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FI

JEFFREY MACMILLAN FOR USN&WR March 28, 2005 19

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THIS MAN IS PUSHING SOME OF THEBIGGEST CHANGES IN THE BUREAU’S

HISTORY. THINK HE’S A POPULAR GUY?

U . S . N e w s & W o r l d R e p o r t

On a cold January day twoyears ago, fbi DirectorRobert Mueller strode intothe executive briefing roomof the bureau’s state-of-the-

art command center in the J. EdgarHoover Building in Washing-ton. Mueller had invited reporters fora special demonstra-tion of a supposedlyrevolutionary records-management softwarepackage called Virtu-al Case File. vcf, as it is known inside thebureau, was intendedto allow agents in the56 field offices, morethan 400 smaller re-gional offices, and dozens of liaison of-fices at U.S. embassies abroad to share investigative leads and reportsand connect to government terrorismdatabases quickly and efficiently.Dressed in his usual button-downwhite oxford dress shirt, Mueller delivered a bravura performance.There was only one small glitch, whenthe system crashed for a few minutes.The glitch, however, would prove to

be an unfortunate omen.Today, after nearly four years and

$170 million, the Virtual Case File sys-tem has all but been junked. And de-spite a series of post-9/11 reviews of thefbi’s anarchic computer systems—un-workable, antiquated machines thatcontributed to the bureau’s failure to

“connect the dots” be-fore the terrorist at-tacks—there is no hopeof fielding a replace-ment system for vcffor at least another 31/2years. In a wide-rang-ing interview in his el-egant conference roomon the seventh floor ofthe Hoover Building,

Mueller, a highly regarded former fed-eral prosecutor, conceded that the vcfsystem was plagued by a series of man-agement failures at fbi headquarters.“If you give me a criminal case, my area of expertise,” he said, “I can sitdown and tell where it’s going to goand what the likelihood of winning atrial is. . . . [But] you put me down witha software package, given my back-ground, I’m not going to be able to tell

XING THE FBI

“I’m impatient to make thiseven a betterinstitution.”

Robert Mueller,FBI director

By Chitra Ragavan

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JEFFREY MACMILLAN FOR USN&WR (2)20 U.S.News & World Report, March 28, 2005

you how it’s going to shake out.”The failure of the vcf system, not sur-

prisingly, has raised questions amongsome of the fbi’s congressional overseersand bureau watchers about whether any-one—even someone with Mueller’s ac-knowledged credibility and commit-ment—can guide the fbi through the

most wrenching changes in its nearly 97-year history. “That’s an organizationwhere the culture is very, very fixed, moreso than a place like the Marine Corps,”says Deputy Attorney General JamesComey. “Unlike the Marine Corps, mostpeople spend 30 years at the bureau. Theculture sets like concrete over 30 years,

and to change that is very, very hard.”Hard, even for a decorated ex-marine

like Mueller. “I’ve come to find that oneof the most difficult things one has todo,” he said, assessing the challenges hehas encountered since assuming the directorship just a week before the 9/11attacks, “is to bring an entity through

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S ome fbi insiders sayDirector Mueller’s am-bitious initiatives areoften undercut by the peoplerunning the engines of thebureau—the powerful fi-nance division, human re-

sources, information tech-nology. Even today, fbi fieldagents and officials at head-quarters, including in thepress office, are un-able to send and re-ceive E-mails consis-

tently, despite repeated com-plaints. The bureau’s conver-sion to a supposedly more ef-ficient hiring system calledQuickHire has been disas-trous, leaving hundreds of

support posi-tions unfilled.And the hiringof agents, ana-

lysts, and translators is ex-cruciatingly slow. A seniorJustice Department officialsays Mueller is aware of theproblems. “I know that Bobis very frustrated by the bu-reaucracy there and the paceof hiring and stuff like that,”this official says. “He thinksit’s byzantine.”

THE CASE OF THE ORPHANED PDAS

20

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the development of a change of businesspractices.”

