Overdue Shake-Up for FBI

For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was virtually immune from criticism in official Washington, not because certain of its activities didn’t merit censure but because of the thick protective wall behind which it operated.

Under its founding director, J. Edgar Hoover, the bureau’s formidable public-relations machine created a highly buffed image of competence and invariable success in dealing with crime and subversion. The FBI also nurtured close ties with Congress, its standing strengthened by an extensive collection of dossiers that contained often embarrassing information about many public officials.

Recent years have seen a sharp reversal of the FBI’s image. Today, as Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, notes, many Americans regard the bureau as “unmanageable, unaccountable and unreliable.” With at least four separate investigations of the FBI underway, there is little doubt that change is coming.

The FBI’s dismal recent record of botched high-profile investigations, lax internal security, bungled forensic work, misleading explanations and sloppy administration invites scrutiny. Its response to criticism, described in Senate testimony last week as a “culture of arrogance,” demands it. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has ordered a study on “reforming and improving” the FBI. A House bill would mandate an inspector general to oversee the bureau’s operations. A number of senators are calling for a top-to-bottom external review. An outside study of the bureau’s security procedures is already in progress, led by William H. Webster, a respected former director of both the FBI and the CIA.

Louis J. Freeh has resigned as director two years before his term is up, giving President Bush the opportunity to name a new bureau head committed to changing the FBI’s internal culture and imposing measures to improve its investigative and managerial shortcomings. But a new director, however dedicated to necessary change, would not eliminate the need for outside oversight.

The FBI remains a powerful organization, and a necessary one. But its excessive confidence in its investigative skills has sometimes led to fiasco, as in the Richard Jewell and Wen Ho Lee cases. As its congressional critics charge, the FBI has become a victim of its own insularity and self-regard. A shake-up isn’t just due but plainly overdue.