Federal Bureau of Investigation

Type: Government Agency
On the web: http://www.fbi.gov

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) works to keep US citizens safe from threats both domestic and foreign. The primary investigative arm of the US Department of Justice, the FBI protects and defends the nation against such threats as terrorism, political corruption, white-collar crime, organized crime, cyber attack, and violent crime. With an annual budget of approximately $7 billion, the agency operates more than 460 offices throughout the US and in 60 offices abroad within US embassies. The FBI was established in 1908 while Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House.

Officers:
Director: Robert S. Mueller III
Deputy Director: John S. Pistole
Associate Deputy Director: Timothy P. Murphy

Division of the US Department of Justice, responsible for investigation of violations of federal law. The FBI was organized in 1934, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover, and intended mainly as a fact-finding agency with responsibility for internal security. However, under the authoritarian control of Hoover the FBI systematically engaged in illegal activities, particularly aimed at undermining left-wing, and civil rights, activists. Since the 1970s Congress has attempted to increase the accountability of the FBI, notably after the Watergate affair. The Bureau was heavily criticized for failing to prevent the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, despite having information which could have led to the bombers. The FBI and CIA were both forced to reorganize their anti-terrorism operations, alongside a new Department of Homeland Security.

For more information on Federal Bureau of Investigation, visit Britannica.com.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (the word "federal" was added in 1935) by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to serve as the investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice. The FBI quickly developed a two-track mission, as its special agents simultaneously engaged in legitimate federal law enforcement operations and unlawful domestic political surveillance activities. The latter were highly controversial throughout most of the twentieth century, and by the early twenty-first century, the FBI's competence and integrity on law-enforcement matters had also been called into question. On both fronts—law enforcement and surveillance—the FBI was a major historical force for the simple reason that its highly politicized officials were always at the center of three perplexing national issues: crime, communism, and civil rights.

During the Progressive Era presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) and William Howard Taft (1909–1913), the FBI remained an obscure federal bureaucracy. FBI activities escalated following American entry into World War I in 1917, however, due to the Woodrow Wilson administration policy of suppressing antiwar dissidents. Bureau agents compiled massive files on anarchists, socialists, labor organizers, civil rights activists, and virtually every racial and ethnic group in the nation—all under the supervision of the Justice Department's General Intelligence Division and its young chief, J. Edgar Hoover. This continued after the war, with Hoover helping Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to organize the infamous Palmer Raids of 1919–1920.

Surveillance came to a halt in the early 1920s, when the FBI became embroiled in the Warren G. Harding administration scandals. In 1924, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone appointed Hoover director, with a mission to rid the FBI of corruption and confine investigations to violations of federal law. Hoover quickly purged corrupt agents and replaced them with men who held degrees in law and accounting. He also modernized crime fighting techniques, chiefly through development of centralized fingerprinting records and a crime laboratory. But he never completely ended domestic political surveillance; throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, the FBI continued to track communist groups, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Hoover spent most of his first ten years as FBI director laboring in relative obscurity. Following the Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and the brazen exploits of John Dillinger and other bank robbers, the FBI quickly emerged as one of the federal government's most prominent and powerful bureaucracies. In large part, this was the result of three Franklin D. Roosevelt administration decisions.

First, beginning in 1933, the Roosevelt administration federalized crime control to an unprecedented degree, giving the FBI what seemed like unlimited jurisdiction. For example, New Deal reforms enabled the FBI to investigate a crime committed at any bank covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. However, the FBI ignored organized crime, as those cases were simply too hard to make. In addition, Hoover had no intention of placing his agents in a position where they would be tempted by organized crime dollars.

Second, Roosevelt's New Deal decided to make heroes out of Hoover and his special agents ("G-Men") to counter the romantic notions that too often surrounded depression-era criminals. By the mid-1930s, Hoover emerged as a full-blown celebrity with an entire division devoted to publicity. The FBI cultivated favorable coverage, chiefly by performing services for anyone who might be in a position to advance the bureau's image, such as leaking information from confidential files to columnists and sending off agents to perform private detective work. Eventually, this broadened beyond the media to include politicians and virtually any prominent person.

Finally, with the nation creeping toward World War II, President Roosevelt did the FBI a service on a third front in 1939 by reviving its surveillance mission. If the White House was principally concerned with the activities of native fascists, Hoover was principally concerned with Communist activities—and he defined the latter broadly enough to encompass his New Deal benefactors. The FBI even held files on First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. At the same time, Hoover ingratiated himself with the president by providing derogatory information on the administration's political opponents. This service included reports on such isolationists as Herbert Hoover. Ironically, during Herbert Hoover's own White House years, the FBI had performed the same service for the president by providing derogatory information on his interventionist critics.

During World War II, FBI accomplishments included investigation of the so-called Frederick Duquesne spy ring, which led to the arrest and conviction of thirty-three persons working to advance German interests. Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI broke the Nazi sabotage operation with the help of George Dasch, one of eight men dropped off by German submarines at Amagansette, Long Island, and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. On the nation's key civil liberties issue—the decision to intern Japanese nationals and citizens of Japanese descent—Hoover put his bureau on record as opposing that policy (see Japanese American Incarceration). Abroad, FBI agents served in the Special Intelligence Service, which gathered information on and conducted counterintelligence operations against Axis activities in South America.

During the Cold War years, the FBI emerged as perhaps the central player in the political phenomenon known as Mccarthyism. Bureau agents and officials were deeply involved in both the day-to-day workings and broader political strategies of the Federal Employee Loyalty Program; the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations; Smith Act prosecutions of domestic Communist Party leadership; the so-called Hollywood black-lists; pursuit of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (or CIO) left-wing labor unions; and the principal Redhunting committees in Congress. These included the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In 1951, the FBI launched a secret Responsibilities Program to purge left-wing public school teachers and university professors. Five years later, the FBI opened the Counterintelligence Program! (COINTELPRO) against the American Communist Party.

In the early 1960s, pressure from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy led the FBI to move against organized criminals and persons who violated federal civil rights law. Hoover fiercely resisted this pressure but gradually gave ground as the decade wore on. The FBI needed no pressure to move on the surveillance front. The civil rights, black power, and anti–Vietnam War movements led Hoover to approve additional COINTELPRO activities against a full spectrum of dissident groups and individuals. Following American withdrawal from Vietnam and the nearly concurrent Watergate collapse of the Richard M. Nixon administration, congressional committee investigations in 1975–1976 revealed the extent of the FBI's domestic political surveillance empire. In a manner vaguely similar to Harlan Stone's reforms a half century earlier, Attorney General Edward Levi issued domestic security investigations guidelines to prevent future abuse of civil rights and liberties by the nation's only national police force.

The FBI made substantial headway against organized crime with help from the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act of 1970. Bureau authority and operations also increased under the Ronald Reagan administration's war on drugs. High-profile Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams and hostage rescue teams were organized in 1973 and 1983, respectively, to combat domestic terrorists. The equally high-profile Behavioral Science Unit helped track down several serial killers, including Wayne B. Williams, convicted in 1980 in the Atlanta child-murders case. Nonetheless, with an almost daily release of files under the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (as amended in 1974), the FBI has remained controversial in nearly every area of its operations.

On the civil rights front, FBI officials have endured periodic charges that their predecessors were involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. At the same time, FBI officials faced civil actions brought by their own black, female, and gay agents, alleging widespread patterns of discrimination and harassment. FBI law enforcement methods, particularly "sting" operations, were widely questioned as well. The most notable of these were the Abscam anti–public corruption effort, targeting members of Congress (1978–1980); the Operation Greylord effort of the 1980s in Chicago, which led to the conviction of fifteen judges and more than fifty attorneys; and the 1990 crack cocaine baiting of Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry.

Charges of continuing domestic surveillance abuse, though less prevalent, continued during the Reagan years; the FBI compiled dossiers on critics of the administration's Latin American policy and opened the Library Awareness Program to monitor reading habits of dissidents. The Internet age has found the FBI keeping pace with its Carnivore Diagnostic Tool, an incredibly powerful software program capable of wiping out any notion of privacy on the Internet. Unnecessary use of deadly force was yet another area of concern, given the actions of the FBI snipers at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992, and the FBI role a year later against the Branch Davidian Sect in Waco, Texas (see Waco Siege).

Perhaps most telling, the FBI's basic competence has been systematically called into question since the mid-1990s. Bureau handling of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing case and its investigation of Richard Jewell represented a gross violation of any reasonable standard of fair play. Meanwhile, credible allegations of sloppy work, and what some might consider evidence tampering, plagued the FBI crime laboratory. Revelations regarding evidence withheld from defense attorneys in the Oklahoma City Bombing case on the eve of Timothy McVeigh's execution also proved a major embarrassment, as did the discovery that longtime special agent Robert Hanssen was a Russian spy (see Hanssen Espionage Case).