Changing any large bureaucracy is dif-ficult, but at the fbi it is especially so.Mueller’s challenge is at once simple—andenormous. It is nothing less than thetransformation of a big, tradition-con-scious police agency (which was really an

interlocking series of 56 powerful, quasi-independent fiefdoms) into a forward-leaning, fast-moving intelligence agency.Today, the premium is not so much onbusting bad guys after they commit acrime but on spotting terrorists and stop-ping them before they attack. That’s notjust a whole new mind-set. It means cre-ating a new infrastructure to assessthreats, communicating that informationrapidly through a far-flung network ofagents, offices, and executives, and shar-ing it with analysts and operatives outsidethe fbi—all things the bureau has neverdone especially well.

Mueller, often referred to as “Himself”by subordinates, be-cause of his widely acknowledged lack ofself-doubt, is an avidstudent of manage-ment theory. One ofhis earliest initiativeswas to require all fbiexecutives to take man-agement courses atNorthwestern Univer-sity’s Kellogg School ofManagement in Evans-ton, Ill. The program,participants say, hasbeen a nearly universal success. ButMueller isn’t kidding himself. As a for-mer federal prosecutor and former act-ing deputy attorney general, Mueller haswatched and worked with the fbi formany years. The 9/11 attacks, Muellersays, administered a unique shock to thebureau’s insular, change-resistant cul-ture, making it easier for him to sell vet-eran agents and managers on the needto reorient their focus from that of a re-active law-enforcement agency to one ofa proactive intelligence bureaucracy.Still, Mueller says, fidgeting with a penat the head of his polished oak confer-ence table that seats probably 40, “if youread any of the management books,they’ll tell you that when you’re trying tobring an institution through a transfor-mation, 30 percent will be with you, 30

percent will be in the middle, and 30 per-cent you won’t bring along.” Given thebureau’s unique responsibilities, thosepercentages, if they apply, give evensome bureau boosters reason for pause.“All you can do every day is come in andput one foot in front of another,” saysMaureen Baginski, who heads the fbi’snew Directorate of Intelligence, “ ’causeif you start to think about it, you mightjust run, you know. It’s a lot of work, butI have nothing but confidence.”

Good news, bad news. The failure of thevcf system offers a glimpse into the dif-ficulties facing anyone intent on castingthe fbi into a radically different model.

“As you know, senator,”Mueller told PatrickLeahy, the VermontDemocrat who is theranking minority mem-ber on the Senate Judi-ciary Committee, whichoversees the work of thefbi, “in a bureaucracythis size, one of theproblems is that peoplewant to bring you thegood news. They don’twant to bring you thebad news.”

When it came down to the vcf mat-ter, fbi and Justice Department offi-cials say, Mueller wasn’t especially keento hear the bad news. “I’ll be honest withyou. I think he was so hopeful the soft-ware was going to work,” says Mueller’schief information officer, Zal Azmi. “No-body could believe that after three yearsand all of this money that we didn’t haveit.” Justice Department Inspector Gen-eral Glenn Fine warned congressionalcommittees last May to view Mueller’spromises on the vcf with great skepti-cism. “He was overoptimistic,” saysFine, “about when the vcf projectwould be completed.”

Some fbi officials say the vcf messshows just how much the senior leader-ship tends to withhold bad news fromMueller. “He is so isolated and shielded,”

Case in point: BlackBer-ries. Months ago, the fbibought about 3,000 Black-Berry personal digital assist-ants to fulfill Mueller’s goalof creating a giant global In-ternet cafe. But fbi officialssay it managers went with a“nickel and dime” server.

fbi sources say Mueller’s

chief information officer, ZalAzmi, said he didn’t have themoney to hire contractors toload the security packagesand deploy the BlackBerries.The result: Hundreds ofBlackBerries remain un-packed in boxes. “He[Mueller] has lofty ideas,but there’s no follow-

through; the finance peoplewhittle it away,” says onesource. Then, citing thesame lack of funds, Azmicame close to allowing theBlackBerry contract to ex-pire March 1, causing greatconcern. It isn’t just a ques-tion of E-mails or makingcalls. At some key airports,

for instance, fbi specialagents carry “no fly” lists andterrorist watch lists on theirencrypted BlackBerries. Bu-reau officials staved off thecrisis by piggybacking ontoanother contractor. “They’retrying to band-aid it,” saysan fbi source, “through thesummer.” –C.R.

