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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA and the FBI have for the first time in two decades reached a new wide-ranging agreement on how to coordinate their intelligence activities in a post-Sept. 11 world of increasingly blurred divisions of duty, officials say. A classified memorandum of understanding, which is under review by senior Bush administration officials, redefines the relationship by which the two agencies have operated worldwide since the Cold War era of the 1980s, officials said. The document, which was jointly negotiated several weeks ago, is expected to be submitted for approval to the new director of national intelligence, John...

The F.B.I. missed at least five chances in the months before Sept. 11, 2001, to find two hijackers as they prepared for the attacks and settled in San Diego, the Justice Department inspector general said in a report made public on Thursday after being kept secret for a year. Investigators were stymied by bureaucratic obstacles, communication breakdowns and a lack of urgency, the report said. The blistering findings mirror those of the independent Sept. 11 commission last summer and a joint Congressional inquiry in 2002 but they also provide significant new details about the many bureaucratic breakdowns that plagued the...

WASHINGTON - FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers Tuesday he still doesn't know how much it will cost to complete the bureau's computer overhaul, already well over budget and behind schedule. He also refused to state publicly the cost of the initial phase of the Sentinel system, the planned successor to a failed project that was supposed to greatly improve management of terrorism and other criminal cases. "There are certain sensitivities involved," Mueller told the Senate Appropriations Committee's Commerce, Justice and Science subcommittee, explaining that the FBI soon would invite contractors to compete for the work. The FBI has yet...

The director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation says the agency is permanently stationing agents in Hungary in an effort to combat organized crime and terrorism in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Robert Mueller traveled to Budapest to meet Hungarian politicians and to participate in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Law Enforcement Academy. Director Mueller says FBI agents and Hungarian national police have been participating in a joint task force to combat organized crime and terrorism. Mr. Mueller says the task force has been "so successful" since it began five...

WASHINGTON — Some homeland security experts and lawmakers are wondering how a post-Sept. 11 promise to improve the nation’s intelligence-gathering capabilities hit a monumental snag this month as the FBI announced it is scrapping a $170 million computer overhaul after nearly four years in the making. "If you can't get the simple things right and on time, what does that say about your ability to deal with the larger problem of defending the country against terrorists?" asked Charles Pena, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. The FBI said it plans to scrap the multi-million...

February 4, 2005 F.B.I. Director Faults Himself for Delays of Software By MICHAEL JANOFSKY ASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - "Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., told a Senate panel on Thursday that he and a federal contractor were to blame for agents still not having software that would allow them to file investigative and intelligence information directly into their computers.Appearing before an appropriations subcommittee whose Democratic members did little to shield their irritation, Mr. Mueller also said the failed efforts to develop the program, known as Virtual Case File, or V.C.F., would cost taxpayers as much as $105...

California defense contractor warns employees following computer theft The Associated Press Feb 3 2005 3:16PM "Thieves stole several computers containing personal information on 45,000 current and former shareholders of defense contractor Science Applications International Corp., which began alerting those people on Thursday. SAIC is one of the nation's largest employee-owned companies. The computers stolen from an SAIC administrative building in San Diego contained the name, Social Security number, address and telephone number of current and former shareholders, including the number of shares bought, held and sold. The company said it had no evidence that the thieves accessed the information or...

WASHINGTON – "San Diego defense contractor SAIC said Thursday it had fixed flaws in heavily criticized software it developed for the FBI as part of a $170 million contract to help the agency track terrorists and manage criminal cases. "We fully conformed to the contract we have and gave the taxpayers real value for their money," said Arnold L. Punaro, executive vice president of SAIC. He blamed the FBI for the initial problems, saying the agency had a parade of program managers and demanded too many design changes. During 15 months that SAIC worked on the program, 19 different government...

The President held a press conference in the Rose Garden today. He requested that Congress act to create the position of a National Intelligence Director. That person -- the person in that office will be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and will serve at the pleasure of the President. The National Intelligence Director will serve as the President's principal intelligence advisor and will oversee and coordinate the foreign and domestic activities of the intelligence committee. Under this reorganization, the CIA will be managed by a separate Director. The National Intelligence Director will assume...

