is happenstance in there."

Braver asked the director, "What keeps you up at night?"

"It is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of some terrorist, if not today then tomorrow, a few weeks or months down the road."

Mueller says the Bureau's agents and analysts are working intensely to stop such an attack before it happens. In addition, they're keeping focus on all their other law enforcement tasks, including locking up mobsters and tracking down spies who sell state secrets.

Mueller says that after 100 years the FBI has to be able to do it all.

"It's neverending," he said. "I mean, the threats of today are not the threats you are gonna see five or ten years down the road. What you want to do is put the FBI in a posture where it is able to identify those threats as early as possible, and move resources to address them immediately."

[donmeaker]

Amusing how the crazy people are so oppressed they post their ravings as comments.

[harp1963]

Any organization that had Hoover as it''s head, you just have to wonder about.

[wardoglrs]

shado269 says I guess my part one is being .....edited out by our new Federal
I
Spy
Act

They oust my post to so you might be right. Get ready for the worst guys they might be doing just that.

[sidvicious42]

The NSA is just a big ''intelligence welfare'' outfit. They don''t do anything. People who walk around think''n they''re smart, and they''re just a buncha losers. Don''t even think about the NSA. Its corporate welfare.

[rushlimpdrug]

Yeah, the FBI did such a great
job solving the ANTHRAX mystery
that all the U.S. was in awe.

More like we were is shock and awe.

Shock that the FBI did ZERO to solve
the anthrax mystery and in awe as to
how it whipped the journalist to fear.

Great job FBI.

[barbaram99]

..what there is more of us women than men..I knew a man from Bangor ME that died in the Waco mess. I was pissed the way it was handled. sure they kill people. So does the church..My friend saids people go missing and the gov''t knows what happen to them.
We don''t and never will.

[hermitdave]

I thought you would post a photo of Hoover. Shame you can''t post the one of the old queen in his red dress. Or holding hands with Clyde on a Florida beach. As for the FBI, who knows what power they now have under ZEE FADDERLAND SECURITY. We may soon all have more personal knowledge of them than we ever dreamed.

[sidvicious44]

Compartmentalization isn''t all bad, you know. Its eccentric, as in within each cubicle is a uniquely specific profession far different from its neighbors. But its a way ensuring integrity too. Its a way of making sure that an investigation can operate indepth without outside interference.

[culturechang]

According to the History Channel, the FBI started out chasing prostitutes.....and now they are doing it again. That was thier first big assignment. When the Mann Act was passed to eliminate "white slavery". The FBI was charged with stopping all the sinning by closing the brothels in NYC. They went out looking for all the "enslaved white women" that the sensationalists said were out there....and they found none. After the brothels closed, the women had no choice after but work 12 hour days in textile sweat shops for pennies a day.

Recently, sensationalists realized that the same lie would work again so they passed the human trafficking act. Sadly, tere are cases of real trafficking and the FBI does do what they can, but the benefits of the program are diluted by a moral prostitution crusaude in drag.

[sidvicious44]

Well, barriers have their own importance. For example, there''s a big difference between domestic and foreign affairs. The CIA handles foreign affairs. And a lot of their operations have agents. "Secret Agents". A wall of separation ensures that these "Secret Agents" aren''t exposed by our own friendly fire. Because some other agency might be stepping on their toes.

And Domestics isn''t like Foreign affairs either. Within the borders we have specific rules and procedures, far different from those of international law. Thats why we have to separate the CIAs procedures from the FBIs.

[massey24]

Looney Left Reporting.

Clinton and Reno erected the "wall of seperation" that kept the FBI and CIA from connecting the dots.

This is common knowledge, but rather than report the truth, Rita Braver sides with the Looney Left New York Times.

The FBI was doing fine before Looney Lefties, like Eric Lichtblau, created barriers to communications between the FBI and the CIA.

Idiots.