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FBI director reports on terrorism interrogations at Senate Judiciary hearing

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] FBI Director Robert Mueller addressed the FBI's role in leading the new specialized interrogation group to question top terrorist suspects as well as many other topics in a wide ranging oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mueller said that the new interrogation panel will be a "joint effort" between the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In prepared remarks, Mueller said that while "safeguarding ... national security remains primary concern," the FBI has also been making progress in other areas, such as combating white collar and violent crime. Mueller said that as of July 31, the FBI had more than 2,600 mortgage fraud cases pending, up from 1,600 cases in 2008, and that the agency has redirect resources into this area. Mueller also responded to a question about a recent Associated Press report that the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have been in conflict over each agency's responsibilities, saying that "as the inspector general points out, there are still issues." Mueller also denied that there is a proposal under consideration to strip protections from FBI whistleblowers. Last month, the New York Times reported that eight years after 9/11, counterterrorism efforts continue to dominate the operations and budget of the FBI. Since the attacks, the bureau has doubled the number of agents it assigns to counterterrorism efforts and has created specialized "threat squads" to investigate possible threats. In March, Mueller told the Judiciary Committee that the rise in financial fraud investigations is limiting the ability of the FBI to fight other crimes. In February, the FBI announced that it was looking at shifting a number of agents from national security and counter terrorism activities to investigations involving financial fraud.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).