TERRORISM'S TOLL ON THE F.B.I.

Washington

OVER the years, F.B.I. directors have shifted resources to confront
the scourge at hand. In the 1970's, Clarence M. Kelley veered away
from the fight against Communism and took on organized crime. A decade
later, William H. Webster put the emphasis on counterintelligence.
William S. Sessions ended his tumultuous tenure with a push against
violent crime.

But when F.B.I. Director Robert S. Mueller III recently announced that
the bureau would double his counterterrorism staff, in part by
transferring personnel from other areas, the professional group that
represents most agents voiced fears that traditional crime-solving
would suffer. "Please give us back those bodies," said Nancy L.
Savage, president of the F.B.I. Agents Association, which represents
about 70 percent of agents.

At the same time, criminal justice experts raised concerns that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation would become a domestic spy agency
authorized to snoop into citizens' affairs even when there is no
evidence of illegal activity. That could plunge the bureau back into
an era of blackmail and intimidation associated with another director,
J. Edgar Hoover, they said.

"Spying on people in order to prevent them from doing undefined harm
is what an intelligence agency does," said Philip B. Heymann, a former
deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. "To create an
agency that will monitor Americans in no way connected with a foreign
government or party, that's a little worrisome."

Taken together, the fears underscore the difficulties confronting Mr.
Mueller as he seeks to reshape and reorient a conservative,
catch-the-crooks institution to confront an often invisible adversary
that has proven its ability to move effectively within United States
borders. And those difficulties seem to be mounting after the recent
announcement that Dale L. Watson, the F.B.I.'s counterterrorism chief,
will retire. No replacement has been named.

The concern about resources is not idle. Even as its duties multiply,
the F.B.I. remains a small agency, and it was already stretched thin
before Sept. 11.

The proposed shift toward counterterrorism comes at a time when major
crime incidents are increasing. According to preliminary F.B.I. data
released in June, the nation's crime index - which measures murder,
rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle
theft - rose by 2 percent last year. Setting aside the data from Sept.
11, which skew the overall results, the F.B.I. reported the largest
jumps in murder (3.1 percent), robbery (3.9 percent) and motor vehicle
theft (5.9 percent), crimes routinely involving the F.B.I.

Now, the director plans to transfer 518 of its 11,500 agents
permanently from traditional crime-fighting duties to the battle
against terrorism. This has left some critics wondering whether the
bureau is forsaking its role in the drug war and the struggle against
violent and white-collar crime. "You've still got a crime problem,"
Ms. Savage said. "Who's going to address it?"

In testimony to Congress in June, Mr. Mueller proposed transferring
400 agents from drug investigations, 59 agents from white-collar
crimes and another 59 agents from violent crimes. Counternarcotics
would thus bear the brunt of the shift. He ordered agents to
re-evaluate their involvement in drug cases and, "where possible, and
without jeopardizing current investigations, reduce F.B.I. resources."

Virtually no one argues with the need for the bureau to reorganize
around the terrorist threat and to bolster disciplines in which the
bureau acknowledges it is deficient, like foiling Internet attacks.
But F.B.I. experts question whether the bureau should be cannibalizing
itself at a time when its federal responsibilities are already so vast
and diverse: enforcing 300 federal laws, conducting background checks
on cabinet and Supreme Court nominees, training local police and
running forensic laboratories.

Ronald Kessler, who has written a history of the bureau, says the
F.B.I. should double in size. Now, he notes, the nation's foremost
federal crime agency is dwarfed in manpower by the New York City
Police Department, which counts about 40,000 officers. Drawing down on
existing F.B.I. resources is "a very narrow way of thinking about its
potential," he said. "The bottom line is that instead of shifting
agents around like this, they should be increasing the size of the
F.B.I.," Mr. Kessler said. "Drugs kill more people than terrorists
do."

Dick Thornburgh, who served as attorney general under the first
President Bush, recently complained that Congress had heaped too many
responsibilities on the F.B.I. Lawmakers, responding to public
pressure in recent years, have federalized crimes - from carjackings
to failure to pay child support - and added to the bureau's burden.
With the new emphasis on terrorism, he said, something has to give.
Mr. Thornburgh called for handing nonterror crimes back to state and
local control.

CONGRESS still must vote on Mr. Mueller's plan. But in practical
terms, F.B.I. officials say, the reallocation has begun. Agents are
allocating more and more of their workdays to following up on
terrorism leads.

Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration is girding for
additional duties. Asa Hutchinson, the agency's director, has ordered
a threat assessment to help determine how to reallocate parts of his
$1.8 billion budget. He has 4,600 agents, foreign and domestic, which
eclipses the new F.B.I. total of about 1,000 agents that will still be
focusing on drugs.

"D.E.A. is going to pick up some of the slack," said Will Glaspy, a
spokesman for the agency. "We'd like to work with Congress and the
administration to gain additional resources to make sure we fill the
holes that are left."

Some law enforcement experts worry more about losing agents who are
pursuing white-collar criminals. Recent accounting scandals involving
companies from Enron to WorldCom has underscored the need for
specialists in detecting fraud, they say.

"The country is in as much danger on the white-collar crime front as
it is on the terror front," said Mr. Heymann. "False accounting, false
pushing of stocks can do as much damage to the economy as a plane
flying into the World Trade Center."