As FBI fights terrorism, other prosecutions drop

FBI mission change brought 30 percent fewer cases to court since 9/11, including drug, organized-crime, and white-collar crime charges.

from the June 21, 2007 edition

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New York - Since 9/11, the number of criminal prosecutions the US Justice Department credits to the Federal Bureau of Investigation has dropped by more than 30 percent. Among the steepest declines: white-collar crime, drug prosecutions, and organized crime.

The data reflect a fundamental shift in the mission of the FBI, from primarily a law-enforcement agency dedicated to investigating crime to an intelligence and counterterrorism one dedicated to preventing attacks on the US. The numbers show the extent of that transformation, raising concern in some quarters about the strength of crime-fighting in America and the FBI's enhanced surveillance powers.

In 2001, the Justice Department credited almost 19,000 prosecutions to the FBI. In 2006, the bureau was credited with 12,700, according to an analysis of Justice Department data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University in New York. During that same five-year period, terrorism prosecutions rose 26 percent, but they account for a small fraction of the FBI's cases and have dropped in number since peaking in 2002.

FBI officials declined to discuss the TRAC data specifically. But they note there hasn't been a terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. They also point to FBI successes in infiltrating potential terror cells, such as the recent foiling of alleged plots to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The drop in traditional prosecutions is simply the opportunity cost associated with such a significant shift of FBI priorities, say some former agents and law-enforcement analysts. Still, the drop in prosecutions is alarming to some observers.

"I don't pick up the business section every day of the week that I don't see some kind of shenanigans going on in the business sector," says Lee Hamilton, vice chair of the 9/11 commission. "There's an awful lot of malfeasance in this country at high levels: You've got drug dealers, and ordinary criminals, and all the rest, and they need to be prosecuted."

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