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American Morning

FBI Faces Another Embarrassment

Aired July 18, 2001 - 11:01   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to begin though with the FBI, in another embarrassing spot right now. The crime agency says it can't account for hundreds of computers and firearms, essential tools of the trade. Attorney General John Ashcroft may be addressing this new FBI bungle this hour. Congress is talking about it, too.

Our justice correspondent, Kelli Arena joins us now. The agency's going to try and get out on this before it hangs out the under new management sign for the FBI, Kelli?

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Leon.

Well, the Senate Judiciary Committee is right now holding a hearing on FBI management. Now that hearing was scheduled before this latest revelation concerning missing FBI weapons and computers. The chairman of that committee, Patrick Leahy, said he is upset about the latest news out of the bureau, calling it another example of serious management problems at the Bureau.

Here's what happened. The FBI yesterday told the Justice Department that hundreds of laptops and weapons are missing, the result of an extensive four-week inventory search. Now specifically 449 weapons are missing, including machine guns, rifles, and pistols.

And at least one of those weapons has been used in a homicide. Also missing are 184 laptop computers. One contains classified information and we're told that three others may also contain sensitive information. Now to put that in some context, that is only about 1 percent of the total number of weapons and computers that the FBI uses but nonetheless, Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered a department-wide review of inventory controls and he issued this statement.

"The department must ensure the highest standards for the inventory and accounting of law enforcement equipment issued to department employees and agents."

One FBI official says the equipment is missing for a variety of reasons. Either it was misplaced when lent out for training programs or not returned after agents retired, but some of it has also been stolen. Leon?

HARRIS: Well, Kelli, we know we have been monitoring these different incidents that have considered as embarrassments to the FBI, going all the way back to the Robert Hanssen spy case there.

ARENA: That's right.

HARRIS: How big of an embarrassment is to be considered then?

ARENA: Well, if you put -- this is not the first time that inventory has been missing. And it's not only the Bureau that's missing inventory.

Back in March, the Inspector General's office issued report saying the INS had also been missing more than 500 weapons. So to put this in context, as I said, this is less than 1 percent. However, as you said, Leon, this comes after the document fiasco, the Timothy McVeigh, the late turning over of those documents, the Robert Hanssen situation, the fact that they had agent who was selling classified investigative material to a private eye just a few months ago. So this is just one black eye after another.

And of course, it comes just as former FBI director Louis Freeh stepped down. And we have a new nomination for Robert Mueller to take over the reins. And so, I think that Congress here is sensing an opportunity -- a window of opportunity to get in and make some changes.

There have been calls for possibly an Inspector General's office within the FBI. Attorney general John Ashcroft tried to head off that just last week by creating broader powers for the Inspector General's office within the Justice Department to conduct investigations of the Bureau of its own free will. That may not hold over though and may not convince members of Congress that that is enough. The pressure is on, the spotlight is on. And it just does not help that we get one revelation after another, week after week, Leon.

HARRIS: Well, is there the sense that you get from the people you talk to about which is the bigger issue here, the loss of the laptop computers which had classified information or the loss of all the weapons which may include some submachine guns?

ARENA: Well, Leon, you have to again put it in context. Some of these weapons are missing because they were -- agents had retired and just didn't give them back. Or they were lent out to local police forces for training programs and it just didn't make their way back in.

We have to determine here how much of this -- these weapons may actually be in existence within law enforcement environments, but may have just not been turned over or properly documented back at the FBI field offices.

HARRIS: Got you.

ARENA: But I think the most important thing that seems to be of most concern here on Capitol Hill is the laptop computers, because it's the sensitive information.

Now, the one laptop computer that we know about had information regarding two closed investigations, although the FBI would not characterize what types of investigations those were. But as I mentioned earlier, Leon, you have three other laptop computers that are also missing, that could also contain sensitive information. It's exactly what kind of information, if it's intelligence information or counterterrorism information, what kind of information was on those computers. That's what Congress wants to know and that's why the A.G. has ordered this broad review.

HARRIS: Yes, well, we may not learn what exactly all those things are all about and what was in those, kind of those laptops, but we do expect to hear Mr. Ashcroft come out any moment now. We're keeping our eye -- we've got a picture right now set up from that room where the press conference is happening. And you can see there.

Oops, that was the press conference shot. It is not anymore, as you can see. But as you can see, that room is not filled up yet and the Attorney General has not entered. But Kelli, we'll be getting back to you and to that press conference once it gets under way. So please stay with us folks. Kyra?

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, while we're waiting for that, Leon, we're going to talk about the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll. It shows confidence in the FBI is eroding. Here's Gallup poll editor in chief, Frank Newport in the Princeton studio.

Now Frank, we want to point out this poll was done before the news about the missing computers and guns. Correct?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: That's correct. This poll was done last week, of course after the Hanssen revelations and the botched evidence in the McVeigh case. Kind of a mixed bag here is what our interpretation of the data were.

We asked favorable, unfavorable on a 10 point sale. We collapsed them. 70 percent still say, of Americans, they have a favorable opinion of the FBI -- about a quarter down here in the unfavorable quadrant.

Notice however, that just 27 percent who say very favorable. Now that's important, because we can take you back in history to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. This is what the FBI used to be.

Now he died in 1972. This is back in 1965 when he was still head. Look at that. 84 percent of Americans, a strongly favorable opinion at that point of the FBI. That actually started eroding here during the Watergate era. And, of course, we just showed you, it's down even further. Now, nowhere near where they were.

Local law enforcement agencies do a lot better. This is a confidence question. Do you have quite a lot of confidence, quite a lot, a great deal of confidence in these agencies? Look at this. State and local police up at the 60 percent high confidence level, the FBI way down at 38 percent, but to put it in context the CIA's actually lower than the FBI. So that's not a great mark. All in all our bottom line here is that there's still support on the part of the American people for the FBI but clearly, it's not nearly what it was in the past. And as you mentioned, Kyra, when we do continued polling, we may find even further erosion if nothing's done to kind of stop these kinds of events. Kyra, Leon, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Frank.

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