The FBI was again roundly criticized following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the anthrax mailings of that same year. This time, the principal issue was a bureaucratic culture trained to resist any sharing of intelligence with other agencies, from local police to the Federal Aviation Administration. Still, FBI authority was expanded once more when Attorney General John Ashcroft called for a wartime restructuring of federal anti-terrorist efforts, and by the electronic surveillance authority provided by the U.S. Patriot Act of 2001. Ashcroft also rescinded the Levi guidelines.

Bibliography

Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Freedom of Information Act Reading Room Index." Compiled 20 June 2001. Available from http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex.htm.

Jeffreys, Diarmuid. The Bureau: Inside the Modern FBI. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

Kelly, John F., and Phillip K. Wearne. Tainting Evidence: Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab. New York: Free Press, 1998.

Kessler, Ronald. The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency. New York: Pocket Books, 1973.

O'Reilly, Kenneth. Hoover and the Un-Americans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983.

———. Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960–1972. New York: Free Press, 1989.

Theoharis, Athan, et al., eds. The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000.

Ungar, Sanford J. FBI. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.

Whitehead, Don. The FBI Story: A Report to the People. New York: Random House, 1956.

—Kenneth O' Reilly

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the nation's primary federal investigative service. The mission of the FBI is to uphold and enforce federal criminal laws, aid international, state, and local police and investigative services when appropriate, and to protect the United States against terrorism and threats to national interests.

The FBI employs nearly 30,000 men and women, including 12,000 special agents. The organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is field-oriented, maintaining a network of 56 domestic field offices, 45 foreign posts, and 400 satellite offices (resident agencies). The agency relies on both foreign and domestic intelligence information, to aid its anti-terror operations. As a law enforcement authority, the FBI only has jurisdiction in interstate, or federal, crimes.

Origins and Formation of the Fbi

In the nineteenth century, municipal and state governments shouldered the responsibility of law enforcement. State legislatures defined crimes, and criminals were prosecuted in local courts. The development of railroads and automobiles, coupled with advancements in communication technology, introduced a new type of crime that contemporary legal and law enforcement system was unequipped to handle. Criminals were able to evade the law by fleeing over state lines. To combat the growing trend of interstate crime, President Theodore Roosevelt proposed the creation of a federal investigative and law enforcement agency.

In 1908, Roosevelt and his attorney general, Charles Bonaparte, created a force of Special Agents within the Department of Justice. They sought the expertise of accountants, lawyers, Secret Service agents, and detectives to staff the ranks of the new investigative service. The new recruits reported for examination and training on July 26, 1908. This first corps of federal agents was the forerunner of the modern FBI.

When the federal bureau began operations, there were few federal crimes in the legal statutes. Federal agents investigated railroad scams, banking crimes, labor violations, and antitrust cases. The findings of their investigations, however, were usually disclosed to local or state law enforcement officials and courts for prosecution. In 1910, the federal government passed the Mann Act, expanding the jurisdiction of the investigation bureau by outlawing the transport of women over state lines for the purpose of prostitution. Granting federal agents the right to investigate, arrest, and prosecute persons in violation of the Mann Act solidified the interstate authority of federal investigative services.

The Special Agents force also aided border guards, investigating smuggling cases and immigration violations. At the outbreak of the Mexican revolution, bureau agents conducted limited espionage operations, gathering intelligence for the military and the government.

World War I and the Interwar Years

When World War I erupted in Europe, the United States government, under President Woodrow Wilson, proclaimed American neutrality in the conflict. Despite the official declaration of neutrality, the United States increasingly aided Allied nations such as Britain and France with sales of weapons and supplies for the war effort. As a result, rival Germany sent saboteurs and spies into the United States to conduct espionage against United States military instillations and ammunition factories. Several incidents, including an explosion near New York City, at Black Tom Pier, fanned public fear of German spies and saboteurs infiltrating the United States. Federal investigators were charged with investigating acts of terrorism and sabotage, as well as ferreting out potential spies. For this job, Special Agents worked closely with military intelligence, gaining new law enforcement and espionage tradecraft skills.

With the entry of the United States into the European conflict, federal investigators gained jurisdiction over the enforcement of the Espionage, Sabotage, and Selective Service Acts. The bureau investigated alien enemies, and arrested men who dodged conscription.

After World War I ended in 1918, the force of Special Agents became the Bureau of Investigation. The agency gained considerable autonomy from Department of Justice oversight. During the 1920s, federal agents investigated several regional and national crime syndicates. Prohibition, the ban on sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages, prompted a rise in the illegal manufacture, trade, and sale of alcohol. Since the Department of the Treasury had jurisdiction over Prohibition violations, federal investigators worked closely with Treasury agents.

The interwar era was also marked by increased gangsterism. Gangsters posed a unique challenge to the Bureau of Investigation's narrow interstate jurisdiction. Many of the most notorious crime bosses were eventually arrested on charges of racketeering, tax evasion, or war profiteering. With no other means available, within their legal bounds, to bring down the resurgence of the often violent and well-armed Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Bureau of Investigation targeted the leader of the Louisiana Klan for violations of the Mann Act.

The onset of the Great Depression helped escalate crime rates. The sour economy gave rise to increased labor violations, corruption, swindling, and murder. Two events, however, strengthened and expanded the Bureau of Investigation's jurisdiction. The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 prompted Congress to pass federal kidnapping statutes. Two years later, Congress passed legislation prohibiting the escape of criminals across state lines, providing for interstate extradition of criminals, and granting federal agents the right to investigate and arrest criminals who fled or operated across state lines. Further reforms of federal law enforcement services permitted agents to carry guns.

The structure of the agency changed dramatically in the 1920s and 1930s. J. Edgar Hoover assumed the directorship of the Bureau of Investigation. Hoover expanded the field office network from nine offices to over 30 offices within ten years. Agency personnel policy changed, requiring new agents to complete a rigorous, centralized training course. Promotions within the organization were secured through merit and consistency of service, not seniority. The agency still sought agent-recruits with training in accountancy and law, but expanded their search to include linguists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, forensics specialists, and medical practitioners.

Technical advancements also changed agency operations. Basic forensic investigation began to be employed in FBI crime scene investigations. The bureau established a fingerprint identification and index system in 1924. The national index assumed fingerprint records from state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as an older Department of Justice fingerprint registry dating back to 1905. The agency opened its first technical laboratory in 1932. The facility quickly expanded to cover a variety of forensic research, aiding investigators by comparing bullets, guns, tire tracks, watermarks, counterfeiting techniques, handwriting samples, and pathology reports.

World War II and the Interwar Years

In 1935, the special task force of agents who formerly worked to combat Prohibition were separated from the agency, and the organization was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). When war again broke out in Europe, FBI agents performed many of the same duties as they had during World War I. Before the United States entered the war in 1941, the FBI concentrated its efforts on locating, infiltrating, and dismantling political organizations sympathetic to German and Italian Fascism, and Soviet Communism, despite the latter nation's wartime alliance with Britain and France. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Secretary of State Cordell Hull, pushed for increased power for the FBI to investigate perceived subversives, even if these people were ordinary American citizens. A 1939 presidential directive, followed by the Smith Act of 1940, outlawed public advocacy of over-throwing the government.

When the United States entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, FBI agents aided national defense efforts by placing trained agents at key military and defense industry sites. Wartime agents received more intense training in counterintelligence measures, and the FBI established special counterintelligence units for covert operations at the government's discretion. FBI agents thwarted German and Japanese attempts at sabotaging national interests, including fuel reserves.

World War II also marked one of the darkest chapters of FBI operations. Despite opposition from FBI director Hoover, government officials declared all Japanese immigrants, and American citizens of Japanese descent, enemy aliens. The Japanese-American population on the West Coast was evicted from their homes and sent to internment camps for the duration of the war. Many lost homes and businesses that they were forced to leave behind. Since internment camps and enemy alien laws fell under federal jurisdiction, the FBI imposed curfews, administered deportations, and arrested those in violation of internment laws.

Conversely, FBI agents were the first federal authority since Reconstruction to enforce desegregation laws. Though segregation remained legal practice during the 1940s, the president appointed the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) to address concerns of African-American workers. FEPC possessed no enforcement authority, but FBI agents arrested several employers found in violation of the FEPC on the grounds of impeding the war effort.

The Fbi During the Cold War

The early Cold War years. When World War II ended in August 1945, increasingly hostile relations between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the Cold War, a diplomatic and military standoff that lasted over four decades. In the early Cold War years, the American government, and many members of the public, worried about the presence of Communist organizations and spies within the United States. The discovery of Soviet agents operating within government agencies, and the trial of individuals accused of stealing atomic secrets, and the test detonation of the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949, fanned public anti-Communist hysteria. While the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) worked to stop the expansion of the Soviet Union abroad, the FBI gained the past-war responsibility of defeating Communist organizations at home.

