FBI empowered to conduct broader investigations

FBI officials will be free to engage in investigations of political, religious and Internet activity irrespective of whether agents have reason to believe suspects are engaging in crimes, according to Justice Department guidelines implemented Thursday.

Attorney General John Ashcroft described the changes as necessary steps to unleash law enforcement officials to roam freely in public places, as well as on the Web, for the purpose of conducting counter-terrorism investigations.

FBI agents "cannot surf the Web in the same way that you or I do," Ashcroft said, describing the situation under the old guidelines. "Nor can they walk into public events or public places to observe ongoing activities. There is no clear authority to use commercial data services that any business in America is authorized to use. This is a competitive advantage for terrorists."

"We understand that we need to rigorously conform to constitutional and statutory protections in the conduct of our investigations," FBI Director Robert Mueller added. "And under these revised guidelines, we will continue to do so."

The relaxation of the rules, announced in a press conference at Justice one day after the FBI said it would restructure its activity to permit greater information-sharing within intelligence agencies, is the first major change in the investigative guidelines since they were imposed after revelations of the FBI's political spying in the period before the Watergate scandal.

But Justice officials said the rules had become outdated. By forbidding FBI agents from investigating without a reasonable suspicion, they argued that the old guidelines had hampered the investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, the Algerian suspect accused of collaborating with the al Qaeda network in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

They also said the guidelines did not change existing Fourth Amendment standards that required police to have probable cause that a suspect has or is about to engage in criminal activity, or is a member of a foreign terrorist organization.

Civil liberties and privacy groups denounced the new guidelines, and some are seeking congressional oversight of their constitutionality.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the changes would diminish freedom without enhancing safety. Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU national office, said the original guidelines "were put in place after the FBI illegally spied on and persecuted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other political dissidents," and she highlighted the group's report on the FBI's surveillance of King.

"If you begin to target people based on political belief or religious association that is not criminal, then you open your door to a type of policing function that is anathema to the American Constitution," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"After passage of the [2001 anti-terrorism law], this is the most serious challenge to civil liberties since the 9/11 attacks," he added.

But some civil liberties advocates said the hubbub is over-dramatized. "Law-enforcement monitoring of public places is simply good, proactive police work that violates the rights of no one," said Roger Pilon, vice president of legal affairs at the Cato Institute.