MISSTEPS CAST MORE BAD LIGHT ON THE FBI

The latest in a string of missteps by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has government watchdogs calling for a change in the make-the-bureau-look-good attitude among agents.

Well, they should. Something has to change.

The latest embarrassment has to do with the worst tragedy in the nation's recent history: the death of 168 men, women and children in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal office building in Oklahoma City.

How relieved we were to see Timothy McVeigh arrested two days later, indicted along with co-conspirator Terry Nichols less than four months later and then convicted on all 11 murder and conspiracy counts.

And many among them those wounded but not killed in the bombing were relieved to see McVeigh sentenced to death.

They were also gratified that Attorney General John Ashcroft arranged a televised execution for all the victims' families who want to watch.

And now the most recent misstep:

The FBI didn't turn over more than 3,000 documents to McVeigh's defense team.

FBI director Louis Freeh said the field offices had been asked repeatedly to turn over the documents, mostly transcripts of interviews and pictures of evidence gathered in the early stages of the investigation.

But it took until May 10, a week before the scheduled execution, for the FBI to come clean. Freeh apologized. But that's too little, too late.

Now McVeigh, who confessed to authors of a book about him that he alone was responsible for the bombing and termed the children killed "collateral damage," is reconsidering whether he really wants to die.

Ashcroft delayed the execution until June 11 while the matter is sorted out, so the agony of waiting continues for survivors.

There's no doubt McVeigh is guilty. But the FBI has again opened the door to questions of its capabilities.

The last time was with Wen Ho Lee, fired last year by Los Alamos National Laboratory and then indicted on 59 federal felonies for improperly transferring nuclear secrets to portable computer tapes. He later pleaded guilty to one count and was set free. The judge apologized, but FBI officials maintain they were right to arrest Lee.

And then there was the Richard Jewell debacle in 1996. The simple, heroic Olympic security guard was the first to alert authorities to an unattended backpack. He helped move people away, preventing more injuries in a pipe bomb blast that killed one and wounded 111 others. The FBI completely tore Jewell's life apart before prosecutors handed him a letter clearing him.

Sadly, there are numerous other examples. The agency simply can't afford another error of this magnitude.