In the first fifteen years of the Cold War, the FBI investigations contributed to the McCarthy hearings, as well as high-profile spy cases like that of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The FBI gained the authority to conduct background checks on potential government employees, and investigate federal employees suspected of disloyal acts or espionage. The 1946 Atomic Energy Act gave the FBI jurisdiction over the secrecy and protection of atomic secrets. Legislation throughout the 1950s expanded the FBI's role to cover the security of atomic facilities, and defense industry sites.

In more routine law enforcement duties, the FBI continued to pursue interstate and federal criminals. In 1950, the agency published its first "Ten Most Wanted List."

The early 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement. Although the Cold War continued, the anti-Communist hysteria faded away in the late 1950s. FBI investigations of anti-government organizations and "subversive individuals" shifted with the political mood of the 1960s. The decade witnessed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and ushered in the Civil Rights Movement, both events signaled new duties and an expanded legal jurisdiction for the FBI.

When President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in 1963, the crime was legally a local homicide. No special legal provisions existed for the investigation of the assassination of a government official or the president. President Lyndon B. Johnson called in FBI agents to investigate the murder, setting the precedent for future legislation that designated assassination as a federal crime, and granted the agency jurisdiction in assassination cases.

The FBI was responsible for federal enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and aiding desegregation efforts by investigating pro-segregation organizations and individuals. The FBI's charge to enforce civil rights legislation often put federal agents in conflict with local law enforcement officials, especially in the South and Midwest. Though the FBI routinely investigated violations of civil rights laws, they did not win the authority to prosecute violators through federal law until after 1966.

The FBI investigated, and helped prosecute criminals, in several high profile civil rights cases. Field agents in Louisiana and Mississippi investigated the murder of three voter registration workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi, before turning the case over to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. FBI agents conducted crime scene, forensics, and extended investigations of the assassinations of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medger Evers. They eventually arrested, aided the prosecution of, and gained convictions for the assassins, although Byron De La Beckwith, who shot Medger Evers, was not found guilty until 1994.

The Vietnam and Watergate era. The United States, in an attempt to stem Soviet influence in Asia, entered the Vietnam War. The war was controversial, with many young people opposing U.S. military intervention in the conflict. The re-institution of the draft further angered anti-war sympathizers. Government officials grew increasingly suspicious of anti-war organizations and the large demonstrations they organized. Though the vast majority of anti-war demonstrators and organizations advocated peaceful protest and civil disobedience, a few militant and extremist groups resorted to acts of violence and sabotage. The actions of these groups prompted the FBI to conduct widespread surveillance of the anti-war movement. Utilizing counterintelligence techniques, the FBI used a myriad of intrusive surveillance, known as "Cointelpro," methods to thwart terrorist action by radicals. However, some criticized the organization of conducting domestic espionage, especially on the peaceful majority of anti-war supporters. Hoover, still director of the FBI, responded by promoting passage of the Omnibus Crime Control Act, which limited the use of wiretaps, listening devices, clandestine photographs, and other surveillance methods. The act defined new operational procedures for FBI agents, and was the first legal compromise between intelligence and privacy interests.

In 1972, public attention shifted from the Vietnam conflict, to the actions of the Nixon administration. On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into the Watergate apartment complex that housed the headquarters for the Democratic Party. Subsequent investigations by a special team of federal agents connected the men, most whom were former CIA and FBI agents, to the Office of the President. Despite the implication of a few FBI agents in the extensive cover-up operation that followed the break-in, FBI investigators cooperated with a specially appointed Senate investigatory committee, surrendering all information pertaining to Watergate. The ensuing scandal, known as Watergate, not only forced the resignation of Nixon and most of his administration, but also damaged public faith in the government and its intelligence and security agencies.

The end of the Cold War. A period of Cold War détente in the 1980s allowed the FBI to concentrate on agency reforms and expansion of its domestic intelligence capabilities. In 1982, following a outburst of international terrorism, the director of the FBI, William Webster, made counterintelligence and anti-terrorism operations an agency priority. He established the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, a facility that would conduct sophisticated forensic analysis on crimes. The renewed agency attention to counterintelligence discovered over 30 cases of espionage against the United States government in 1985.

Combating the rise of white-collar financial crimes and the drug trade were other priorities of the FBI during the 1980s. FBI investigations implicated high-ranking government officials in financial fraud and abuse of power scandals, including members of the Congress (ABSCAM), defense industry (ILL WIND), and judiciary (GREYLORD). Federal agents also investigated fraud cases during the savings and loan crisis.

The Rise of Terrorism and the Fbi Today

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Its formal dissolution on December 25, 1991, marked the end of the Cold War. In the decade that followed, the international political map drastically altered, changing the global balance of power and permitting the rise of new threats to United States national security. In response to the changing international environment, the FBI shifted the priority of its operations. Several key events, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamist, foreign terrorists, and the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City by a domestic terrorist, prompted the FBI to restructure its counterintelligence and counter-terrorism operations.

To aid its current operations, the FBI embraced the use of several new technologies in its operations. The advent of personal computers and the Internet aided research and processing of investigation information. Searchable databases store information on suspects, crime statistics, fingerprints, and DNA samples. However, their use also created security risks that necessitated the creation of specialized information systems protection task forces. The agency created Computer Analysis and Response Teams (CART) to aid field investigators with the recovery of data from damaged or sabotaged electronic sources. In 1998, the establishment of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) permitted the FBI to monitor the dissemination of computer viruses and worms.

Forensic use of DNA radically altered both the legal process and forensic research of FBI investigations. DNA analysis allows specialists to positively identify victims and perpetrators of crimes by comparing particular patterns in individual DNA. FBI forensic specialists created a national DNA databank in 1998 to aid ongoing investigations.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and subsequent anthrax attacks on national post offices and media outlets, the FBI expanded its counterintelligence and counter-terrorism operations to include anti-bioterror task forces. The FBI, working in conjunction for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), employs agents to aid in the investigation and identification of bioterror agents, and law enforcement in the event of a bioterror attack. FBI analysis and research divisions have compiled massive databases on known biological agents, stockpiles of weapons, and terrorist groups who may possess biological weapons. FBI analysts develop profiles of terrorist groups to better understand their mindsets and possible future actions.

The FBI's focus on the prevention of terrorism failed to thwart the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. However, FBI investigations successfully found and prosecuted the perpetrators of the Oklahoma City bombing and the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. In its ongoing investigation of the events of September 11, FBI agents have found and arrested several persons suspected of having connections to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the recent terrorist attacks. The FBI is also designated as the primary agency of enforcement for the Patriot Act.

Although no major FBI operations were assumed into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the establishment of pending DHS committees to govern intelligence agency cooperation and information sharing will alter the manner in which the FBI relays information to the President and other government officials. Proponents of the DHS hope the agency will streamline communication among intelligence and security agencies. Critics of proposed DHS intelligence reforms charge that agencies, such as the FBI, will lose investigative and operational autonomy. Despite the changing future of the structure of the United States intelligence community, the FBI will undoubtedly play a central role.

Further Reading

Books

Kessler, Ronald. The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002.

Electronic

United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. <http://www.fbi.gov> (May 2003).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the principal investigative unit of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI gathers and reports facts, compiles evidence, and locates witnesses in legal matters in which the United States is or may be a party in interest. In addition, the bureau assists both U.S. and international law enforcement agencies in crime investigation and personnel training.

The FBI investigates all violations of federal law except those specifically assigned to other federal agencies. The bureau's jurisdiction covers a wide range of crimes, from kidnapping and drug trafficking to the unauthorized use of the Woodsy Owl emblem, the U.S. Forest Service's antipollution mascot (18 U.S.C.A. § 711a). The FBI's authority derives from 28 U.S.C.A. § 533, which enables the attorney general to "appoint officials to detect … crimes against the United States." The bureau also conducts noncriminal investigations, such as background security checks. The FBI does not prosecute crimes, but assists other law enforcement agencies in investigations that lead to prosecution.

The FBI traces its origins to 1908 when President Theodore Roosevelt instructed Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte to create a force of special agents to work as investigators within the DOJ. In 1909, Attorney General George W. Wickersham named the elite group the Bureau of Investigation. In 1935, following a series of name changes, the bureau was officially termed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In its early days, the FBI investigated the relatively small number of federal crimes that existed. These included bankruptcy frauds and antitrust violations. During World War I, it was responsible for investigating espionage, sabotage, sedition, and violations of the Selective Service Act of 1917 (Act May 18, 1917, c. 15, 40 Stat. 76 [Comp. Stat. 1918, § 2044a-2044k]). In 1919, the bureau broadened its scope to include the investigation of motor vehicle thefts.

The FBI established its reputation as a tenacious investigative force during Prohibition, in the 1930s. Its many undercover probes throughout that era led to the arrests of notorious crime figures such as John Dillinger and Al Capone. With the onset of World War II and the advent of the atomic age, the FBI increased its size and scope to include domestic and foreign intelligence and counterintelligence probes, background security checks, and investigations of internal security matters for the executive branch.

During the 1960s, the bureau's chief concerns were civil rights violations and organized crime operations. Counterterrorism, white-collar crimes, illegal drugs, and violent crimes were its focus during the 1970s and 1980s.