BUSTED. Practicing arrest techniquesat the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va.

“The culturesets like

concrete…. Tochange that is

very, very hard.”James Comey,

deputy attorney general

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22 U.S.News & World Report, March 28, 2005

says one fbi official. Bureau insiderspoint to the culture in which the direc-tor is “like God,” and where the higherone climbs the management ladder, theriskier it is for the “palace guard” toalienate the boss. “The top guys aroundhim,” says this official, “there’s no waythey were going to tell him the bad newsbecause vcf, it was his baby, and no onewas going to say, ‘Your baby’s ugly.’ ”

Mueller knows all too well how easy itis for the person at the top to become iso-lated, but that danger is probably morereal for him than for a Fortune 500 ceo.One reason is the head-spinning exodusof top-tier executives—five officials haveheld the top counterterrorism job since9/11; five others held the top computerjob in 2002–2003 alone. The vcf proj-ect had no fewer than 10 different proj-ect managers who redrafted the terms ofthe contract 36 times, according to con-gressional sources. Some inside the fbiattribute the brain drain to Mueller’s de-manding management style. Whetherthat’s the case or not, the director’s jobrequires killer hours—for himself and forthose work for him. Mueller is typical-ly in his office by 6 a.m. to be briefed bythe graveyard shift of analysts and man-agers who collect and analyze new threatinformation. Mueller briefs the attorneygeneral by 7:30 a.m. Then both menhead to the White House to brief Presi-dent Bush by 8:30 a.m. A secondMueller briefing between 4 and 5 p.m.means that even noncrisis days stretchto 12 or 14 hours for Mueller’s bleary-eyed executives. “I don’t see it as a careeranymore,” says fbi Deputy DirectorJohn Pistole. “It’s a calling.”

If there is a flaw in the way he man-ages the fbi, Mueller responds, it isprobably his pedal-to-the-metal drive. “Itend to think I’m probably fairly de-manding in terms of people knowingwhat they’re talking about,” Muellersaid. “One of my failings is, I’m impatient. . . to provide supportto the agents, to pro-vide the latest technol-ogy to make this aneven better institution,and that probably, insome cases, is a hin-drance. But you know,I can’t think of an ex-ecutive who I couldthink would be intimi-dated by me.”

Mueller’s impa-tience is certainly un-derstandable. U.S. in-telligence officials areconvinced that alQaeda is determinedto mount anothermajor terrorist attackon America. Which isprecisely why, Muellersays, the fbi mustmaster the threat-as-sessment challenge asquickly as possible:“My concern is andwill always be thatwhich we do notknow—those personsin the United Stateswho have not come toour attention, as muchas we are searching

and looking for them, who may be poisedto undertake an attack. In the same waythat those who came in [on] September11 were somehow underneath the radarand were poised to attack.”

“High marks.” At the fbi, the result ofthe attacks is the revolution Mueller is

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and by that I mean the pri-oritization—the understand-ing that it’s a national prior-ity that has to be managedand directed from head-quarters, although the indi-vidual information gather-ing, information collectionhas to be done by agents andfield offices.

On overcoming resistancefrom FBI agents who want thebureau to remain a traditionalcrime-fighting organization: There are always going to beagents out there who thinkwe ought to have stayed in

the war on drugs, that weshouldn’t have shifted thoseresources, that we ought tobe doing what we tradition-ally have done in a numberof arenas. It could be bankrobberies, it could be gov-ernment fraud, it could bewar on drugs—and they’vedone them for a period oftheir career, and it will bevery difficult for some ofthem to change.

