FBI given broad pwer to monitor churches, libraries, Internet

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday gave the FBI broad new authority to monitor Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations, calling restrictions on domestic spying "a competitive advantage for terrorists."

Ashcroft, joined at a news conference by FBI Director Robert Mueller, claimed the bureau's agents had been hampered by a range of bureaucratic restrictions. Under present guidelines, Ashcroft said, agents "cannot surf the Web, the way you and I can," and cannot simply walk into public events to observe people and activities.

The new guidelines give FBI agents more freedom to investigate terrorism even when they are not pursuing a particular case.

President Bush welcomed the overhaul. "The FBI needed to change. It was an organization full of fine people who loved America but the organization didn't meet the times," he said before the guidelines were announced to the public.

Mueller said the changes "will be exceptionally helpful to us."

"Our reforms of the FBI will and must strengthen our ability to prevent future terrorist attacks," the FBI director said.

But the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the loosening of restrictions on domestic spying, saying they could roll back protections and renew abuses of the past.

Under existing rules, FBI agents are not allowed to do general research on the Internet or at public libraries unless the information sought directly relates to a current investigation or to leads being checked out.

The new policy, which does not require congressional approval, removes these obstacles.

Ashcroft said agents in the field "are frustrated because many of our internal restrictions have hampered" their efforts to move quickly on investigations.

Among the changes announced Thursday is one that would permit the special agents in charge of FBI field offices to undertake investigations with less red tape from Washington.

"These major changes will free field agents to pursue terrorists vigorously without waiting for headquarters to act," he said.

The changes are part of a wide-ranging FBI reorganization that follows harsh criticism of the bureau's handling of information that, in some cases, apparently was available before terrorists struck Sept. 11.

Asked whether the change would lead to a rollback of hard-won civil-liberties protections, Ashcroft said the powers would be used only "for the purpose of detecting and preventing terrorism."

"It's not to be abused for other purposes," he said.

Ashcroft said nothing in the guidelines would permit the FBI to routinely build files on people or organizations.

"The abuses that have been alleged about the FBI decades ago ... would not be allowed," he said, referring to the practice of keeping files and records on prominent figures.

The new rules allow agents to conduct "general topical research" and "pure surfing" designed to find Web sites, chat rooms or Internet bulletin boards with information about terror, bomb-making instructions, child pornography or stolen credit cards.

Bush, speaking about the changes in advance of the formal announcement, said: "We intend to honor our Constitution and respect the freedoms that we hold so dear."

At the same time, Bush said, "We want to make sure we do everything we can to prevent a further attack, to protect America."

Laura W. Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington national office, said that by easing the restrictions, "the government is rewarding failure."

"When the government fails -- as it increasingly appears to have done before Sept. 11 -- the Bush administration's response is to give itself new powers rather than seriously investigating why the failures occurred," she said.

Ashcroft said a principal goal of the changes is to allow agents in the field to act on "puzzle pieces." The bureau has been attacked for failing to act on a memo from an agent in the Phoenix office suggesting that FBI headquarters conduct a national search of Middle Eastern men who were taking flight training in the United States prior to Sept. 11.

On Wednesday, Mueller suggested for the first time that investigators might have detected the terrorist plot if they had pursued leads more diligently.

His acknowledgment of serious lapses prior to Sept. 11 came amid fresh disclosures of what could be missed hints about threats from suicide hijackings, including efforts by an unidentified Middle Eastern country to buy a commercial flight simulator.

"The jury is still out on all of it," Mueller said Wednesday at FBI headquarters. "Looking at it right now, I can't say for sure it would not have, that there wasn't a possibility that we could have come across some lead that would have led us to the hijackers."