TRIALS, OTHER CASES ON HOLD AS FEDERAL AGENTS FOCUS ON TERRORIST PROBE

DALLAS (AP) - Federal agents across the country are being diverted to
terrorist attack investigations and ongoing anthrax threats, leaving crime
and justice on the home front unevenly attended and sometimes neglected,
The Dallas Morning News reported in Sunday's editions.

"It takes people to do enforcement, and if we're focusing on this, then
we've got to be doing less of that," said Susan Long, codirector of
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research data center at
Syracuse University that studies federal government enforcement, staffing
and expenditures.

In the Northern District, a region stretching from Dallas-Fort Worth north
to the Panhandle and south to San Angelo, the diversion has caused federal
prosecutors to delay trials that depend on court appearances and continuing
paperwork by agents. The newspaper examined preliminary case filings in the
Northern District of Texas and conducted interviews with federal law
enforcement authorities.

Senior officials for the FBI, ATF, and Drug Enforcement Administration in
Dallas said they've pulled back from various local investigations to gather
intelligence and check into more than 8,000 leads for the FBI's terrorism
probe. None would give details about the extent of the pullback.

In Dallas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Danny Defenbaugh said that almost
all nonterrorism investigations except those of the highest impact "have
had to go to the back burner." He declined to elaborate.

Instead of policing gun shows, ATF agents in Dallas are working as sky
marshals, processing FBI leads and leading a massive effort to check the
security of explosives manufacturers.

Even the Dallas ATF's search dog has been diverted to provide security at
public events.

In Plano, a federal judge declined federal prosecutors' request to let
local police serve a search warrant for the FBI on a major fraud case,
officials told the newspaper. The prosecutors then had to ask the Secret
Service to scrounge an agent to supervise the warrant.

Dallas FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey said the agency isn't ignoring routine
crime. For instance, FBI agents still respond to bank robberies, though
less manpower can be devoted to solve them, she said.

"I wouldn't say it's a good time to be a criminal," she said.
"Administratively, we've been prioritizing. We're responding. We're
investigating."

Still, Bailey said, "our focus is on terrorism, and I don't see any light
at the end of that tunnel right now."

Meanwhile, there hasn't been a comprehensive federal budget proposal to
bolster law enforcement agencies so they can handle new threats and old duties.

For now, the government is deploying the National Guard for airport
security and some drug interdiction along the border. The newly established
Office of Homeland Security, which will coordinate all law enforcement
nationally, hasn't yet gained its footing.