Mueller: National security is FBI focus
In testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director, Robert Mueller, emphasized, “In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, counterterrorism became our top priority, and it remains our top priority today. Indeed, our top three priorities – counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber security – are national security related.”
These are not the only priorities pushed by every Senator. As reported in this morning’s New York Times, “At issue is whether the country is well served by assigning nearly half of the F.B.I.’s 12,000 agents to terrorism and intelligence work, as has been the case since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. That debate has gained steam since the economic crisis, with lawmakers and others criticizing the F.B.I. as not putting enough resources into bank, mortgage and securities fraud, and pointing out that some of the most significant actions have been taken by state prosecutors, rather than federal ones.”
Mueller agreed that the FBI has a role to play in investigation of financial and securities fraud. “While the FBI is surging to mortgage fraud investigations, our expectation is that economic crimes will continue to skyrocket.” (Read more from ABC News.)
But the FBI Director tried to redirect most of his answers back to the terrorist threat and the need to renew the Patriot Act. According to the Washington Post, “Mueller told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee he hopes that the reauthorization of two provisions would be far less controversial than in previous years. One of those provisions, which helps authorities secure access to business records, ‘has been exceptionally helpful in our national security investigations,’ he said. In response to a question from Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), Mueller said that his agents had used the provision about 220 times between 2004 and 2007. Data for last year were not yet available, he said. The measure allows investigators probing terrorism to seek a suspect’s records from third parties such as financial services and travel and telephone companies without notifying the suspect.”
