Robert S. Mueller

BI Director Robert Mueller has been on the hot seat almost since his first day on the job. Just one week after Mueller took office on September 4, 2001, the bureau's top priority shifted from domestic crime-solving to protecting the United States from another terrorist attack. The ex-marine was called upon to lead perhaps the most sweeping reorganization of the FBI since the bureau's creation at the turn of the 20th century, a reorganization that included the massive overhaul of the agency's antiquated computer technology.

The effort to create a terrorism database-considered essential to enabling the bureau to, in Mueller's words, "connect the dots" to prevent attacks-is significantly over budget and behind schedule. Mueller also faces the daunting task of engineering other sea changes in the bureau's culture, such as devolving decision-making authority for launching investigations into potential terrorist groups and sharing intelligence with the CIA. He recently won praise for his efforts on this front from none other than Coleen Rowley, the Minneapolis agent and whistle-blower who in 2002 publicized headquarters' refusal to allow Minneapolis agents to search the computer of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui weeks before the September 11 attacks.

Born in New York City and raised in Philadelphia, Mueller, 58, graduated from Princeton University and holds a master's degree in international relations from New York University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. His long public service career includes stints in the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Northern District of California, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia. He also served as assistant attorney general and head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division in the first Bush administration, and he was acting deputy attorney general in the current Bush administration before becoming FBI director.