On the bureau’s finding thatmost of the potential terroristsin the United States are primar-ily engaged in fundraising ac-tivities rather than running ac-tive operational cells:I think, without a questionof doubt, there are individu-als, either by themselves oraligned with others, who aresupportive of terrorist phi-losophy, theology, and en-gage primarily, at this point

F BI Director RobertMueller met with U.S.News & World ReportEditor Brian Duffy and chieflegal affairs correspondentChitra Ragavan in his con-ference room on the top floorof the J. Edgar Hoover Build-ing to discuss his efforts totransform the bureau into aproactive organization thatcan identify terrorists andstop them before they strike.

. . . I think we’ve made sub-stantial progress in buildingour counterterrorism efforts,

A CHAT WITH THE MAN TO SEE

CHARLIE ARCHAMBAULT FOR USN&WR U.S.News & World Report, March 28, 2005 23

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struggling to complete. He has reducedthe autonomy of the old field-office fief-doms and centralized all major terror-ism investigations at the Hoover Build-ing while diverting hundreds of agentsfrom working the bureau’s traditionalmissions of drugs and white-collar crime

and assigning them to newly createdcounterterrorism squads.

The new intelligence directorateMueller has created is staffed with 5,000linguists, analysts, special agents, andsupport staff who collect, analyze, anddisseminate intelligence. Mueller wants

to expand the bureau’s reach into the farcorners of world, creating a “global fbi”to better track potential terrorists over-seas before they can strike here. Before9/11, despite a spate of terrorist attacksgoing back to the bombing of the WorldTrade Center in 1993, counterintelli-

gence had long been considereda stepchild within the fbi, the bigpromotions and the lion’s shareof the operational dollars goingto the old Criminal InvestigativeDivision. Mueller has made itclear those days are over—andnot coming back.

Transformation. The resultsaren’t all in yet, of course, but thesigns of progress are there. Atwo-year study just released bythe National Academy of Pub-lic Administration, chaired byformer Attorney General DickThornburgh, found that the fbiis “making substantial progressin transforming itself into astrong domestic-intelligence en-tity, and has the will and many ofthe competencies required to ac-complish it.” President Bush’snew attorney general, AlbertoGonzales, credits Mueller’s con-tinued pushing for the results. “Ihave total confidence in BobMueller,” Gonzales says. Fine, the Justice Department’s inspec-tor general, though critical ofMueller’s handling of the VirtualCase File system, neverthelesssays he is impressed by Mueller’sprogress. “I think he is movingthe fbi in the right direction,”

in time perhaps, in fundrais-ing, recruiting, and perhapsin some level of training.Now that does not mean thatthey are not poised to under-take operations . . . . My con-cern is and will always bethat which we do not know.

On whether the Virtual CaseFile failure indicates that hehas become isolated:Hopefully not. It is a chal-lenge in any organization not

to be isolated. And it’s some-thing you always have tofight.

On his management styleand whether his demeanor dis-courages his executives frombringing him bad news:That’s a charged question. I,you know, I mean, I’m prob-ably different things to dif-ferent people. I tend to thinkI’m probably fairly demand-ing in terms of people know-

ing what they’re talkingabout. And give me the facts,I . . . one of my failings is I’mimpatient, I’m impatient . . .to provide support to theagents, to provide the latesttechnology to make this evena better institution, and thatprobably, in some cases, is ahindrance. But you know, Ican’t think of an executivewho . . . I could think wouldbe intimidated by me.

And . . . I mean, the factof the matter is you’ve got tomove forward. And part ofit comes from my back-ground. You know, the Ma-rine Corps . . . I took awaysome lessons from that. Inevery position I’ve had, I’vehad some people who areok and some people whodon’t like the way I operate.Often there are people whoare used to operating in adifferent way. And when Icome in and have my ownway of doing things that’s. . . that’s not the way theylike things to be, but I try. . . I listen hard, and movequickly.