The modern FBI divides its investigations among seven major areas: applicant matters (background checks on applicants and candidates for federal positions), civil rights, counterterrorism, foreign counterintelligence, drugs and organized crime, violent crimes and major offenders, and white-collar crimes. It has nine divisions in three offices located at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. These divisions provide program direction and support services to fifty-six field offices, four hundred satellite offices (known as resident agencies), and four specialized field installations within the United States, as well as twenty-two liaison posts outside the United States. The bureau employs approximately ten thousand special agents and over thirteen thousand support personnel.

In addition to its investigative work on federal crimes, the FBI provides investigative and training support to other law enforcement agencies. The FBI Laboratory, one of the largest and most comprehensive crime laboratories in the world, is the only full-service federal forensic lab. FBI examiners perform crime scene searches, surveillance, fingerprint examinations, and other scientific and technical services. They also train state and local crime laboratory and law enforcement personnel. Through the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), the FBI provides sophisticated identification and information services to local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies. Among the aids available through CJIS is a state-of-the-art automated fingerprint identification system. The bureau also offers extensive training programs to FBI employees and other law enforcement personnel at the FBI Academy, in Quantico, Virginia.

The FBI is headed by a director, the first and most famous of whom was J. Edgar Hoover. Appointed in 1924 at the age of twenty-nine, Hoover led the bureau for forty-eight years, until his death in 1972. He is credited with building a highly disciplined force of efficient and respected investigators. During Hoover's tenure, the FBI established its centralized fingerprint file, crime laboratory, and training center for police officers. Hoover was also criticized as an autocrat who wielded his power against anyone he considered a threat to U.S. security. He was obsessively anti-Communist, and critics charge that his single-minded quest to root out all political dissent led to the harassment of suspects and suspension of their civil liberties.

L. Patrick Gray III became acting director upon Hoover's death. He was succeeded in 1973 by another acting director, William D. Ruckelshaus, who was replaced later that year by Clarence M. Kelley, a former FBI agent. Kelley is credited with modernizing the bureau, curbing arbitrary investigations, and opening the special agent ranks to women and minorities. He presided over the bureau until 1978 when William H. Webster was appointed director. Webster was replaced by acting director John E. Otto in 1987. Otto stepped down later that year and was replaced by William S. Sessions.

During Sessions's tenure, African American and Hispanic agents charged the bureau with racial discrimination and harassment. Sessions settled these claims with the groups and instituted policies to increase the number of women and minorities in the agency. In 1993, Sessions was dismissed from his post by President Bill Clinton amid allegations of unethical conduct. In his place, Clinton appointed a former FBI agent and federal judge, Louis J. Freeh.

See: Justice Department.

An agency of the United States federal government, long headed by J. Edgar Hoover, which investigates violations of federal (rather than state or local) laws, including kidnaping, smuggling narcotics, and espionage.

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Common name	Federal Bureau of Investigation
Abbreviation	FBI
Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Motto	Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity
Agency overview
Formed	1908
Employees	30,847[1] (June 30, 2008)
Annual budget	6.4 billion USD (2007)[1]
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency (Operations jurisdiction)	United States
Legal jurisdiction	As per operations jurisdiction.
Governing body	United States Congress
Constituting instrument	United States Code Title 28 Part II Chapter 33
General nature	Federal law enforcement Civilian agency
Operational structure
Headquarters	J. Edgar Hoover Building, Washington, D.C.
Sworn members	12,747 (June 30, 2008)[1]
Unsworn members	18,111 (June 30, 2008)[1]
Agency executives	Robert S. Mueller III, Director John S. Pistole, Deputy Director List of FBI Directors, Other directors
Child agencies	FBI Academy FBI Laboratory Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) Counterterrorism Division (CTD) FBI Police (FBIP)
Major units	5 Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) Law Enforcement Bulletin Unit (LEBU) Hostage Rescue Team (FBI) (HRT) Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) FBI Police National Security Branch (NSB)
Field offices	56: List of FBI Field Offices
Notables People John Edgar Hoover, Director, for being the founding director William Mark Felt, former Federal Agent, for whistle blowing, Watergate scandal Joseph Leo Gormley, Forensic Scientist, for expert testimony Programmes FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives FBI Most Wanted Terrorists National Incident Based Reporting System Uniform Crime Reports Significant Operations COINTELPRO Special Intelligence Service
Website
http://www.fbi.gov/
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime.^[2] Its motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity", corresponding to the FBI initials.

The FBI's headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, is located in Washington, D.C.. Fifty-six field offices are located in major cities throughout the United States as well as over 400 resident agencies in smaller cities and towns across the country. More than 50 international offices called "legal attachés" are in U.S. embassies worldwide.

Contents 1 Mission and priorities 2 Legal authority 3 History 3.1 Beginnings: The Bureau of Investigation 3.2 The J. Edgar Hoover Directorship 3.2.1 The FBI and national security 3.2.2 The FBI and the civil-rights movement 3.2.3 The FBI and Kennedy's assassination 3.2.4 The FBI and organized crime 3.2.5 Notable post-Hoover reorganizations 3.2.5.1 Special FBI teams 3.2.5.2 Notable efforts in the 1990s 3.2.5.3 Post 9-11 3.2.5.4 The DarkMarket sting 4 Organization 4.1 BOI and FBI directors 4.2 Hiring process 5 Publications 6 Crime statistics 6.1 Uniform Crime Reports 6.2 National Incident Based Reporting System 7 Media portrayal 8 Controversies and criticism 9 FBI files on specific persons 10 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives relationship to the FBI 11 See also 11.1 Notable persons 11.2 State-level organizations 11.3 Similar agencies of other countries 11.3.1 Europe 11.3.2 Asia 11.3.3 North America 11.3.4 South America 11.3.5 Oceania 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links

Mission and priorities

In the fiscal year 2002, the FBI's total budget was approximately $8.9 billion, including $455 million in program increases to counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, cybercrime, information technology, security, forensics, training, and criminal programs. According to its congressional budget justification for the fiscal year 1995, for the past several years the FBI has assumed a growing responsibility for collecting foreign intelligence, request from the Director of National Intelligence.^[3] FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI). Its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935.

The FBI's main goal is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners.^[4]

Currently, the FBI's top investigative priorities are:^[5]

1. Protect the United States from terrorist attack (see counter-terrorism);
2. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage (see counter-intelligence);
3. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes (see cyber-warfare);
4. Combat public corruption at all levels;
5. Protect civil rights;
6. Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises (see organized crime);
7. Combat major white-collar crime;
8. Combat significant violent crime;
9. Upgrade technology for successful performance of the FBI's mission.

In August 2007, the top categories of lead criminal charges resulting from FBI investigations were:^[6]

1. Bank robbery and incidental crimes (107 charges)
2. Drugs (104 charges)
3. Attempt and conspiracy (81 charges)
4. Material involving sexual exploitation of minors (53 charges)
5. Mail fraud – frauds and swindles (51 charges)
6. Bank fraud (31 charges)
7. Prohibition of illegal gambling businesses (22 charges)
8. Fraud by wire, radio, or television (20 charges)
9. Hobbs Act (Robbery and extortion affecting interstate commerce) (17 charges)
10. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)-prohibited activities (17 charges)

Legal authority

An FBI Agent tags the cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir Flight 990 on the deck of the USS Grapple (ARS 53) at the crash site on November 13, 1999.

The FBI's mandate is established in Title 28 of the United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect... crimes against the United States." ^[7] Other federal statutes give the FBI the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes.

J. Edgar Hoover began using wiretapping in the 1920s during Prohibition to arrest bootleggers.^[8] A 1927 case in which a bootlegger was caught through telephone tapping went to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that the FBI could use wiretaps in its investigations and did not violate the Fourth Amendment as unlawful search and seizure as long as the FBI did not break in to a person's home to complete the tapping.^[8] After Prohibition's repeal, Congress passed the 1934 Communications Act, which outlawed non-consensual phone tapping, but allowed bugging.^[8] In another Supreme Court case, the court ruled in 1939 that due to the 1934 law, evidence the FBI obtained by phone tapping was inadmissible in court.^[8] A 1967 Supreme Court decision overturned the 1927 case allowing bugging, after which Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, allowing public authorities to tap telephones during investigations, as long as they obtain a warrant beforehand.^[8]

The FBI's chief tool against organized crime is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The FBI is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing compliance of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating violations of the act in addition to prosecuting such violations with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI also shares concurrent jurisdiction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

The USA PATRIOT Act increased the powers allotted to the FBI, especially in wiretapping and monitoring of Internet activity. One of the most controversial provisions of the act is the so-called sneak and peek provision, granting the FBI powers to search a house while the residents are away, and not requiring them to notify the residents for several weeks afterwards. Under the PATRIOT Act's provisions the FBI also resumed inquiring into the library records^[9] of those who are suspected of terrorism (something it had supposedly not done since the 1970s).

