WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III testified
Wednesday that the controversial National Security Agency surveillance program
"has been a contributing factor, one dot among many dots" for
tracking terrorist plots, and he admitted for the first time that the bureau
had used surveillance drones inside the U.S.
The FBI uses drones "in a very, very minimal way and
very seldom," said Mueller, adding that "we have very few."
Mueller's comments were the first time an FBI official
publicly acknowledged that the bureau used remotely piloted aircraft, though
the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives have both tested drones for use in investigations.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, asked
Mueller to detail what protections the FBI had put in place to limit how video
and other information collected by drones was used by federal investigators.
She called drones "the greatest threat to the privacy of Americans."
"I will have to go back and check in terms of what we
keep in terms of the images and the like. But it is very narrowly focused on
particularized cases and particularized needs, and that is the principal
privacy limitations we have," Mueller said.
Mueller said the FBI was in the "initial stages"
of writing policies to limit the effect on the privacy of American citizens.
"We're exploring not only the use but also the necessary guidelines for
that use," he added.
In what is probably his last appearance before Congress
before he leaves office, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the
NSA's use of telephone logs and Internet records was especially crucial in
learning which home-grown suspects or foreign immigrants are in contact with Al
Qaeda or other terrorist networks overseas.
"You never know which dot is going to be the key,"
he said. "But you want as many dots as you can. And if you close down a
program like this, there will be ... fewer dots to connect."
Mueller, the sixth FBI director, said the bureau already was
making transition plans for his successor, even though President Obama had not
yet sent the name of a nominee to the Senate for confirmation.
Mueller said he had met with Obama to discuss his
replacement, but would not detail their conversation. The White House,
meanwhile, has indicated the president plans to nominate James B. Comey, a
former deputy attorney general, to the post.
But, Mueller said, no matter how much the FBI prepares and
who is ultimately installed to succeed him, some unexpected crime event
probably will change everything. Just a week after Mueller took office, the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks instantly morphed the FBI from a traditional
anti-crime organization fighting gangs and bank robberies into one with
terrorism and national security as its top priority.
"It will take I would say a month to really get one's
feet on the ground," Mueller said. "But in that month, I can tell you
something's going to happen. So whatever you planned in terms of sitting down
and looking at something, something else will come up and your attention will
be diverted."
Committee members from both political parties were generous
in their compliments to the outgoing director, thanking him for his 12 years of
running the bureau. Some proclaimed his success in upgrading the FBI into a
more sophisticated, highly technological organization to deal with an emerging
world of cyber-crime, international terrorism and complex Wall Street money
schemes.
But several Republicans appeared frustrated over a number of
issues, including why Mueller's FBI had not made arrests in the Internal
Revenue Service political controversy, in which tea party and other
conservative groups were targeted for special scrutiny.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) pressed Mueller to divulge the
scope and goal of the FBI's investigation into the IRS matter, but the director
provided only minimal details. He said a dozen agents were assigned to the case
and that it was being directed out of the Washington field office.
"There is a sense of urgency with the
investigation," he said. "It is not languishing."
No comments:
Post a Comment