RECORDS SHOW AN F.B.I. FOCUS ON TERRORISM

Justice Department data released yesterday show that the Federal
Bureau of Investigation's focus on terrorism has produced a surge in
cases classified as terrorism and a decline, at least temporarily, in
the prosecution of more traditional federal crimes, like drug
trafficking, bank robbery and bank fraud.

But the data show that many of the 945 "terrorism" cases referred by
the F.B.I. and other federal agencies since Sept. 11 involved minor
charges over false documents or immigration rules and that United
States attorneys had declined to prosecute half the cases.

The information was released by Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse, a research group at Syracuse University. The group
obtained the records, from a database that tracks criminal cases
referred to the Justice Department, under the Freedom of Information
Act.

The data hint that in the months after Sept. 11, the F.B.I. was
distracted from seeking prosecution in ordinary criminal cases.
Referrals dropped 23 percent through December, reaching a low of 2,308
in December, compared with over 3,000 a month before Sept. 11. But by
March, the most recent month for which figures were available,
referrals in all cases had increased to 3,306.

David Burnham, the co-director of the Transactional Clearinghouse,
said that despite a decline in the numbers, the proportion of bank
robbery, fraud and drug cases was the same as in previous years.