Information obtained through an FBI investigation is presented to the appropriate U.S. Attorney or Department of Justice official, who decides if prosecution or other action is warranted.

History

Beginnings: The Bureau of Investigation

In 1886, the Supreme Court, in Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company v. Illinois, found that the states had no power to regulate interstate commerce. The resulting Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 created a Federal responsibility for interstate law enforcement. The Justice Department, which had hired few permanent investigators since its establishment in 1870, made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the turn of the century, when Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte reached out to other agencies, including the Secret Service, for investigators. But the Congress forbade this use of Treasury employees by Justice, passing a law to that effect in 1908. So the Attorney General moved to organize a formal Bureau of Investigation (BOI or BI), complete with its own staff of special agents. The Secret Service provided the Department of Justice 12 Special Agents and these agents became the first Agents in the new BOI. Thus, the first FBI agents were actually Secret Service agents. Its jurisdiction derived from the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.^[10][11] The FBI grew out of this force of special agents created on July 26, 1908 during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Its first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the "White Slave Traffic Act," or Mann Act, passed on June 25, 1910. In 1932, it was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. The following year it was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition and rechristened the Division of Investigation (DOI) before finally becoming an independent service within the Department of Justice in 1935.^[10] In the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI.

The J. Edgar Hoover Directorship

The Director of the BOI, J. Edgar Hoover, became the first FBI Director and served for 48 years combined with the BOI, DOI, and FBI. After Hoover's death, legislation was passed limiting the tenure of future FBI Directors to a maximum of ten years. The Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, or the FBI Laboratory, officially opened in 1932, largely as a result of Hoover's efforts. Hoover had substantial involvement in most cases and projects the FBI handled during his tenure.

During the "War on Crime" of the 1930s, FBI agents apprehended or killed a number of notorious criminals who carried out kidnappings, robberies, and murders throughout the nation, including John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, Kate "Ma" Barker, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, and George "Machine Gun" Kelly.

Other activities of its early decades included a decisive role in reducing the scope and influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Additionally, through the work of Edwin Atherton, the FBI claimed success in apprehending an entire army of Mexican neo-revolutionaries along the California border in the 1920s.

Lester J. Gillis, also known as "Baby Face" Nelson.

The FBI and national security

Beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 1970s, the Bureau investigated cases of espionage against the United States and its allies. Eight Nazi agents who had planned sabotage operations against American targets were arrested, six of whom were executed (Ex parte Quirin). Also during this time, a joint US/UK code breaking effort (Venona)—-with which the FBI was heavily involved—-broke Soviet diplomatic and intelligence communications codes, allowing the US and British governments to read Soviet communications. This effort confirmed the existence of Americans working in the United States for Soviet intelligence.^[12] Hoover was administering this project but failed to notify the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) until 1952. Another notable case is the arrest of Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in 1957.^[13] The discovery of Soviet spies operating in the US allowed Hoover to pursue his longstanding obsession with the threat he perceived from the American left, ranging from Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) union organizers to American liberals with no revolutionary aspirations whatsoever.

The FBI and the civil-rights movement

During the 1950s and 1960s, FBI officials became increasingly concerned about the influence of civil rights leaders. In 1956, for example, Hoover took the rare step of sending an open letter denouncing Dr. T.R.M. Howard, a civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in Mississippi who had criticized FBI inaction in solving recent murders of George W. Lee, Emmett Till, and other blacks in the South. ^[14] The FBI carried out controversial domestic surveillance in an operation it called the COINTELPRO, which was short for "COunter-INTELligence PROgram."^[15] It aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States, including both militant and non-violent organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a leading civil rights organization.^[16]

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a frequent target of investigation. The FBI found no evidence of any crime, but attempted to use tapes of King involved in sexual activity for blackmail. In his 1991 memoirs, Washington Post journalist Carl Rowan asserted that the FBI had sent at least one anonymous letter to King encouraging him to commit suicide.^[17]

The FBI and Kennedy's assassination

When President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed, the jurisdiction fell to the local police departments until President Lyndon B. Johnson directed the FBI to take over the investigation.^[18] To ensure that there would never be any more confusion over who would handle homicides at the federal level, Congress passed a law that put investigations of deaths of federal officials within FBI jurisdiction.

The FBI and organized crime

In response to organized crime, on August 25, 1953, the Top Hoodlum Program was created. It asked all field offices to gather information on mobsters in their territories and to report it regularly to Washington for a centralized collection of intelligence on racketeers. [1] After the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act, took effect, the FBI began investigating the former Prohibition-organized groups, which had become fronts for crime in major cities and even small towns. All of the FBI work was done undercover and from within these organizations using the provisions provided in the RICO Act and these groups were dismantled. Although Hoover initially denied the existence^{[citation needed]} of a close-knit organized crime network in the United States^{[citation needed]} because he then had limited resources to deploy against organized crime^{[citation needed]}, the Bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed by Sam Giancana and John Gotti. The RICO Act is still used today for all organized crime and any individuals that might fall under the Act.

J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director from 1924 to 1972.

Notable post-Hoover reorganizations

Special FBI teams

In 1984, the FBI formed an elite unit^[19] to help with problems that might arise at the 1984 Summer Olympics, particularly terrorism and major-crime. The formation of the team arose from the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, Germany when terrorists murdered Israeli Athletes. The team was named Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) and acts as the FBI lead for a national SWAT team in related procedures and all counter terrorism cases. Also formed in 1984 was the Computer Analysis and Response Team (CART).^[20] The end of the 1980s and the early part of the 1990s saw the reassignment of over 300 agents from foreign counter intelligence duties to violent crime and the designation of violent crime as the sixth national priority. But with reduced cuts to other well-established departments, and because terrorism was not longer considered a threat after the end of the Cold War,^[20] the FBI became a tool of local police forces for tracking fugitives who had crossed state lines, which was a felony. The FBI Laboratory also helped develop DNA testing, continuing the pioneering role in identification that began with its fingerprinting system in 1924.

Notable efforts in the 1990s

Between 1993 and 1996, the FBI increased its counter-terrorism role in the wake of the first 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York, New York and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and the arrest of the Unabomber in 1996. Technological innovation and the skills of FBI Laboratory analysts helped ensure that all three of these cases were successfully prosecuted, but the FBI was also confronted by a public outcry in this period, which still haunts it today.^[21] After Congress passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, 1994), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPA, 1996), and the Economic Espionage Act (EEA, 1996), the FBI followed suit and underwent a technological upgrade in 1998, just as it did with its CART team in 1991. Computer Investigations and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center (CITAC) and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) were created to deal with the increase in Internet-related problems, such as computer viruses, worms, and other malicious programs that might unleash havoc in the US. With these developments, the FBI increased its electronic surveillance in public safety and national security investigations, adapting to how telecommunications advancements changed the nature of such problems.

Post 9-11

Within months of the September 11 attacks in 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller, who had only been sworn in three days before the attacks, called for a re-engineering of FBI structure and operations. In turn, he made countering every federal crime a top priority, including the prevention of terrorism, countering foreign intelligence operations, addressing cyber security threats, other high-tech crimes, protecting civil rights, combating public corruption, organized crime, white-collar crime, and major acts of violent crime.^[22]

The DarkMarket sting

The FBI on October 17, 2008 announced that its two-year long undercover operation against users of the crime forum DarkMarket netted 56 arrests worldwide and prevented $70 million in economic losses, publicly acknowledging the sting for the first time.

Organization

J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Headquarters

FBI Mobile Command Center, Washington Field Office

The FBI is headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., with 56 field offices^[23] in major cities across the United States. The FBI also maintains over 400 resident agencies across the United States, as well as over 50 legal attachés at United States embassies and consulates. Many specialized FBI functions are located at facilities in Quantico, Virginia, as well as in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The FBI is in process of moving its Records Management Division, which processes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, to Winchester, Virginia.^[24]

The FBI Laboratory, established with the formation of the BOI,^[25] did not appear in the J. Edgar Hoover Building until its completion in 1974. The lab serves as the primary lab for most DNA, biological, and physical work. Public tours of FBI headquarters ran through the FBI laboratory workspace before the move to the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The services the lab conducts include Chemistry, Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), Computer Analysis and Response, DNA Analysis, Evidence Response, Explosives, Firearms and Tool marks, Forensic Audio, Forensic Video, Image Analysis, Forensic Science Research, Forensic Science Training, Hazardous Materials Response, Investigative and Prospective Graphics, Latent Prints, Materials Analysis, Questioned Documents, Racketeering Records, Special Photographic Analysis, Structural Design, and Trace Evidence.^[26] The services of the FBI Laboratory are used by many state, local, and international agencies free of charge. The lab also maintains a second lab at the FBI Academy.

