The Secrets of the FBI
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In an audit, Justice Department inspector General Glenn A. Fine found deficiencies associated with 22 of the 293 national security letters he examined from 2003 to 2005. In some cases, the letters were issued after the authorized investigation period, or an agent had accidentally transposed digits in the telephone number of a person under investigation.
Fine specifically found that the FBI had not intentionally violated any rules. He determined that, with the exception of situations where the recipient made an error, the FBI in most cases had obtained information to which it was, in fact, entitled.
By the time the report came out, Mueller had taken steps to correct the problems, including installing a Web-based data system to keep better track of national security letters and instituting new review processes and additional training.
“I did not know that we were not following the appropriate administrative protocols to make certain that we were dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s to obtain those records,” Mueller says.
Mueller’s biggest failure was the FBI’s case management computer system, which was supposed to replace paper files. Like most government agencies, instead of beginning with off-the-shelf software, the FBI decided it had to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. The FBI never had a clear idea of what it wanted and kept changing its requirements.
In December 2008, Mueller hired Chad Fulgham as the FBI’s new chief information officer. “We had three hundred twenty FBI people working on the program,” Fulgham says. “I had never heard of that. There were too many cooks in the kitchen.”
Fulgham streamlined the procurement operation and halted development while key issues were straightened out. He expected the kinks to be worked out so that the system would be fully operational by the end of 2011.
“With the first go-round on the virtual case file system, I didn’t ask the hard questions,” Mueller says. “With the latest iteration, the problems did not come to my attention until the contractor was due to give us the fully operational phase two of the system. I’m pretty comfortable that we’re on the right path now.”
That failure aside, Mueller successfully turned the FBI around to make it a powerful weapon against terrorism. Every few months, the FBI announces new arrests of terrorists. In many cases, instead of waiting years to nail them with terrorism-related charges, the FBI will charge terrorists with lesser crimes that put them away for years or result in deportations. At the same time, no abuse—meaning an illegal or politically motivated act—was ever found during Mueller’s tenure.
Unlike J. Edgar Hoover and William Sessions, Mueller never used his position improperly. Unlike Louis Freeh, Mueller never presided over fiascoes that undermined FBI investigations and credibility. While William Webster improved FBI investigations of spies and the Mafia, no director since Hoover has had a greater positive impact on the bureau than Mueller.
Because of Hoover’s abuses, Congress in 1968 enacted a law requiring that future FBI directors be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Their terms were limited to ten years. Mueller is the first director to serve all ten years of his term. He served longer than any FBI director except Hoover.
Prior to the expiration of his term in September 2011, at President Obama’s request, Mueller agreed to a two-year extension of his term to be approved by Congress. Mueller was said to be shocked that he had been asked to stay beyond the ten-year term. After considering it for several days, he agreed to continue.
Within the FBI, some agents were unhappy because they had hoped that a new director would rescind Mueller’s policy of requiring supervisors in the field to transfer to headquarters after seven years or give up their supervisory status. As in any organization, some agents think first of their own well-being and second about the organization as a whole. But most agents looked at the bigger picture and credited Mueller with the FBI’s success at rolling up plots and keeping the country safe since 9/11.
When I first interviewed Mueller six months after he took office, his black hair was just beginning to gray. Today it is silvery. He still has ramrod-straight posture. I asked him what advice he had for future FBI directors.
“Learn the organization,” Mueller says. “You’re not going to find a more patriotic, dedicated, hardworking, knowledgeable professional organization to be a part of. Ask very hard questions, and then surround yourself with competent and capable people.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My wife, Pamela Kessler, is my partner in writing and in life. A former Washington Post reporter and author of Undercover Washington, about the spy sites of the nation’s capital, Pam accompanied me on key interviews at FBI headquarters, the FBI Academy, the Washington field office, and the FBI Laboratory. She contributed vivid descriptions that are the best writing in the book. She then preedited the manuscript. I am fortunate to have her love, wise judgment, and unwavering support.
I am grateful for the love and support of my grown children, Rachel and Greg Kessler. My stepson, Mike Whitehead, is a loyal and endearing part of that team.
As with my previous book, In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect, Mary Choteborsky, publishing manager at Crown, contributed excellent suggestions and edited the final manuscript brilliantly. When it comes to book publishing, Mary and her team are without peer.
I am lucky to have my agent, Robert Gottlieb, chairman of Trident Media, on my side. Since 1991, Robert has guided my book-writing career and has been a source of staunch support and wisdom.
The FBI gave me unprecedented access for this book. I am grateful to FBI director Robert S. Mueller III. Michael Kortan, assistant FBI director for public affairs, and Susan McKee in FBI Public Affairs went out of their way to help.
The Society of Former FBI Agents made available its collection of one hundred thirty-five oral histories with agents going back to the Rudolf Abel case. I am grateful to Sean McWeeney and Craig Dotlo.
Hundreds of current or former FBI agents contributed their experiences and shared their insights for this book. They have my appreciation.
Few know as many secrets as Arthur M. “Art” Cummings II, chief of the FBI’s national security investigations. Photo courtesy of Arthur M. Cummings II
For twelve years, FBI executive assistant director Louis E. Grever was what he calls a “government-sanctioned burglar,” planting bugs in homes and offices of Mafia figures, terrorists, corrupt members of Congress, spies, and foreign intelligence officers. If caught, he could have been shot as an intruder. FBI photo
At the Engineering Research Facility at Quantico, Virginia, agents arrange wiretaps of phone conversations and make custom-designed bugging and tracking devices, sensors, and surveillance cameras to watch and record targets. The facility is the heart of the FBI’s TacOps program for deploying teams of agents to break into homes, offices, and embassies to plant bugs. FBI photo
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, right, had a spousal relationship with his deputy, Clyde Tolson, left. He vacationed with him and left his estate to him. AP photo
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy borrowed the personal car of William Simon, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles field office, to secretly see Marilyn Monroe just before her suicide. AP photo
FBI agents found that Hillary Clinton’s humiliation of White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr., who was already depressed, triggered his decision to commit suicide a week later. AP/White House photo
Agent Mike Rochford, who successfully pitched a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) source who gave up
FBI spy Robert Hanssen. FBI photo
The FBI gave a source in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) a package worth seven million dollars to reveal a spy who turned out to be FBI agent Robert Hanssen. FBI photo
Karl Koecher, a mole in the CIA, and his wife, Hana, attended sex orgies to obtain information for the KGB until the FBI arrested them for espionage and sent them back to Prague.
Ronald Kessler photo
To conform with local restrictions, FBI headquarters is seven stories tall on the Pennsylvania Avenue side; to the rear, it rises eleven stories. FBI photo
Agent Cynthia Deitle pursues Ku Klux Klan members who killed blacks as far back as the 1960s. FBI photo
The swap of Russian spies was a good deal for the United States, says John L. Martin, chief of the Justice Department’s counterespionage section, who prosecuted seventy-six spies. Russia tried to include Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames in the swap. Ronald Kessler photo
At the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, agent trainees undergo 116 hours of firearms training. FBI photo
Agent trainees receive 176 hours of training in investigative skills at the FBI Academy. FBI photo
A possible “WMD attack or attacks on planes in various ways” keeps FBI director Robert S. Mueller III awake at night. FBI photo