FBI TO REASSIGN 518 W.VA. AGENTS TO COMBAT TERRORISM

The FBI has never ranked West Virginia among its most crucial
assignments, and now plans to reassign 518 of its agents nationwide
to combat terrorism.

But U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner does not believe a retooled FBI and
Department of Justice will spell an end to such local federal
successes as the First National Bank of Keystone case.

"I haven't heard that they're going to pull a bunch of our agents to
send them to these so-called hotbeds," Warner said Thursday. "I don't
think we'll see any immediate impact that will hamper our current law
enforcement investigations."

Warner is the DOJ's top official in the busiest and most populous of
the state's two federal court districts. He watched Wednesday's press
conference by his boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and FBI
Director Robert Mueller.

Mueller detailed plans for a "redesigned and refocused" FBI, with a
focus on "preventing terrorist attacks."

Besides creating "flying squads" and a national "Joint Terrorism Task
Force," the FBI will recruit hundreds of new agents and "permanently
shift additional resources to counterterrorism."

Before Sept. 11, the FBI had assigned 153 agents to counterterrorism,
including 41 supervisors. Mueller would increase that number to 682
agents, with 416 in the field, within four years.

To accomplish that, the FBI will re-assign 400 agents now
investigating drug cases, 59 investigating white-collar crimes and 59
investigating violence crime - the sorts of cases that cadre of FBI
assigned to West Virginia currently handle.

Federal officials dislike giving specific numbers about their agents
in the field. Previously, federal prosecutors in the state have
lamented a chronic shortage of agents from the FBI as well as the
Internal Revenue Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

These investigators, particularly from the FBI, IRS and Treasury
Department, contributed toward the prosecution of the handful of
executives blamed for the 1999 collapse of the Keystone bank and
related fraud.

They have also pursued the political corruption cases against ex-Gov.
Arch Moore and, most recently, former state Sen. Randy Schoonover.
Other cases range from the health care-fraud conviction of hospital
chief C. David Morrison and sweeping prosecutions of crack cocaine,
methamphetamine and OxyContin dealers.

"I would love to have more FBI agents in the southern district, but
haven't said that," Warner said. "I am sure that the rest of the U.S.
Attorneys in the court believe the same thing about their districts."

The FBI has typically assigned most of the area's agents to its
larger cities, such as its regional headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Counterterrorism agents will likely be deployed in New York and the
Washington, D.C., area, for starters.

"Right now, at this point, southern West Virginia does not appear to
be among the hotbeds of terrorism," Warner said. "The terrorist
threat has to be job No. 1. I don't see, in southern West Virginia,
that threat at this time."

Warner had already focused his office on a post-Sept. 11 environment
even before Wednesday's press conference. He wants to ensure that
terrorists traveling on expired or revoked visas don't seek refuse as
college students in the state. He also believes the drug trade, even
in West Virginia, bankrolls international terrorist groups.

"Yes, we have programs in place, we have a task force operating, but
it's not draining our office and it's not draining the FBI here at
this point," Warner said.