The FBI Academy, located in Quantico, Virginia, is home to the communications and computer laboratory the FBI utilizes. It is also where new agents are sent for training to become FBI Special Agents. Going through the twenty-one week course is required for every Special Agent.^[27] It was first opened for use in 1972 on 385 acres (1.6 km²) of woodland. The Academy also serves as a classroom for state and local law enforcement agencies who are invited onto the premiere law enforcement training center. The FBI units that reside at Quantico are the Field and Police Training Unit, Firearms Training Unit, Forensic Science Research and Training Center, Technology Services Unit (TSU), Investigative Training Unit, Law Enforcement Communication Unit, Leadership and Management Science Units (LSMU), Physical Training Unit, New Agents' Training Unit (NATU), Practical Applications Unit (PAU), the Investigative Computer Training Unit and the "College of Analytical Studies."

The Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division,^[28] located in Clarksburg, West Virginia. It is the youngest division of the FBI only being formed in 1991 and opening in 1995. The complex itself is the length of three football fields. Its purpose is to provide a main repository for information. Under the roof of the CJIS are the programs for the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), Fingerprint Identification, Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), NCIC 2000, and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Many state and local agencies use these systems as a source for their own investigations and contribute to the database using secure communications. FBI provides these tools of sophisticated identification and information services to local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies.

The FBI often works in conjunction with other Federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in seaport and airport security,^[29] and the National Transportation Safety Board in investigating airplane crashes and other critical incidents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the only other agency with the closest amount of investigative power. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the FBI maintains a role in most federal criminal investigations.

FBI agents from the Washington Field Office with one of the tactical vehicles they had standing by for the 2009 Presidential Inauguration

The FBI is organized into five functional branches and the Office of the Director, which contains most administrative offices. Each branch is managed by an Executive Assistant Director. Each office and division within the branch is managed by an Assistant Director.

The FBI is organized in the following manner.

• Office of the Director
  • Office of Congressional Affairs
  • Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs
  • Office of the General Counsel
  • Office of Integrity and Compliance
  • Office of the Ombudsman
  • Office of Professional Responsibility
  • Office of Public Affairs
  • Inspection Division
  • Facilities and Logistics Services Division
  • Finance Division
  • Records Management Division
  • Resource Planning Office
  • Security Division

• National Security Branch
  • Counterintelligence Division
  • Counterterrorism Division
  • Directorate of Intelligence
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate

• Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch
  • Criminal Investigative Division
  • Cyber Division
  • Critical Incident Response Group
  • Office of International Operations
  • Office of Law Enforcement Coordination

• Human Resources Branch
  • Training Division
  • Human Resources Division

• Science and Technology Branch
  • Criminal Justice Information Services Division
  • Laboratory Division
  • Operational Technology Division
  • Special Technologies and Applications Office

• Information and Technology Branch
  • Information Technology Operations Division
  • Office of IT Policy & Planning
  • Office of IT Program Management
  • Office of IT Systems Development
  • Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer

BOI and FBI directors

Main article: List of FBI Directors

FBI Directors are appointed by the President of the United States. They must be confirmed by the United States Senate and serve ten-year terms unless they resign or are fired by the President before their term is up. J. Edgar Hoover, appointed by Calvin Coolidge in 1924, was by far the longest-serving FBI Director, serving until his death in 1972. In 1968, Congress passed legislation as part of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act Pub.L. 90-351, June 19, 1968, 82 Stat. 197 that specified a 10-year term limit for future FBI Directors, as well as requiring Senate confirmation of appointees. As the incumbent, this legislation did not apply to Hoover, only to his successors. The current FBI Director is Robert Mueller, who was appointed in 2001 by George W. Bush.

The FBI director is responsible for the day-to-day operations at the FBI. Along with his deputies, the director makes sure cases and operations are handled correctly. The director also is in charge of making sure the leadership in any one of the FBI field offices are manned with qualified agents. Before the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the FBI director would brief the President of the United States on any issues that arise from within the FBI. Since then, the director now reports to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) who in turn reports to the President.The FBI Directors had to make sure the FBI got as much training as needed.

Hiring process

Agents in training on the FBI Academy firing range

In order to apply to become an FBI agent, an applicant must be between the ages of 23 and 37. The applicant must also hold American citizenship, have a clean record, and hold a four-year TS/SCI clearance.^[30] In order to get a security clearance, all potential FBI personnel must pass a series of Single Scope Background Investigations (SSBI), which are conducted by the Office of Personnel Management.^[31] Special Agents candidates also have to pass a Physical Fitness Test (PFT) that includes a 300-meter run, one-minute sit-ups, maximum push-ups, and a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) run. There is also a polygraph test personnel have to pass, with questions including possible drug use.

After potential special agent candidates are cleared with TS clearance and the Form SF-312 non-disclosure agreement is signed, they attend the FBI training facility located on Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Candidates spend approximately 21 weeks at the FBI Academy, where they receive over 500 classroom hours and over 1,000 simulated law enforcement hours to train. Upon graduation, new FBI Special Agents are placed all around the country and the world, depending on their areas of expertise. Professional support staff works out of one of the many support buildings the FBI maintains. However, any Agent or Support staff member can be transferred to any location for any length of time if their skills are deemed necessary at one of the FBI field offices or one of the 400 resident agencies the FBI maintains.

As of July 31, 2009, the FBI had a total of 32,709 employees. That includes 13,249 special agents and 19,460 support professionals, such as intelligence analysts, language specialists, scientists, information technology specialists, and other professionals.^[32]

Publications

The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin is published monthly by the FBI Law Enforcement Communication Unit,^[33] with articles of interest to state and local law enforcement personnel. First published in 1932 as Fugitives Wanted by Police,^[34] the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin covers topics including law enforcement technology and issues, such as crime mapping and use of force, as well as recent criminal justice research, and Vi-CAP alerts, on wanted suspects and key cases.

The FBI also publishes some reports for both law enforcement personnel as well as regular citizens covering topics including law enforcement, terrorism, cybercrime, white-collar crime, violent crime, and statistics.^[35] However, the vast majority of Federal government publications covering these topics are published by the Office of Justice Programs agencies of the United States Department of Justice, and disseminated through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

Crime statistics

The badge of an FBI Special Agent

In the 1920s, the FBI began issuing crime reports by gathering numbers from local police departments.^[36] Due to limitations of this system found during the 1960s and 1970s—victims often simply did not report crimes to the police in the first place—the Department of Justice developed an alternate method of tallying crime, the victimization survey.^[36]

Uniform Crime Reports

Main article: Uniform Crime Reports

The Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) compile data from over 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. They provide detailed data regarding the volume of crimes to include arrest, clearance (or closing a case), and law enforcement officer information. The UCR focuses its data collection on violent crimes, hate crimes, and property crimes.^[35] Created in the 1920s, the UCR system has not proven to be as uniform as its name implies. The UCR data only reflect the most serious offense in the case of connected crimes and has a very restrictive definition of rape. Since about 93% of the data submitted to the FBI is in this format, the UCR stands out as the publication of choice as most states require law enforcement agencies to submit this data.

Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report for 2006 was released on June 4, 2006. The report shows violent crime offenses rose 1.3%, but the number of property crime offenses decreased 2.9% compared to 2005.^[37]

National Incident Based Reporting System

Main article: National Incident Based Reporting System

The National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) crime statistics system aims to address limitations inherent in UCR data. The system used by law enforcement agencies in the United States for collecting and reporting data on crimes. Local, state, and federal agencies generate NIBRS data from their records management systems. Data is collected on every incident and arrest in the Group A offense category. The Group A offenses are 46 specific crimes grouped in 22 offense categories. Specific facts about these offenses are gathered and reported in the NIBRS system. In addition to the Group A offenses, eleven Group B offenses are reported with only the arrest information. The NIBRS system is in greater detail than the summary-based UCR system. As of 2004, 5,271 law enforcement agencies submitted NIBRS data. That amount represents 20% of the United States population and 16% of the crime statistics data collected by the FBI.

Media portrayal

Main article: FBI portrayal in the media

The FBI has been frequently depicted in popular media since the 1930s. The Bureau has participated to varying degrees, which has ranged from direct involvement in the creative process itself in order to present the FBI in a favorable light, to providing consultation on operations and closed cases.^[38]

Controversies and criticism

In March 1971, a Media, Pennsylvania FBI resident office was robbed; the thieves took secret files and distributed them to a range of newspapers including the Harvard Crimson.^[39] The files detailed the FBI's investigations into lives of ordinary citizens—including a black student group at a Pennsylvania military college and the daughter of Congressman Henry Reuss of Wisconsin.^[39] The country was "jolted" by the revelations, and the actions were denounced by members of Congress including House Majority Leader Hale Boggs.^[39] The phones of some members of Congress, including Boggs, had allegedly been tapped.^[39]

The FBI has endured public criticism and internal conflict in the past decade. As the FBI attempts to modernize technologically to take on a greater counter-terrorism role, there have been times where the FBI is scrutinized.

