At the federal level, much law enforcement activity is concentrated in the
Department of Justice. For countering terrorism, the dominant agency under
Justice is the Federal Bureau of Investigation.The FBI does not have a general
grant of authority but instead works under specific statutory authorizations.
Most of its work is done in local offices called field offices. There are 56 of
them, each covering a specified geographic area, and each quite separate from
all others. Prior to 9/11, the special agent in charge was in general free to set
his or her office's priorities and assign personnel accordingly.
of arrests, indictments, prosecutions, and convictions. Counterterrorism and
counterintelligence work, often involving lengthy intelligence investigations
that might never have positive or quantifiable results, was not career-enhanc-
ing. Most agents who reached management ranks had little counterterrorism
experience. Second, priorities were driven at the local level by the field offices,
whose concerns centered on traditional crimes such as white-collar offenses
and those pertaining to drugs and gangs. Individual field offices made choices
to serve local priorities, not national priorities.
of an entire investigation. Because the New York Field Office indicted Bin
Ladin prior to the East Africa bombings, it became the office of origin for all
Bin Ladin cases, including the East Africa bombings and later the attack on the
USS Cole. Most of the FBI's institutional knowledge on Bin Ladin and al Qaeda
resided there.This office worked closely with the U.S.Attorney for the South-
ern District of New York to identify, arrest, prosecute, and convict many of the
perpetrators of the attacks and plots. Field offices other than the specified office
of origin were often reluctant to spend much energy on matters over which
they had no control and for which they received no credit.
Hoover to investigate foreign and foreign-inspired subversion--Communist,
Nazi, and Japanese. Hoover added investigation of possible espionage, sabotage,
or subversion to the duties of field offices. After the war, foreign intelligence
duties were assigned to the newly established Central Intelligence Agency.
Hoover jealously guarded the FBI's domestic portfolio against all rivals.
Hoover felt he was accountable only to the president, and the FBI's domestic
intelligence activities kept growing. In the 1960s, the FBI was receiving signif-
icant assistance within the United States from the CIA and from Army Intel-
ligence.The legal basis for some of this assistance was dubious.