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FBI monitors Americans with Iraqi ties
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- In preparation for a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq, the FBI has been monitoring activities of people associated with that country, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Monday. "We have undertaken a look at individuals who may be associated with Iraq," Mueller told reporters after a visit to the Atlanta field office where he congratulated agents for their work in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "And, by a 'look' I mean we look closely at any potential there might be for assistance or support of acts or activities within the United States," Mueller said. In preparation for a possible war with Iraq, FBI field offices have also "reached out to the Muslim community," Mueller said. "I want to make absolutely clear that the Muslim communities throughout the United States ... have been terrifically supportive of our desire, our work, at preventing additional terrorist attacks," Mueller said. Should a U.S.-led attack on Iraq take place, the FBI director said "we'll reach out to such communities to be helpful in terms of identifying potential threats." At the same time, Mueller said, the agency would investigate reports of attacks on Muslims or Arab-Americans as possible civil rights violations. The response from the Muslim community, he said, "has been tremendously supportive and helpful; 99.9 percent of Muslims in the United States ... are Americans and are as patriotic, if not more patriotic, than anybody else in this room, and we shouldn't forget that." Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the agency has beefed up its ability to target terrorists within the United States. "We have upgraded our capabilities to protect against such attacks and we have, without getting into the details, a number of plans in the works to be able to identify any individuals who might wish to undertake terrorist activities, in case there is some sort of action in Iraq," he said. Some of those changes have been effected by reassigning agents from other programs to address counterterrorism, Mueller said. Under the proposed Department of Homeland Security, responsibility for domestic intelligence-gathering would remain with the FBI, he said. But the attacks caught the FBI flat-footed and stirred sharp criticism, leading it to shift focus from criminal investigations to intelligence gathering. Mueller said the change has been felt throughout the agency. "I think there isn't an FBI agent or support staff individual now that does not understand that the principal mission of the FBI today is to prevent another repeat of September 11," he said. The international nature of the attacks also prompted the FBI to take a fresh look at how responsibilities are shared with the CIA, he said. "In this day and age, borders have not necessarily been removed, but are not as important as they were in the past," he said. "By that, I mean in the past the FBI looked within the United States, and the CIA has looked without the United States." The fact that the September 11 plot was hatched in Afghanistan, Germany and Malaysia means the old way of dividing duties no longer applies, he said. To accomplish that, nearly 30 CIA intelligence officers are working at the FBI and a number of FBI agents are working at the CIA, he said.
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