President Bush will soon announce his choice for the new C.I.A. Director. One of his critics’ pet themes has been the U.S. Intelligence’s failure in predicting the 9/11 attacks. Soon the so-called nonpartisan 9/11 commission will weigh in with a critical report laying much blame on the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. The F.B.I.’s fix is well under way. But what about the C.I.A.? Its mind-boggling bureaucracy in the wooded countryside of Langley, Virginia took decades to create. It’s not subject to public scrutiny due to its highly secretive work. And remember, Bill Clinton’s dysfunctional circus used the C.I.A. and other...

<p>Yesterday, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller warned that al Qaeda is almost ready to launch a large-scale attack on the United States over the summer or fall. The threat is not new, but the likelihood of an attack is. To counter it, all Americans will have to become citizen-soldiers.</p>

WASHINGTON - The United States fears al Qaeda is plotting a big attack inside the country or on U.S. interests but has no plans to raise the terror threat level and no details on when, where or how it might occur, top officials said on Wednesday. "Credible intelligence, from multiple sources, indicates that al Qaeda plans to attempt an attack on the United States in the next few months," Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said at a news conference. "This disturbing intelligence indicates al Qaeda's specific intention to hit the United States hard." Ashcroft said al Qaeda...

FBI chief fights for anti-terror role Posted on Sun, Apr. 25, 2004 BY SHANNON MCCAFFREY Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — If the FBI survives a bruising examination by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, it will largely be because of one man: Robert Mueller. The FBI director has launched an aggressive one-man PR offensive, lunching with commissioners, preaching institutional reform and opening up many of the bureau's classified files to panel investigators. Mueller is fighting critics who doubt that the FBI is up to the task of domestic counterterrorism and think a new intelligence-gathering agency — in the mold of...

<p>MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- The FBI was warned six years ago of a terrorist plot to hijack commercial planes and slam them into the Pentagon, the CIA headquarters and other buildings, Philippine investigators told CNN.</p> <p>Philippine authorities learned of the plot after a small fire in a Manila apartment, which turned out to be the hideout of Ramzi Yousef, who was later convicted for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Yousef escaped at the time, but agents caught his right-hand man, Abdul Hakim Murad, who told them a chilling tale.</p>

March 26, 2004 FBI's Mueller Warns of Election-time Terrorist Plots The Economist gives the terrorists a guide to which countries to target next As is well known, the Madrid bombings and their aftermath have taught the terrorists that terrorism works. Expect more of it. From AP, with thanks to Mrs. Obelix and DC Watson: The deadly train bombings in Spain and the impact they had on Spanish elections are increasing concern that terrorists might target the U.S. presidential nominating conventions and the Olympics to make an even bolder statement, FBI Director Robert Mueller says. "We understand that between now and...

Updated: March 26th, 2004 05:30:23 PM FBI Nears Completion of Computer Upgrade ............ CURT ANDERSON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI's effort to modernize antiquated computer systems, already more than $120 million over budget and nearly two years overdue, will be completed this summer, FBI Director Robert Mueller says. "I'm as frustrated, as impatient, as anybody to get our information technology to the point where we can be leaders as opposed to followers,'' Mueller told The Associated Press in an interview. The upgrade, known as Trilogy, is intended to move the FBI from decades of dependence on paper to...

<p>WASHINGTON - Terrorists could attempt to influence the outcome of this year's U.S. presidential election by launching attacks in America and overseas, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday.</p> <p>Mueller also said Islamic extremists have changed tactics and are focusing on recruiting local sympathizers who are less likely to arouse suspicion than outsiders sent into a country to conduct terrorist operations.</p>

Striking an upbeat tone on the prospects of hunting down the head of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, Mr Mueller insisted "we are safer today than we were on September 11". He acknowledged that scouring territories along the Afghanistan (news - web sites)-Pakistan frontier for Mr bin Laden had sometimes been like "looking for a needle in a haystack", but, speaking at a lunch hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, he said: "I am confident we will find him." Mr Mueller added he was also confident of finding Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor seen as al-Qaeda's second in command. In election...

<p>May 30, 2002 -- A LOT of Democrats are suddenly sounding very sorry they attacked President Bush on what he knew about 9/11 before it happened - and the polls show why.</p> <p>Less than two weeks after Democrats from Sen. Hillary Clinton to House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt went after Bush, it seems clear the president has won this round.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A memo by an FBI (news - web sites) agent last summer urged the bureau's headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools and named Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), suggesting followers could use the schools for terror operations, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The memorandum said bin Laden's groups might be sending students to the flight schools to place Islamic militants in the civil aviation industry around the world, the report added, citing government officials. When four hijacked airliners plowed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon (news...