FBI REVIEW MAY HELP RESTORE OUR CONFIDENCE

Last month, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a broad review of the beleaguered FBI, aiming to reform the bureau in the wake of a series of mishaps. This announcement came as a Senate committee gathered for an oversight hearing on the bureau.

The review Ashcroft ordered will be conducted by a management committee composed of top Justice Department officials and the heads of the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The recommendations are due Jan. 1. Ashcroft charged the committee with identifying and recommending "actions dedicated to improving and upgrading the performance of the FBI."

He also wants the committee to commission a management study of the FBI to review the bureau's policies and practices.

This review will be added to studies already under way by the inspector general of the Justice Department and by an independent panel of experts headed by former FBI and CIA director William Webster.

Ashcroft's review follows a series of missteps at the FBI, including Waco, Ruby Ridge, the various spy cases and other embarrassing security lapses.

These also included the belated discovery of thousands of pages of Oklahoma City bombing evidence documents that were never turned over to lawyers for Timothy McVeigh.

(In this matter, it is worth noting that nothing in the belatedly furnished documents pointed to McVeigh's innocence, as the material tended to be the results of FBI interviews with cranks and the deranged, leading to a series of dead ends.)

In the years since the ascension to power of the Clinton administration, confidence in the FBI has been badly shaken. It is vital that that confidence be restored. The FBI will, we hope, emerge the better for all the scrutiny to which it is now being subjected.

Ashcroft should be commended for ordering these reviews, and he should be supported in his efforts to strengthen the FBI and enhance its mission. Once the reviews are completed, it will be important to take corrective action.