CHARM OFFENSIVE.Chatting up Thomas Kean,the chair of the 9/11 panel

says Fine. On Capitol Hill, one of thefbi’s most aggressive overseers agrees.“Overall, I would give Mueller highmarks,” says Rep. Frank Wolf, a VirginiaRepublican. “He has transformed thefbi in a very difficult time.”

Not everyone, of course, is pleased.Over the past three years, fbi executives,including Mueller, delivered hundreds ofoptimistic briefings on vcf to membersof Congress and their staffs. The softwarefailure has resulted in the erosion of con-fidence in Mueller’s willingness to be can-did about setbacks and obsta-cles. Sen. Judd Gregg, a NewHampshire Republican, calledvcf “a very significant failure.”Wolf, the Virginia Republican,says he’s “personally disap-pointed” by the vcf fiasco andhas launched an investigation.Democrats, if anything, aremore critical. “It would indicatethat he is being taken overmore and more by the fbi’sculture of not recognizing mis-takes,” Vermont’s Leahy says ofthe earlier fbi testimony aboutvcf. “The director came inwith so much goodwill on thepart of both Republicans andDemocrats, and that goodwillis just being thrown away.”

On the job. For Mueller,such criticisms are not justunusual but unprecedented.For years, Mueller has been

the Teflon man, who has not only man-aged to keep the fbi’s problems wellunder wraps, with an iron grip onmedia access, but has also generatedenormous admiration from virtually all quarters of official Washington.“There’s not much in life that I’m com-pletely sure of,” says Comey, the deputyattorney general.” But I’m sure that BobMueller is smart and honorable.”

One intelligence official marvels atwhat he describes as a “cult of devotion”to Mueller.” After giving up a lucrative

white-collar crime practice to workhomicide cases in the U.S. attorney’s of-fice in Washington, D.C., Mueller servedas Attorney General John Ashcroft’s act-ing deputy before he agreed to take thefbi job. Just after a successful fightagainst prostate cancer, Mueller hadbarely moved into his office when thefirst plane struck the north tower of theWorld Trade Center. “To those of us whowere working the case intensely,” saysformer Justice Department counterter-rorism official Stuart Levey, now the

Treasury Department’s undersecretary for enforcement, “hegave the impression that hewas put on Earth to do this jobat this time.”

But it wasn’t long before thebureau was buffeted by criti-cism over its failure to identifyand stop the 9/11 hijackers.Suddenly, Mueller was forcedto two-track his leadership,overseeing the 9/11 investiga-tion while trying to beat backefforts to take away the fbi’sdomestic intelligence-gather-ing mission. Using every bit ofhis personal charisma, dogged-ness, and political savvy,Mueller managed to convincethe 9/11 commissioners that hewas already on track to changethe fbi without their urging adrastic overhaul to PresidentBush. Commission sources say

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NEWBIES. Rookie agentsbeing sworn in after trainingat the FBI Academy

“We’re not dealing with ourfather’s FBI; it’s our FBI.”

Gary Bald, counterterrorism chief, FBI

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Mueller met with them more than didany other agency head or official.“Mueller understood his job was on the line,” says a former commissionstaffer. “And he understood better thancia Director George Tenet did thatwhatever we were going to say, peoplewould listen.”

Mueller’s efforts paid off, but not with-out difficulty. Representative Wolf toldMueller that the only chance for the fbi tosurvive more or less intact was by creatinga “service within a service”—a new intel-ligence directorate inside the bureaustaffed with well-trained, well-paid, ca-reer-track intelligence analysts who wouldfocus on terrorist threats and look for cluesto the next attack. Mueller, Wolf says, “wasnot supportive.” Instead, the director toldmembers of Congress and the 9/11 com-

missioners that he wanted total discretionin how to reform the bureau. Some com-missioners, impressed by Mueller’s rec-titude and credibility, were inclined toagree. But others resisted, and in the end,Wolf’s idea of an intelligence directorate,presented first to Mueller as a fait ac-compli and then to the commissioners asa Mueller-Wolf proposal, became the onlymajor recommendation for changing thefbi contained in the 9/11 commission’sfinal report. “It was a vote of confidence inMueller,” commission executive directorPhilip Zelikow told U.S. News, “and we in-tended it as that.”

