FBI TO SHIFT FOCUS FROM DRUG CRIME TO ANTI-TERRORISM

*400 Agents To Be Reassigned; 'Flying Squads' To Be On Call

*Agency To Form Closer Links To CIA, Set Up Office Of Intelligence

*New Guidelines Put More Decision-making Power In The Field

WASHINGTON -- FBI Director Robert Mueller will announce a reorganization of
the FBI today that envisions a major retreat from the agency's past
commitment to fighting drug crime as it focuses on preventing future
terrorist attacks, sources in the Justice Department and Congress said.

The shift, which includes moving 400 agents out of anti-drug work, is aimed
at bolstering the bureau's counterterrorism operations, including improving
the agency's ability to analyze intelligence and the creation of "flying
squads" of agents, who would be on call to pursue terrorism investigations
around the world.

Mueller would use the agents freed by the redeployment to supplement new
counterterrorism agents that Congress already has agreed to fund. About
1,770 field agents would be permanently assigned to counterterrorism duty,
vs. 1,151 before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The reorganization has been in the works for months, but the announcement
comes as the FBI is under criticism that it should have paid more attention
to clues that hinted at the Sept. 11 attacks. The attacks occurred a week
after Mueller took over as director.

According to officials in Congress and the Justice Department who have been
briefed on the plan, the reorganization includes reassigning one of every
five FBI agents from drug enforcement and related activities. The plan also
calls for a more modest reassignment of agents assigned to violent crime
cases and white-collar crimes. The bureau has about 11,500 agents.

As a result, the burden of enforcing the nation's drug laws would fall more
heavily on the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as state and local
police agencies.

Since President Ronald Reagan recruited the FBI into the war on drugs 20
years ago, the number of agents devoted to the cause has swelled, standing
at about one-fifth of the bureau's agents on the eve of Sept. 11. But in a
reflection of how much the bureau's mission has changed, a list of 10
priorities for the reorganized FBI -- presented to key members of Congress
before today's announcement -- did not mention drugs.

The realignment could come at a cost of higher crime rates and, despite the
focus on terrorism, it presents some long-term political risks for the Bush
administration, observers say.

Local police chiefs already complain that they are overwhelmed, and a drop
in tax revenues from the economic slowdown has added to budget pressures on
state and municipal governments. The DEA may need a large funding increase
to take up the slack from the FBI's reduction in anti-drug work

Politically Sensitive

Drug-related crime has been a politically sensitive issue for some time,
with candidates in the past few decades frequently using public perceptions
of out-of-control narcotics traffic to rally voters. In addition, the
Clinton administration's highly visible focus on street crime helped
nurture links in public opinion between the White House and the falling
crime rates of the 1990s.

Still, Mueller's plan won initial praise from Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., whose committee oversees the FBI.

"The FBI cannot be all things to all people, and that means making some
hard choices, and these should not and will not be the last of them," Leahy
said. "The FBI needs to become agile enough to respond to the changing
needs of the country."

The reorganized counterterrorism division would have closer links to the
CIA and a new Office of Intelligence to improve the agency's ability to
spot patterns of suspected terrorist activity from diffuse field reports.

Mueller's plan also calls for an overhaul of the FBI's outdated computer
systems and the aggressive use of technology to mine electronic data on
terrorist organizations. He would establish regional computer forensic
laboratories run by the FBI.

Recently, members of Congress from both parties have criticized the FBI for
failing to pursue a memo that an agent from its Phoenix field office sent
two months before the Sept. 11 attacks warning that Middle Eastern men
later linked to Osama bin Laden and another terrorist suspect were taking
lessons at U.S. flight schools.

Connection Not Made

The memo spurred no action, and counterterrorism agents failed to connect
it with the August arrest in Minneapolis of Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui,
who has been charged with conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, aroused the
suspicions of flight instructors because of his unusual training requests
and because he paid for his lessons in cash.

Last week, a senior agent in the Minneapolis field office took the unusual
step of writing Mueller, criticizing him and other supervisors for their
handling of the Moussaoui case and forwarding copies to congressional
intelligence committees.

In another development, The Washington Post said Attorney General John
Ashcroft is revising Justice Department guidelines to give FBI officials in
the field authority to open terrorism investigations and undercover probes
without clearance from headquarters. The changes, also scheduled to be
announced today, are intended to place more decision-making power in the field.