The FBI’s Embarrassments

It was bad enough when the FBI lost track of thousands of documents that should have been turned over to lawyers for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Now comes the more embarrassing disclosure that over the last 11 years it has lost hundreds of weapons and laptop computers, some to theft, some to retired or fired employees who took equipment with them, some to sloppy inventory controls.

Significantly, the survey of lost equipment didn’t originate with the FBI. It was requested by Congress and former FBI Director William Webster, who is heading an investigation into the bureau’s security problems.

Without that prod, the missing 449 firearms and 184 computers might have remained a deep secret.

This latest revelation of lax management supports the growing congressional consensus that the FBI, which has always cultivated an image of model efficiency while resisting outside scrutiny, can’t be trusted to recognize and remedy its own failings.

The Senate Judiciary Committee learned at its hearing yesterday that no one was held accountable for the lost weapons and computers.

The FBI is not a hardware store, where missing inventory can be written off as a cost of doing business. If it can’t keep track of its guns and computers, Americans can reasonably wonder how it can be counted on to keep track of the crooks and spies the FBI is supposed to catch.

President Bush has nominated as the FBI’s next director Robert Mueller, an experienced prosecutor whose reputedly strong management skills the bureau badly needs. Also needed is a closer examination of its recent past. Were the bungled Richard Jewell and Wen Ho Lee investigations and the long failure to detect Robert Hanssen’s spying simply aberrations? Or were they signs of a more pervasive systemic problem yet to be explored?