Cops and robbers. Now, some 9/11commissioners wonder if that confi-dence was misplaced. “He knows how toplay the system,” says one commissioner,“how to play Congress, and he certain-

ly worked the 9/11 commission.” Com-missioner Timothy Roemer says there’sa lesson in the experience. “When youare doing oversight of the fbi,” he says,“you really have to try to separate yourrespect for Director Mueller from eval-uating in a fair and objective manner thefbi’s performance during his tenure.”

In contrast, the commission slammedthe cia and Tenet for their handling ofpre-9/11 intelligence, causing tremen-dous resentment in the agency. “It’s notthat we minded them not being held ac-countable for their mistakes,” says a for-mer senior cia official, “It was just thatwe grew tired of us being held account-able for them.” Tenet and many on hisstaff were apoplectic at what they believewas disinformation provided to the com-mission that it was the cia’s fault for not

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D own the line, BobMueller’s greatestcontribution to thefbi may be that he pre-served its credibility onone highly controversialaspect of the war on ter-rorism. After the 9/11 at-tacks, when Americanforces began capturingTaliban and al Qaedafighters in Afghanistan,Mueller made a key deci-sion: He refused to allowhis agents to be present at

any of the interrogationsby the cia and militarypersonnel at secret loca-tions around the worldand at the U.S. Naval Basein Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The decision angeredfbi agents who hadworked on previous ter-rorism investigations in-volving some of thesesame shady characters—including Khalid ShaikhMohammed, the self-pro-claimed mastermind of

the 9/11 attacks. But inhindsight, Mueller’s deci-sion has proved prescient.While the cia and the mili-tary are under fire for thealleged use of tortureagainst detainees, fbiagents have been praisedfor trying to bring atten-tion to the controversial in-terrogation techniques, innumerous memos to thefbi. “Mueller has sentpretty clear messages downthe fbi about the unac-ceptable nature of torture,”says Anthony Romero, ex-ecutive director of the

American Civil LibertiesUnion. “It’s probably theone bright hope in this en-tire torture debacle.”

Mueller has been criti-cized, however, for beingevasive with Congressabout when he learnedabout the torture allega-tions. As to whether hetried to draw attention tothe problem with the presi-dent, Mueller told U.S.News: “Well, I’m not goingto get into that.” –C.R.

DODGING A PECK OF TROUBLE GUANTANAMO. Detainees atthe U.S. Navy base in Cuba

MASSACHUSETTS U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE / AP (4) U.S.News & World Report, March 28, 2005 29

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sharing information with thefbi about some of the Sep-tember 11 terrorists; instead,they blame the fbi’s balkyrecord-management systems.“For too long, the fbi was adata-free zone,” says the for-mer senior cia official. “Amaz-ingly, because they had nodata, their dubious recollec-tions were accorded the statusof proof.” Mueller’s supporterssay the director just did his job.“It’s the mark of a greatleader,” says a senior Justiceofficial, “that Bob was able tosteer his organization throughall that unscathed.”

Such bad blood raises ques-tions about how much Muellercan fulfill his goal of integrat-ing the fbi’s intelligence mis-sion with that of the broaderintelligence community. Manyin that community say the fbican never change its cops-and-robbers mind-set. “Turningcops into covert agents,” saysthe former senior cia official,“is like asking choir girls to be-come call girls.”

Some veteran intelligence of-ficials question the quality ofanalysis the fbi is providing,saying it’s often substandard—something Mueller emphatical-ly denies. “I’ve seen a lot of in-telligence products over the last31/2 years,” Mueller responds. “Ithink our products are the equalof those that were put out by therest of the community at this point in timeand, in some cases, better.”