Most of the recent controversies in the FBI have been involved with "terrorist" organizations or "operational" mishaps. In the early and late 1990s, its role in the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents caused an uproar over the killings. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, the FBI was also criticized for its investigation on the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. It has settled a dispute with Richard Jewell, who was a private security guard at the venue, along with some media organizations,^[40] in regards to the leaking of his name during the investigation. In the 1990s, it turned out that the fingerprint unit of the FBI's crime lab had repeatedly done shoddy work. In some cases, the technicians, given evidence that actually cleared a suspect, reported instead that it proved the suspect guilty. Many cases had to be reopened when this pattern of errors was discovered.

In 2000, the FBI began the Trilogy project to upgrade its outdated information technology (IT) infrastructure. This project, originally scheduled to take three years and cost around $380 million, ended up going far over budget and behind schedule.^[41] Efforts to deploy modern computers and networking equipment were generally successful, but attempts to develop new investigation software, outsourced to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), were a disaster. Virtual Case File, or VCF, as the software was known, was plagued by poorly defined goals, and repeated changes in management.^[42] In January 2005, more than two years after the software was originally planned for completion, the FBI officially abandoned the project. At least $100 million (and much more by some estimates) was spent on the project, which was never operational. The FBI has been forced to continue using its decade-old Automated Case Support system, which is considered woefully inadequate by IT experts. In March 2005, the FBI announced it is beginning a new, more ambitious software project code-named Sentinel expected for completion by 2009.^[43]

In February 2001, Robert Hanssen was caught selling information to the Russians. It was later learned that Hanssen, who had reached a high position within the FBI, had been selling intelligence since as early as 1979. He pleaded guilty to treason and received a life sentence in 2002, but the incident led many to question the security practices employed by the FBI. There was also a claim that Robert Hanssen might have contributed information that led to the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[44]

The 9/11 Commission's final report on July 22, 2004 stated that the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were both partially to blame for not pursuing intelligence reports which could have prevented the September 11, 2001 attacks. In its most damning assessment, the report concluded that the country had "not been well served" by either agency and listed numerous recommendations for changes within the FBI.^[45] While the FBI has acceded to most of the recommendations, including oversight by the new Director of National Intelligence, some former members of the 9/11 Commission publicly criticized the FBI in October 2005, claiming it was resisting any meaningful changes.^[46]

On July 8, 2007 the Washington Post published excerpts from UCLA Professor Amy Zegart's book Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11.^[47] The article reported that government documents show the CIA and FBI missed 23 potential chances to disrupt the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The primary reasons for these failures included: agency cultures resistant to change and new ideas; inappropriate incentives for promotion; and a lack of cooperation between the FBI, CIA and the rest of the United States Intelligence Community. The article went on to also blame the FBI's decentralized structure which prevented effective communication and cooperation between different FBI offices. The article also claimed that the FBI has still not evolved into an effective counterterrorism or counterintelligence agency, due in large part to deeply ingrained cultural resistance to change within the FBI. For example, FBI personnel practices continue to treat all staff other than Special Agents as support staff, categorizing Intelligence Analysts alongside the FBI's auto mechanics and janitors.^[48]

A March 2007 report by the inspector general of the Justice Department described the FBI's "widespread and serious misuse" of national security letters, a form of administrative subpoena used to demand records and data pertaining to individuals. The report said that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI had issued more than 140,000 national security letters, many involving people with no obvious connections to terrorism.^[49]

Faulty Bullet Lead Analysis Testimony

For over 40 years, the FBI crime lab in Quantico believed lead in bullets had unique chemical signatures, and that by breaking them down and analyzing them, it was possible to match bullets, not only to a single batch of ammunition coming out of a factory, but to a single box of bullets. The National Academy of Sciences conducted an 18-month independent review of comparative bullet lead analysis. In 2003, its National Research Council published a report calling into question 30 years of FBI testimony. It found the model the FBI used for interpreting results was deeply flawed and that the conclusion that bullet fragments could be matched to a box of ammunition so overstated, that it was misleading under the rules of evidence. One year later, the FBI decided to stop doing bullet lead analysis.

Of over 2,500 cases using this analysis, there are potentially hundreds or thousands where FBI lab technicians provided forensic testimony at criminal trials. In each case, the testimony was wrong and misleading. The U.S. Government has a legal obligation to notify defendants about any information that might help prove their innocence, even after they have been convicted. Only the FBI can identify the cases in which bullet lead analysis was performed, yet it has resisted releasing that information.

As a result of the 60 Minutes/Washington Post investigation in November 2007, (two years later) the bureau said it will identify, review, and release all of the pertinent cases, and notify prosecutors about cases in which faulty testimony was given.^[50]

FBI knowingly assisted in wrongful conviction of murder

Protecting an informant, the FBI allowed four innocent men to be convicted of murder in March 1965. Three of the men were sentenced to death (which was later reduced to life in prison). The fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison, where he spent three decades.^[51]

In July 2007, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston found the bureau helped convict the four men of the March 1965 gangland murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan. The U.S. Government was ordered to pay $100 million in damages to the four defendants.^[52]

FBI files on specific persons

It is possible to obtain a copy of an FBI file on oneself, on a living person who gives you permission to do so, or on a deceased individual, through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. The FBI has generated files on numerous celebrities including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Denver, John Lennon, Jane Fonda, Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin, MC5, Lou Costello, Sonny Bono, Bob Dylan, Mickey Mantle, and Gene Autry.^[53] The FBI also profiled Jack the Ripper in 1888 but his identity still remains unproven today.^[54]

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives relationship to the FBI

This is a specialized federal law enforcement agency and regulatory organization within the United States Department of Justice.^[55] The ATF and FBI each train separately and have their own explosives database and lab. Agents race to explosions to claim the lead in investigations, and some managers are unclear about jurisdiction.^[56]

See also

United States portal

Law enforcement/Law enforcement topics portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Federal Bureau of Investigation

• America's Safest and Most Dangerous Cities
• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)
• FBI Honorary Medals
• Federal law enforcement in the United States
• Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Law enforcement in the United States
• United States Marshals Service
• U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), Department of State
• The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies trains new analysts in intelligence analysis.

Notable persons

• Edwin Atherton
• Ed Bethune
• J. Edgar Hoover
• Richard Miller
• Moses Powell
• Loy F. Weaver

State-level organizations

• State bureau of investigation

Similar agencies of other countries

Europe

• Federal Criminal Police Office (BK), Austria
• Security Intelligence Service, Denmark
• Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Germany
• Security Service (MI5), United Kingdom
• National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Republic of Ireland
• National Bureau of Investigation, Finland
• Judicial Police, or Interior security France
• Judicial Police, Portugal
• National Police Corps, Spain
• Swedish Security Service, Sweden
• National Bureau of Investigation, Ukraine
• Metropolitan Police Service, United Kingdom
• Serious Organised Crime Agency, United Kingdom
• Federal Security Service, Russia
• International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol)

Asia

• Central Bureau of Investigation, India
• National Bureau of Investigation, Philippines
• Security Agency, Israel
• Ministry of Public Security, China

North America

• Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada
• Federal Investigations Agency, Mexico
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada

South America

• Administrative Department of Security, Colombia
• Federal Police, Argentina
• Federal Police, Brazil

Oceania

• Federal Police, Australia
• ASIO, Australia
• Police, New Zealand
• GCSB, New Zealand

