FBI's Anti-Terror Shift: No Surprise

The folks at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University are shocked that while the FBI has added agents and intelligence analysts, its investigations--especially in terrorism cases--increasingly do not result in prosecutions by the Justice Department. Why are they surprised, exactly? As FBI officials point out, this is pretty much exactly what they promised after 9/11: that more of the agency's resources would go toward trying to identify terrorist networks and prevent attacks before they occur. The jury's still out on how well this approach is working in terms of preventing terrorism, but it's certainly no surprise that it would result in a lower percentage of investigations that result in prosecutions.