Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force and intelligence agency which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Title 28, United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect... crimes against the United States", and other federal statutes give the FBI the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes. At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes and thus has the broadest investigative authority of any federal law enforcement agency. The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list has been used since 1949 to notify the public of wanted fugitives.

Mission

The mission of the FBI is to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local, and international agencies; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the United States Constitution. The Bureau's motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity."

Information obtained through an FBI investigation is presented to the appropriate U.S. Attorney or DOJ official, who decides if prosecution or other action is warranted. Top priority has been assigned to three areas: counterterrorism, foreign counterintelligence, and cyber crime.

Personnel

Special Agents - The force of Special Agents has grown over the years, and now exceeds 11,000 out of a total workforce of 17,000. Some of these Special Agents are stationed in foreign countries and work in U.S. Embassies as "Legal Attaches", or as they are known in the FBI: LEGATS. Both new and veteran agents are routinely trained at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
The FBI Police - The FBI also maintains a force of 1,000 uniformed Security police officers in the FBI Police for protecting the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Academy at MCB Quantico, the Washington Field Office and the New York Field Office.

Present mission of the FBI

J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Headquarters

As of June 2002, the FBI's official top priority is counterterrorism. The USA PATRIOT Act granted the FBI increased powers, especially in wiretapping and monitoring of internet activity. One of the most controversial provisions of the act is the so-called "sneak and peek" provision, granting the FBI powers to search a house while the residents are away, and not requiring them to notify the residents for several weeks afterwards. Under the PATRIOT Act's provisions the FBI also resumed inquiring into the library records of those it suspected of terrorism, something it had supposedly not done since the 1970s. The bureau is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing compliance of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating violations of The Act in addition to prosecuting such violations with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI also shares concurrent jurisdiction with the DEA in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

As of July 2005, the FBI's counterterrorism duties are to be consolidated in the new National Security Service, remotely similar to the UK's MI5.

History of the FBI

The FBI originated from a force of Special Agents created on July 26, 1908, by Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. At first it was named the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and it did not become the FBI until 1935.

Under J. Edgar Hoover, who became director of the Bureau on May 10, 1924, the agency spent much of its energy investigating political activists who were not accused of any crime (e.g., Albert Einstein as a socialist).

The FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opened on November 24, 1932.

During the 1930s, the agency played a prominent role in apprehending a number of well-known criminals who had conducted kidnappings, robberies and murders throughout the nation. These included John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, Kate "Ma" Barker, Alvin Karpis and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. It also played a decisive role in reducing the scope and influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Through the work of Edwin Atherton, the FBI claimed success in apprehending an entire army of Mexican neo-revolutionaries along the California border in the 1920's.

Beginning with the 1940s and continuing into the 1970s, the agency investigated cases of espionage against the United States and its allies. Eight Nazi agents who had planned sabotage operations against American targets were arrested.

Although Hoover initially doubted the existence of a close-knit organized crime network in the United States, the bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed by Sam Giancana and John Gotti.

Hoover's investigation of Martin Luther King was also notorious. The FBI found no evidence of any crime, but attempted to use tapes of King involved in sexual activity for blackmail. Further, the FBI sent anonymous letters to King encouraging him to commit suicide.

Also in the 1960s, the FBI carried out domestic surveillance against anti-war activists and black leaders. The work, dubbed Cointelpro, led to the destruction of lives and careers of persons involved in first amendement protected activities who somehow ran afoul of the FBI's widespread net.

Recent Controversies

The Bureau has endured public criticism and internal conflict in the past decade as it attempts both to modernize technologically and to take on a greater counter-terrorism role.

In the 1990s, it turned out that the fingerprint unit of the FBI's crime lab had repeatedly done shoddy work. In some cases, the technicians, given evidence that actually cleared a suspect, reported instead that it proved the suspect guilty. Many cases had to be reopened when this pattern of errors was discovered. It should be noted that the FBI Lab is considered to be among the premiere forensic laboratories in the world.

In 2000, the Bureau began the Trilogy project to upgrade its outdated IT infrastructure. This project, originally scheduled to take three years and cost around $380 million, ended up going far over budget and behind schedule. Efforts to deploy modern computers and networking equipment were generally successful, but attempts to develop new investigation software, outsourced to SAIC, were a disaster. Virtual Case File, or VCF, as the software was known, was plagued by poorly defined goals and repeated changes in management. In January 2005, more than two years after the software was originally planned to be completed, the Bureau officially abandoned the project. At least $100 million (and much more by some estimates) was spent on the project, which was never operational. The Bureau has been forced to continue using its decaded old Automated Case Support system, which is considered to be woefully inadequate by IT experts. In March 2005 the Bureau announced it is beginning a new, more ambitious software project code-named Sentinel, expected to be completed by 2009.

In February 2001, Robert Hanssen was caught selling information to the Russians. It was later learned that Hanssen, who had reached a high position within the Bureau, had been selling intelligence since as early as 1979. He pleaded guilty to treason and received a life sentence in 2002, but the incident led many to question the security practices employed by the Bureau.

The 9/11 Commission, in its final report in July 22, 2004, stated that the FBI and CIA were both partially to blame for not pursuing intelligence reports which could have prevented the September 11, 2001 attacks. In its most damning assessment, the report concluded that the country had "not been well served" by either agency and listed numerous recommendations for changes within the Bureau. While the Bureau has acceded to most of the recommendations, including oversight by the new Director of National Intelligence, some former members of the 9/11 Commission publicly criticized the Bureau in October 2005, claiming it was resisting any meaningful changes.

Bureau of Investigation (BOI) Directors (1908–35)

Stanley Finch (1908–12)
A. Bruce Bielaski (1912–19)
Acting director: William E. Allen (1919)
William J. Flynn (1919–21)
William J. Burns (1921–24)
J. Edgar Hoover (1924–72)