Today, Mueller is working with cia Di-rector Porter Goss on a memorandum ofunderstanding to better delineate and co-ordinate the fbi and cia’s intelligence-gathering activities in the United Statesand abroad. But fbi and intelligencesources say Mueller’s efforts have beenslowed in part by the intelligence com-munity’s instinctive distrust of MaureenBaginski. Mueller recruited her to headthe Directorate of Intelligence from theNational Security Agency, which collectssignals intelligence through spy satellites,not human intelligence from sources. In-telligence officials say they’reconcerned that Baginski is stillstruggling to hire, train, and re-tain analysts, draft key policyagreements, and navigate thefbi’s insular culture.

In such a contentious envi-ronment, it’s no surprise there

would be some flashpoints. One recent-ly involved a veteran fbi agent assignedto a presidential commission investigat-ing the flawed intelligence on weaponsof mass destruction that led to the warin Iraq. The agent removed from thecommission’s secure space a classifiedcia document critical of the fbi’s intel-ligence-gathering efforts and handed itto fbi officials, who copied and distrib-uted the document. Furious, commis-sioners asked Mueller to remove theagent from the commission and fire herfrom the bureau. Mueller refused. Theagent has since been reassigned, pend-ing an internal investigation.

In the clubby world of law en-forcement, Mueller enjoys greatcredibility among police chiefsacross the country. But stateand local police, and homelandsecurity and intelligence offi-cials say that although the fbihas come a long way in its ef-forts to share information, it stillhas a long way to go. “There isstill a huge gap between whatthey know and what they re-port,” says a senior intelligenceofficial who works closely withthe fbi. “For every two pagesthey report, there’s another 15or 20 pages they don’t want toprovide.” Some officials say thefbi is still hugely compartmen-talized, a series of informationstovepipes. When a lead comesin that crosses internal bureauboundaries, these officials com-plain, the fbi’s bureaucratic in-stinct is still to create a taskforce and set it up in the bow-els of the Hoover Building,promise to work with otheragencies—and then shut themout entirely. This is especiallytrue, these officials say, in ter-rorism cases. “Interviews hap-pen, the fbi investigates, andthere is the black hole,” says thesenior intelligence official.“With 14,000-plus investiga-tions going, the fbi should beable to tell us in a more com-prehensive fashion about whereour threats exist—[terrorist]cell structures in the U.S. and

North America, emerging threats, andwhere we need to be looking.”

Such opinions are anything but rareamong intelligence officials. “Mueller haschecked out on counterintelligence,” saysa senior counterintelligence official. “Thefbi is over here, the rest of the counter-intelligence community is over there.”Mueller says he has greatly beefed up thecounterintelligence and counter-terrorismprograms. “There’s, quite obviously, still alot of work to be done,” he says, “but I thinkwe’ve made substantial progress . . . andby that I mean, the prioritization—the un-derstanding that it’s a national prioritythat has to be managed and directed from

headquarters.”Mueller’s big challenge out-

side fbi headquarters has beento win over his own agents.Many have not warmed to himbecause of his unflinching de-mand for instructional change.Others complain about his ap-

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BUM LEADS. The FBI alerted authorities in Boston to be on the lookout for these four Chinese nationals, calling them suspected terrorists. The information came from anuncorroborated tip and later was proved false. A keycomplaint of FBI agents is the directive to pursue every lead.

“I have total confidence in Bob Mueller.”

Alberto Gonzales, U.S. attorney general

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JEFFREY MACMILLAN FOR USN&WR30 U.S.News & World Report, March 28, 2005

parent willingness to move them wher-ever it’s necessary to meet the bureau’sinvestigative needs. “He’s more heartlessthan Hoover,” grumbles one supervisoryspecial agent. “He’s not overly concernedabout our personal lives.”

