‘The Judge’ Leaves His Own Stamp on Hoover’s Bureau : Webster Shifted FBI Focus to Complex, Sensitive Cases

As perhaps befits a former federal judge from St. Louis, FBI Director William H. Webster has used a methodical, low-key approach to guide the nation’s premier law enforcement agency into a new era in which political corruption, counterintelligence and labor racketeering are its most pressing concerns.

Appointed to take charge of the CIA after nine years as the FBI’s director, Webster has been the longest-tenured FBI chief since the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, who was the bureau’s first and only head for nearly 50 years until he died in 1972.

In putting his own stamp on the FBI, Webster has shared Hoover’s insistence on the personal integrity of FBI agents. But, in a time of more sophisticated criminals, “the Judge,” as Webster is called by friends, has shifted its focus from Hoover’s prime pursuit of bank robbers and interstate auto thieves to more complex and politically sensitive investigations.

No Claim to Perfection

Webster never has sought to avoid controversy, nor has he claimed that his FBI did everything perfectly. A moderate Republican whom former Democratic President Jimmy Carter and then-Atty. Gen. Griffin B. Bell selected for the FBI post in 1978, Webster has won praise from many congressional Democrats and others outside the FBI for the openness with which he has confronted the bureau’s problems.

“I came here because I thought this institution was too important to lose,” he told an interviewer last summer, reflecting on previous FBI scandals involving illegal break-ins and spying on protest groups.

“I was determined to see the institution viewed again as it had been in the past. We have been part of a post-Watergate period that included some very searching and at times devastating inquiries that affected not only us but the other components of the intelligence community.”

Held Accountable on Abscam

Under Webster, the bureau launched Abscam, the “sting” operation aimed at rooting out congressional bribe-takers. Capitol Hill was furious and, although recognizing that the public applauded the apprehension of crooked politicians, many members of Congress were determined to hold Webster accountable for the diminution of their image.

While admitting that the investigation had been flawed by occasionally poor supervision in the field, Webster used the Abscam congressional hearings to argue the need for undercover operations if law enforcement was going to curb the growing menace of political corruption and organized crime.

Federal court juries loved the videotaped evidence of congressmen filling their pockets with cash bribes offered by phony Arab businessmen, played by FBI agents. After all the congressional complaints and appellate court reviews, Webster took a judge’s pride in the record: one U.S. senator, six congressmen and a number of local politicians convicted and jailed.

‘More Effective Approach’

However, he took steps to tighten supervision over future undercover projects, agreeing with critics that more should be done to protect innocent persons from needless grief.

Webster, who turns 63 this week, has made counterintelligence a top priority, and the FBI continues to catch more spies working in the United States each year. “I am confident that what we’ve got is an increasingly more effective approach,” he says.

There have been embarrassments, too. Last year, Los Angeles agent Richard W. Miller was convicted of conspiring to pass secret documents to the Soviet Union, the first FBI man in history to be convicted of espionage. And Edward L. Howard, a former CIA agent implicated in Soviet spying, slipped through FBI surveillance two years ago and fled the country.

Wants Errors at Minimum

Webster attributes such setbacks to “human error” and says: “Those things will happen. We hope they will happen at a minimum.”

Despite his insistence on strict procedures, Webster is not one to hide his own humanness. He was in deep despair three years ago after the death of his wife, Dru, and associates said the FBI was then “his only rudder.” He took frequent trips to his 54-acre horse farm in Missouri, a kind of retreat not far from where he had served as an appellate court judge.

More recently he has started playing tennis again--”and he hates to lose,” an associate said. Living the life of a bachelor in nearby suburban Maryland, he often escorts women to quiet dinner parties or other social events.