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Quick Facts". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/quickfacts.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-07. 
2. ^ ref name="quickfacts">"Federal Bureau of Investigation - Quick Facts". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/quickfacts.htm. 
3. ^ "Congressional budget justification, FY 2009" (PDF). Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/2009just.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-08. 
4. ^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation - Quick Facts". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/quickfacts.htm. 
5. ^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation - Priorities". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/priorities/priorities.htm. 
6. ^ "FBI Top Ranked Lead Charges". Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/jfbi/monthlyaug07/fil/. 
7. ^ "US CODE: Title 28,533. Investigative and other officials; appointment". Cornell Law School. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sec_28_00000533----000-.html. 
8. ^ ^{a b c d e} Greenberg, David (2001-10-22). "Civil Rights: Let 'Em Wiretap!". History News Network. http://hnn.us/articles/366.html. 
9. ^ Egelko, Bob; Maria Alicia Gaura (2003-04-10). "Libraries post Patriot Act warnings Santa Cruz branches tell patrons that FBI may spy on them". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/10/MN14634.DTL. Retrieved 2006-06-07. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Timeline of FBI History". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/historicdates.htm. 
11. ^ Langeluttig, Albert (1927). The Department of Justice of the United States. Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 9–14. 
12. ^ Benson, Robert L.. "The Venona Story". National Security Agency. http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm. Retrieved 2006-06-18. 
13. ^ Romerstein, Herbert, Eric Breindel (2001). The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors. Regnery Publishing, Inc.. pp. 209. ISBN 0-89526-225-8. 
14. ^ David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 148, 154–59.
15. ^ Cassidy, Mike M. (1999-05-26). "A Short History of FBI COINTELPRO" (HTML). Monitor. http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
16. ^ Jalon, Allan M. (2006-04-08). "A Break-In to End All Break-Ins" (HTML). Los Angeles Times. http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
17. ^ Adams, Cecil M. (2003-05-02). "Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist?" (HTML). Washington Post. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
18. ^ "Postwar America: 1945–1960s". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/postwar.htm. 
19. ^ "Rise in International Crime". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/rise.htm. 
20. ^ ^{a b} "End of the Cold War". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/postcold.htm. 
21. ^ "Rise of a Wired World". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/wiredworld.htm. 
22. ^ "Change of Mandate". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/changeman.htm. 
23. ^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation - Field Divisions". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm. 
24. ^ Reid, Sarah A. (2006-07-26). "One of the biggest things the FBI has ever done". The Winchester Star. http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/060726/Area_fbi.asp. 
25. ^ "FBI Laboratory History". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/labhome.htm. 
26. ^ "FBI Laboratory Services". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/org/labchart.htm. 
27. ^ "Special Agent Career Path Program". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbijobs.gov/113.asp. 
28. ^ "The CJIS Mission". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/about.htm. 
29. ^ "The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Efforts to Protect the Nation's Seaports" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General. 2006, March. http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0626/final.pdf. 
30. ^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation Jobs". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbijobs.gov/5.asp. 
31. ^ "Review of the Security and Emergency Planning Staff's Management of Background Investigations". U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General. 2005, September. http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/OBD/e0510/back.htm#12. 
32. ^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation - About Us - Quick Facts". http://www.fbi.gov/quickfacts.htm. 
33. ^ "Law Enforcement Communication Unit". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/hq/td/academy/lecu/lecu.htm. 
34. ^ "History of the FBI, The New Deal: 1933 - Late 1930s". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/newdeal.htm. 
35. ^ ^{a b} "Federal Bureau of Investigation - Reports & Publications". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/publications.htm. 
36. ^ ^{a b} Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 12. ISBN 0465041957. 
37. ^ "Preliminary Crime Statistics for 2006". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/06prelim/index.html. 
38. ^ Powers, Richard Gid (1983). G-Men: Hoover’s FBI in American Popular Culture. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-1096-1. 
39. ^ ^{a b c d} Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 40. ISBN 0465041957. 
40. ^ "Richard Jewell v. NBC, and other Richard Jewell cases" (HTML). Media Libel. http://medialibel.org/cases-conflicts/tv/jewell.html. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
41. ^ Sherman, Mark. "Lawmakers criticize FBI director's expensive project" (HTML). Newszine. http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/newszine/Archive/020905/tech/2.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
42. ^ Gerin, Roseanne (2005-01-14). "SAIC rejects Trilogy criticism" (HTML). Washington Technology. http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/industry/25335-1.html. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
43. ^ Arnone, Michael (2005-06-25). "Senators seek to fast track FBI's Sentinel" (HTML). FCW.Com. http://www.fcw.com/article89707-07-27-05-Web. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
44. ^ Seper, Jerry. "Osama access to state secrets helped 9/11" (HTML). Computer Crime Research Center. Archived from the original on 2003-01-08. http://www.crime-research.org/news/2003/01/Mess0801.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
45. ^ Shovelan, John (2004-06-23). "9/11 Commission finds 'deep institutional failings'" (HTML). ABC Au. http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1160100.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
46. ^ "Ex-FBI Chief On Clinton's Scandals" (HTML). CBS News. 2004-10-06. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/06/60minutes/main923095.shtml. Retrieved 2006-06-06. 
47. ^ Zegart, Amy (2007-09-01). "Spying Blind" (HTML). Princeton University Press. http://faculty.spa.ucla.edu/zegart/tableofcontent.asp. Retrieved 2007-07-08. 
48. ^ Zegart, Amy (2007-07-08). "Our Clueless Intelligence System" (HTML). Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602004.html. Retrieved 2007-07-08. 
49. ^ Jeffrey Rosen (2007-04-15). "Who’s Watching the F.B.I.?". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15wwlnlede.t.html?pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2007-11-21. 
50. ^ "Evidence Of Injustice". CBS News. 2007-11-18. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/16/60minutes/main3512453.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-22. 
51. ^ Shelley Murphy (2007-07-27). "Evidence Of Injustice". Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/27/death_deceit_then_decades_of_silence/. Retrieved 2007-11-22. 
52. ^ "U.S. Must Pay Out $100 Million for Wrongful FBI Conviction". Reuters. 2007-07-27. http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/7/26/223620.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-22. 
53. ^ "Reading Room Index". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-04. 
54. ^ "Jack the ripper". Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/jacktheripper.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
55. ^ ATF Online - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
56. ^ Time Online - Report: FBI and ATF Rivalry

Further reading

• HSI BOOK Government HSI Files
• Charles, Douglas M. (2007). J. Edgar Hoover and the Anti-interventionists: FBI Political Surveillance and the Rise of the Domestic Security State, 1939–1945. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0814210619. 
• Kessler, Ronald (1993). The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency. Pocket Books Publications. ISBN 0-6717-8657-1. 
• Powers, Richard Gid (1983). G-Men, Hoover's FBI in American Popular Culture. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-1096-1. 
• Sullivan, William (1979). The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI. Norton. ISBN 0-393-01236-0. 
• Theoharis, Athan G.; John Stuart Cox (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-532-X. 
• Theoharis, Athan G.; Tony G. Poveda, Susan Rosenfeld, Richard Gid Powers (2000). The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Checkmark Books. ISBN 0-8160-4228-4. 
• Theoharis, Athan G. (2004). The FBI and American Democracy: A Brief Critical History. Kansas: University Press. ISBN 0-7006-1345-5. 
• Tonry, Michael (ed.) (2000). The Handbook of Crime & Punishment. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514060-5. 
• Trahair, Richard C. S. (2004). Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations. Ballentine: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-31955-3. 
• Williams, David (1981). "The Bureau of Investigation and its Critics, 1919–1921: the Origins of Federal Political Surveillance". Journal of American History 68: 560–579. doi:10.2307/1901939. 

External links

• Official FBI website
• FBI Organizational Chart
• Original Bureau of Investigation Document Online: William Randolph Hearst
• ODMP listing of Fallen FBI Agents 1925–2007
• Church Committee Report, Vol. 6, "Federal Bureau of Investigation." 1975 congressional inquiry into American intelligence operations.

Coordinates: 38°53′40″N 77°01′28″W / 38.894465°N 77.024503°W / 38.894465; -77.024503

v • d • e Agencies under the United States Department of Justice Headquarters: Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building Attorney General Deputy Attorney General Justice Management Division · Criminal Division · National Security Division · Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives · Drug Enforcement Administration · Federal Bureau of Investigation · Federal Bureau of Prisons · National Institute of Corrections · United States Marshals Service · Executive Office for Immigration Review · Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management · Office of the Federal Detention Trustee · Office of Intelligence Policy and Review · Office of the Pardon Attorney · Office of Professional Responsibility · Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes against Children · Office of Tribal Justice · Professional Responsibility Advisory Office · United States Attorneys  · United States Trustee Program · INTERPOL, U.S. National Central Bureau · National Drug Intelligence Center · United States Parole Commission · Office of Legal Counsel Associate Attorney General Office of Justice Programs · Office of Dispute Resolution · Office on Violence Against Women · Community Oriented Policing Services · Office of Information and Privacy · Foreign Claims Settlement Commission · Antitrust Division · Civil Division · Civil Rights Division · Environment and Natural Resources Division · Tax Division · Community Relations Service · Office of Legal Policy Solicitor General

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Dansk (Danish)
abbr. - Federal Bureau of Investigation, amerikansk sikkerhedspoliti

Nederlands (Dutch)
federale recherche, Federatie van Britse Industrieën

Français (French)
abbr. - FBI, (abrév = Federal Bureau Investigation), Police judiciaire fédérale

Deutsch (German)
abbr. - US-amerikanisches Bundeskriminalamt

Ελληνική (Greek)
abbr., -
n. - Εφ-Μπι-'Αι, Ομοσπονδιακή Αστυνομία

Italiano (Italian)
ufficio federale di investigazione

Português (Portuguese)
abbr. - FBI (m)
n. - Departamento (m) de Investigação Federal (EUA)

Русский (Russian)
ФБР

Español (Spanish)
abbr. - Departamento Federal de Investigación Criminal

Svenska (Swedish)
abbr. - Federal Bureau of Investigations (USA)
n. - FBI (säkerhetspolisen)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
联邦调查局, 英国工业联合会

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
abbr. - 聯邦調查局, 英國工業聯合會

한국어 (Korean)
abbr. - Federal Bureau of Investigation(미연방 수사국)

日本語 (Japanese)
abbr. - 連邦捜査局

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(اختصار) مكتب التحقيقات الفيدرالي (الاسم) مكتب التحقيقات الفيدرالي في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
abbr. - ‮משרד החקירות הפדראלי של ארה"ב, אף-בי-איי‬

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