By Lara Jakes Jordan
The Associated Press
Wednesday December 6, 2006
Senators frustrated by scant details on the Bush administration's
domestic eavesdropping program on Wednesday rapped FBI Director
Robert Mueller for refusing to show how it has curbed terrorist
activity in the United States.
Mueller said he was unable to talk about the warrantless spying
program because it is classified.
"What assurances can you provide that the program is
worthwhile?" asked Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter,
R-Pa. "Have arrests been made? Have terror cells been
broken?"
The FBI has briefed congressional intelligence committees
on the controversial program, but Mueller said he did not have
permission to share that information with other lawmakers -
including the judiciary panels that oversee the bureau.
"I am prepared to brief whichever committee, to the extent
that I am allowed to," he said.
In his opening remarks, Mueller ticked off a list of FBI cases
targeting terror suspects since the 2001 attacks. They included
the so-called "Lackawanna Six" who allegedly attended
al-Qaida training camps; an Ohio truck driver who plotted to
attack the Brooklyn Bridge; and four men charged with planning
to hit synagogues and U.S. and Israeli facilities in the Los
Angeles area.
But Mueller did not say if any of the cases resulted from
the secret spying program, which was revealed last year. His
answer annoyed senators, who said their constitutionally protected
oversight was being hampered by the administration's stonewalling.
"When done poorly or without proper safeguards and oversight,
data banks do not make us safer, they just further erode Americans'
privacy and civil liberties," said Sen. Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., the panel's incoming chairman. He said the administration "has
gone to unprecedented lengths to hide its own activities from
the public, while at the same time collecting and compiling
unprecedented amounts of information about every citizen."
Later, Mueller also said the FBI could better fight terrorists
if authorities had stronger subpoena power to determine if
threats are valid, and if search and surveillance tools granted
by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court could be
expanded.
His appearance marked a long-delayed hearing for senators
eager to hear about the FBI's progress on terror investigations,
including a 5-year probe into the deadly anthrax attacks. Mueller
declined comment on specifics of the case. He was also scolded
by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for ranking violent crime
prevention as less of a priority than public corruption and
organized crime cases.
"Gangs are killing more people in this country than organized
crime ever did," Feinstein said. "And that's just
a fact."
Responding, Mueller said that if the FBI didn't go after crooked
public officials and organized crime cases, "it will not
be investigated." He called public corruption cases the
FBI's "top criminal investigative priority," noting
that more than 1,000 government employees have been convicted
over the last two years with the FBI's help.
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