THE REORGANIZING

Ashcroft Plan Would Recast Justice Dept. In A War Mode

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today that he
had ordered the Justice Department to assume a wartime footing and had
begun to revamp the agency's priorities under a plan that would send
thousands of employees from Washington to offices around the country where
they would work to prevent terror attacks.

The plan envisions a reorganization of the Justice Department and important
component agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, each of which would be overhauled
to take a more aggressive stance in the effort to ward off terrorism.

"Today, I am announcing a wartime reorganization and mobilization of the
nation's justice and law enforcement resources to meet the mission of the
Department of Justice," Mr. Ashcroft said in a speech to managers at the
Justice Department.

He offered only a few specifics, but outlined a fundamental shift in
priorities that would occur in the next five years under a plan to be
submitted to Congress. The changes could require Congressional approval —
if, for example, the F.B.I. ceded its authority over drug trafficking to
the Drug Enforcement Administration, as some law enforcement officials have
suggested.

Some changes Mr. Ashcroft discussed today have been discussed in news
reports. Some are new, like the proposal to redirect 10 percent of the
Justice Department's budget, about $2.5 billion, to counterterrorism
efforts, mainly for upgrading technology.

Among the new initiatives disclosed today was an order by the attorney
general to allow federal prison authorities to eavesdrop on attorney-client
conversations involving people suspected of posing a direct threat to
national security.

Mindy Tucker, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said the order, published
in the Federal Register on Oct. 31, would apply to about 100 federal
prisoners. The authorities would not be allowed to use information
overheard in criminal cases against the suspects, she said.

"The team that listens is not involved in the criminal proceedings," Ms.
Tucker said. "There's a firewall there."

The order drew criticism from civil libertarians, who said it impinged on
constitutional protections of attorney-client confidentiality.

In recent days, the F.B.I. has been criticized for its inability to track
down the source of anthrax mailings and for issuing vague terrorism alerts
that offered no idea of the potential targets or weapons. Although the time
period of the warnings has lapsed, officials said the country should remain
on alert.

The Congressional response to Mr. Ashcroft's plan seemed positive, if less
than fully enthusiastic. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who
is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which would review the proposals,
said he agreed with realigning the bureau to focus on terrorism.

But Mr. Leahy seemed unwilling to allow Mr. Ashcroft complete control of
the reorganization. He recommended that the bureau's counterterrorism
program be reviewed by an existing commission led by William H. Webster, a
former F.B.I. director. Mr. Webster is examining the bureau's
counterintelligence operations as a result of the unmasking of a senior
agent, Robert P. Hanssen, as a Russian spy.

"You cannot plan for the future effectively without knowing what went wrong
in the past," Mr. Leahy said.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who has long been an
F.B.I. critic, said the changes at the bureau should redefine its
institutional attitudes. "As with any reorganization, the devil will be in
the details," Mr. Grassley said. "I hope for new accountability measures,
not just structural changes."

Mr. Ashcroft said that the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, who has
been conducting a review of the bureau since taking office in September,
plans to present preliminary reorganization plans to the Justice Department
by the end of the year. So far, the bureau's top national security official
and deputy director have announced their retirements, and Mr. Mueller is
expected to shake up the entire managerial ranks.

The immigration service will also be given a new mission. "In the war on
terrorism, the restructured Immigration and Naturalization Service will
focus on preventing aliens who engage in or support terrorist activity from
entering our country," Mr. Ashcroft said. "It will lead the campaign to
detain, prosecute or deport the terrorist aliens who are already inside the
nation's borders."

Mr. Ashcroft said that James W. Ziglar, the immigration commissioner, was
planning to close some of the gaps in immigration procedures that made it
relatively easy for the hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks to enter the
country. The plan includes stricter enforcement of existing regulations and
reducing the backlog of visa and immigration applications.

Mr. Ashcroft also said he intends to break up the immigration service,
separating border enforcement and immigrant-service functions, an idea
raised early in the Bush administration that had languished until now.

Mr. Ashcroft's announcement was the latest step in his aggressive
stewardship of the Justice Department since the Sept. 11 attacks. It was
also a forceful assertion of his dominance of the government's legal and
law enforcement establishment, a position of power all of his predecessors
have sought, but few ever obtained.

Some senior career officials at the Justice Department and the F.B.I. have
privately complained that Mr. Ashcroft, in his insistence on cracking down
on terrorists, may go too far to weaken rules that bar investigations of
people and groups based solely on their political leanings.

Mr. Ashcroft has said he would defend the rights of all Americans, but
legal rights groups say he has shown little concern about the erosion of
civil liberties.

"Defending our nation and defending the citizens of America against
terrorist attacks is now our first and overriding priority," Mr. Ashcroft
said. "To fulfill this mission, we are devoting all the resources necessary
to eliminate terrorist networks, to prevent terrorist attacks, and to bring
to justice all those who kill Americans in the name of murderous ideologies."