THE FBI SAYS, COUNT THE MOSQUES
Investigators: FBI Director Robert Mueller has launched a potentially
controversial initiative
Michael Isikoff, NEWSWEEK, 2/3/03
http://www.msnbc.com/news/864367.asp
Feb. 3 issue - Frustrated that his troops are still not aggressive enough
in hunting down terrorists, FBI Director Robert Mueller has launched a
potentially controversial initiative aimed at making sure that field agents
finally get the message-and are held accountable.
AS PART OF the effort, NEWSWEEK has learned, Mueller's top aides have
directed chiefs of the bureau's 56 field offices to develop "demographic"
profiles of their localities-including tallying the number of mosques.
Those profiles are then being used, along with other factors, to set
specific numerical goals for counter terrorism investigations and secret
national-security wiretaps in each region. Top bureau officials have
signaled that if field offices don't meet their pre-established goals, they
may be subjected to special reviews by inspection teams from headquarters.
Field offices learned of the new project earlier this month when they
received a six-page questionnaire that, in a section headlined
VULNERABILITY, asked about the number of mosques in their communities. When
FBI executive assistant director Wilson Lowery Jr. briefed congressional
staffers on the project last week, and explained that mosque tallies would
be used to help set investigative goals, "there were a lot of eyebrows that
went up," said one of those present. The approach raised concerns that the
FBI was engaging in a new form of religious "profiling."
"It's frightening to hear that this is actual policy," said Ibrahim Hooper,
spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "This just shows
how they are viewing every Islamic community in the country with suspicion…"
Mueller and his top deputies have been touring field offices and telling
agents, in no uncertain terms, they need to focus more on terrorism cases,
including developing undercover informants, and put aside less important
cases such as drug and relatively minor white-collar fraud cases. "They
don't want to hear whether we've got a great bank-robbery program going,"
said one top agent.
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