FBI TAKES ON NEW ROLE IN WAR ON TERROR

HOUSTON -- Not so long ago, before the war on terror, Carlos Barron
was a foot soldier in the war on drugs.

As an FBI narcotics investigator, he tracked Mexican drug lords who
were importing cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. His sleuthing and
testimony led to the conviction of a renowned kingpin who, after
serving time, was found stuffed in the trunk of an SUV, shot 27 times
in the head.

"It used to be immediate gratification," Mr. Barron says of the old
days fighting drug trafficking. "We had a case, and we took it all
the way. You put cuffs on him, and you put him in jail."

Today, the culprits he is pursuing are not so recognizable, and the
rewards have never been more elusive. Mr. Barron now heads an FBI
intelligence team that gathers evidence about suspected terrorist plots.

The mission, ultimately, is to make possible the sort of pre-emptive
strike that British authorities pulled off last week in disrupting a
plan to blow up U.S.-bound passenger jets. That plot, which officials
have said was intended to match the enormity of the Sept. 11 attacks,
was in its final stages of preparation.

But that dramatic denouement was in sharp contrast to the day-to-day
business of terrorist-hunters like Mr. Barron. For every credible
threat, there are thousands of leads that have to be evaluated. They
often lead nowhere.

The FBI has been behind the eight ball since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The debacle exposed widespread and long-standing deficiencies in the
way the bureau operated. One claim was that the agency blew several
opportunities to identify and possibly apprehend some of the 19
hijackers. Among the troubles: a shoddy analytical program, problems
sharing intelligence information, and inattention to counterterrorism
in general.

In a way, the FBI had changed little since it was established the
same year that Henry Ford introduced the Model T. Its mission was to
investigate crimes that had already happened. Although it did not
always get its man, it succeeded enough to be considered the premier
law enforcement agency in the world, at least when it came to
catching bank robbers, drug dealers, con artists and spies.

Now, under pressure from Congress and several bipartisan commissions,
its business model is being turned upside down, with a focus on
preventing crime rather than apprehending the criminals.

Mr. Barron's transitional experience is widely shared throughout the
agency. More than 2,000 agents -- or 15 percent of the total work
force -- have been switched from traditional crime-fighting jobs to
terrorism-tracking positions over the last five years. Whole areas of
enforcement -- including the pursuit of the sort of narcotics
operatives that Mr. Barron handled in the 1990s -- have been largely
abandoned or left to other agencies.

The FBI says things are going well. It cites the fact that there has
not been another terrorist attack on U.S. soil in five years.

But many experts have doubts and question whether an agency so
steeped in crime-fighting can make the switch to an intelligence
operation. Some wonder whether the FBI would have had the same
success as British authorities in preventing a major attack.

"Approaching five years after 9/11, we still do not have a domestic
intelligence service that can collect effectively against the
terrorist threat to the homeland or provide authoritative analysis of
that threat," said John Gannon, a former career CIA officer,
testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in May.

For now, the new FBI is pushing ahead with its Field Intelligence
Groups -- or FIGs, as they are known in the bureau.

Dozens of the groups in field offices around the country were created
to collect, analyze and disseminate information about possible
terrorist activity. Instead of targeting specific cases, each group
is supposed to cast a wide net for information, analyze it and share
conclusions not only within the FBI but also with other agencies.

Hundreds of analysts have been hired to evaluate threats and other
information. Unlike the agents, they do not carry guns, and they are
likely to have advanced degrees in international relations or
mathematics rather than law enforcement.

Although the FBI has had analysts, they were used mostly to help
agents solve existing cases by performing relatively menial tasks
such as conducting computer word-searches for names and addresses of
suspects. Many were glorified clerks. Their job now is to anticipate
threats and eventually drive what the agents do in the field.

Mr. Barron transferred from working in the narcotics department to
terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, to help trace phone numbers
associated with the hijackers. He now runs one of the bureau's
largest intelligence groups.

His team of about 160 people shows how the FBI has switched gears: A
financial analyst who once helped chase bank bandits now works on
terrorism financing. Arabic speakers were recently added to a corps
of translators. Other analysts include a retired Navy intelligence officer.

A big part of what the office does is a monthly intelligence bulletin
that sums up the latest threat information that has been picked up in
the Houston region. The bulletin is distributed on-line to 700 state
and local law enforcement agencies.

The latest bulletin, provided by the FBI, reveals that a man arrested
during a bar fight in College Station, Texas, was found to have the
word "JIHAD" on the screen of his cellphone. Two Mexican nationals,
jailed in south Texas, were carrying large amounts of Iraqi currency.