Embarrassed By Earlier Abuses, Fbi Reluctant To Spy Domestically

Authorities identified suspects in the Oklahoma City tragedy with impressive speed, but the FBI initially may have been caught flatfooted when it learned that domestic bombers were involved, experts say.

Strict limits on how federal agencies can infiltrate groups and use other surveillance tools on Americans prevented the FBI from compiling much information on the militias that have been springing up throughout the nation in the past few years, according to law enforcement and terrorism experts.

“It’s taken everybody by surprise,” said Joe Conley, a retired FBI agent who taught terrorism at the bureau’s training academy until last year.

“We were not aware of any (illegal) activity nor were we allowed to look for any activity,” Conley said of the militia groups and the policy limitations.

President Clinton announced new counterterrorism proposals Wednesday, including hiring an additional 1,000 FBI agents, prosecutors and other federal law enforcement officials and creating a central counterterrorism bureau under the direction of the FBI.

But in the 1970s and early 1980s investigative limits were put in place after FBI abuses came to light. The COINTELPRO or counterintelligence program - targeted anti-war and civil rights groups.

In many of those cases the FBI went too far, committing break-ins, unwarranted spying and other crimes against civil liberties. A Senate investigation exposed many such FBI abuses in 1975, leading Attorney General Edward Levi to impose guidelines restricting FBI spying on domestic groups.

The Reagan administration relaxed those guidelines in 1983. But about the same time, Congress pummeled the agency again following disclosure of FBI harassment of the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador and other groups that were protesting U.S. intervention in Central America.

The restrictions bar domestic investigations unless a crime has been committed or the agency has proof that one is imminent. Critics say that means the agency has to wait until there is “blood on the street” before it can act.

One result of all this was a culture change inside the FBI, analysts say. The FBI declined to comment for this story.

“I don’t have any doubt there have been some investigations that the bureau has not undertaken for fear it would be criticized, a la the 1970s,” said Joseph di Genova, a lawyer who helped draft the 1976 guidelines for FBI investigations.

That is certainly the conclusion drawn by abortion rights activists.

“We have 40 bombings against women’s health centers since 1978. We’re still trying to figure out if any have been solved. What does that tell you?” said Susan Lamontagne, vice president for Planned Parenthood.

But some experts say the FBI reluctance to spy on domestic groups is understandable.

“Politicians come and go but the FBI is always there. They have a memory,” said Robert Blakey, a veteran congressional aide who worked closely with the FBI and now teaches law at Notre Dame University.

“Their institutional memory is that these kinds of situations are no-win situations.”