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American Morning

Former Director Discusses FBI Overhaul

Aired March 20, 2002 - 08:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, al Qaeda may be down, but it's far from out. And as the head of the CIA told Congress yesterday, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups still pose a very real threat to Americans. Because of danger present here at home, the FBI is talking about switching gears and making terrorism its top priority. In a matter of days, FBI Director Robert Mueller is expected to present the bureau's new blueprint, a large reorganization which is designed to de-emphasize traditional crime fighting and focus more closely on countering terrorism in the United States and overseas.

Buck Revell is a former associate deputy director of the FBI. He's been involved in the discussions concerning that overhaul and he joins us this morning from Dallas, Texas.

Mr. Revell, nice to have you with us.

BUCK REVELL, FORMER FBI ASSOCIATE DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Good morning.

CAFFERTY: What will be the most profound pieces of this reorganization and shift in emphasis when we finally see the final product?

REVELL: Well, back in 1980 the FBI actually named terrorism as one of four national priorities. At the time it was organized crime, the counterintelligence, white collar crime and then terrorism was added as a fourth national priority.

I believe as a result of September 11 and the continuing terrorist threat that Director Mueller is very likely to name terrorism as the first priority of the FBI and probably have to shift some resources from other lesser priorities into the ongoing campaign against terrorism, particularly the prevention of acts of terrorism in the United States.

CAFFERTY: Now, if that happens, will the burden of domestic crime fighting, i.e., white collar crime, organized crime, those more traditional things that you just mentioned, will that burden fall more on local and state law enforcement agencies or are there other federal resources that'll be brought to bear there?

REVELL: Well, both. I think that certain types of cases will be diverted to other federal agencies, such as ATF, Secret Service, the Marshals' Service. And I also think that some types of crime, such as carjackings and nonviolent bank robberies, other types of so-called property or violent crime will be deferred back to state authorities, which have always had concurrent jurisdiction.

I don't believe that the FBI will de-emphasize organized crime, drug trafficking, white collar crime and particularly cyber crimes. I believe it'll come from the general criminal and background investigative resources.

CAFFERTY: One of the earliest and harshest criticisms of the status quo in this country following the events of September 11 was a perceived breakdown in intelligence on the part of the United States. The critics were saying we should have known, we should have had people on the ground that would have given us a heads up that this kind of thing was imminent. Since then, the FBI has deployed additional agents overseas. I know they're active in Afghanistan and down at Guantanamo, where they're doing interrogations on some of the detainees.

Give us a sense of the number of agents that are deployed perhaps overseas and where, besides the obvious places, Guantanamo and Afghanistan, that Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel may find themselves.

REVELL: Well, now there's a difference between FBI agents deployed overseas on a regular and continuous basis. Those are in legal attache offices and those are publicly declared offices which are for the specific purpose of liaison. They do not collect intelligence, they collect information from counterpart agencies in country.

Now, when there is an incident or an ongoing situation such as in Afghanistan or at Guantanamo, then field agents are deployed to conduct interrogations and to debrief detainees on a thorough and continuing basis. The investigation of the bombings in Yemen or the bombing in Yemen and in Saudi Arabia are other examples of investigative personnel being deployed overseas.

But the FBI actually really requires and obtains most of its intelligence from the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. intelligence services and cooperating foreign intelligence agencies and from cooperating law enforcement agencies where the liaison is conducted by the Bureau's legal attaches.

CAFFERTY: All right, Mr. Revell, I appreciate you visiting with us this morning. We'll look forward to the release of that report a little bit later.

Buck Revell, a former associate deputy director of the FBI, joining us this morning from Dallas. Thanks very much.

REVELL: Thank you, Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, sir.

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