The failure of the Virtual Case File sys-tem, once again, offers a window onMueller’s relationship with the rank andfile. “When will the honeymoon be over?”asks one fbi official, regarding Mueller’sperceived lack of accountability in Wash-ington. “This is something you promised

us on your watch.” Many agents are angrythat the director required them to get vcftraining before the technology was ready,an edict some supervisors quietly ignored.“Maybe Mueller believed it was coming,”says an fbi official. “But most of us hadno faith in it. Many of us thought, ‘There’sno way he can’t know this.’ ”

In the battle for hearts and minds,such issues, in the end, probably countfor less than Mueller’s insistence thatfbi agents move from traditional crime-fighting work to counterterrorism in-vestigations. Some veteran agents com-plain that the fbi is losing valuablesources, expertise, and rela-tionships with police by walk-ing away from its traditionalmissions. “I think if we becomea terrific intelligence agency,we’re one of 14 others,” saysone bureau official. “If we’rethe fbi, we’re like none other.”

The fbi’s counterterrorism chief, GaryBald, says that there has been “tremen-dous rallying” around the new intelli-gence-driven priorities. “We’re not deal-ing with our father’s fbi; it’s our fbi,”he says, adding that if headquarters haserred in any way, it has been in failing totrumpet what he characterizes as themany untold counterterrorism success-es with all of the troops in the field.

Mueller understands that, in a fun-damental way, this is a battle for thesoul of the fbi. “There are always going

to be agents out there who think weought to have stayed in the war ondrugs,” Mueller says, “we shouldn’thave shifted those resources, that weought to be doing what we traditional-ly have done in a number of arenas. Itcould be bank robberies, it could begovernment fraud . . . and they’ve donethem for a period of their career, and itwill be very difficult for some of themto change.”

Tip fatigue. Some fbi officials’ objec-tions to the new counterterrorism workare more than just philosophical.Mueller has insisted that every terror-

ism tip and lead be investigated thor-oughly and aggressively. But almostnone of the many thousands of tips andleads the bureau has pursued since 9/11has resulted in criminal prosecutions,although fbi officials say they havebeen invaluable from an intelligenceperspective. “Agents want to fish in apond where there are indications offish,” says a retired agent. “That’s theproblem. How do you keep action-ori-ented people energized and focused andchallenged looking for a needle in a

haystack?” Increasing the frustration,

some fbi officials say, is thefact that, in the past year, thequality of the tips and leads re-ceived by the fbi and otheragencies has declined signifi-cantly. Many, agents say, arefalse alarms generated bypetty criminals and illegalaliens to exact revenge on ri-vals. “It’s problematic,” saysthe retired special agent. “It’svery labor intensive, and itproduces a lack of focus on ini-tiatives and forces you to be-come fundamentally reactive.”

Perhaps to address suchconcerns, or perhaps becausethe pressure from the 9/11commission has finally relent-ed, Mueller has been telling hisexecutives recently that hewants to see more cases gen-erated from the criminal divi-sion. But the director has alsomade it abundantly clear thatterrorism will always be thefbi’s No. 1 priority, and today’s

fbi agents have little choice but to ac-cept that verdict or to wait him out. In anodd way, one that many in the fbi stillobviously don’t get, Mueller’s intransi-gence may be the thing that helps theworld’s pre-eminent law-enforcementagency survive intact well into the 21stcentury. “I don’t think agents on thestreet sufficiently appreciate the impactof even one more successful attack onU.S. soil,” says the retired agent. “IfMueller did some of the things that they would like to have him do to getback to business as usual, and then therewas another domestic [terrorist] event

for which the bureau wasblamed and Mueller was firedand the bureau was disassem-bled, they’d say, ‘Damn, whathappened?’ ” l

With research assistance byCarol Hook

1ST PROOF30

N a t i o n & W o r l d

CONNECTED? Inside the Hoover Building. Technical setbacks still bedevil the FBI.

“I think he was…hopeful thesoftware was going to work.”

Zal Azmi, chief information officer, FBI