Provisions of the USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, permit the FBI and Justice Department to share with the CIA previously off-limits information gathered in secret grand jury proceedings and through wiretaps and other domestic eavesdropping.
This already is producing an avalanche of information that poses new challenges for analysts at the CIA and other intelligence services, said John Rizzo, senior deputy general counsel at the CIA.
"One thing I am concerned about: What do we do with all that information?" Rizzo told an American Bar Association conference on national security. "Woe be it for us if we lose one shard of information that in retrospect would have been key if, God forbid, we had another terrorist attack."
This week's ruling by a secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review enhances the government's domestic surveillance powers to track suspected spies and terrorists.
CIA Director George Tenet has repeatedly said that to succeed against terrorism, the agency must recruit and adequately pay more talented people, including intelligence analysts.
Another change for the CIA will come with establishment of a Homeland Security Department, which will provide its own analysis of intelligence data from multiple sources and, for the first time, connect state and local law enforcement officials with the CIA.
"CIA has never dealt with state and local officials; we will have to learn to do so," Rizzo said.
The CIA's concerns come as the FBI struggles to shift its primary mission from solving traditional crimes to detecting and stopping would-be terrorists. Rizzo said the CIA has assigned 30 officers to help the FBI improve its analytical intelligence capabilities.
"It will be, frankly, a daunting task for FBI agents," Rizzo said. "It will not be easy and it will not be quick. But everyone agrees it's time for this to happen."
The FBI itself shares that concern. In a recent e-mail to all 56 field offices, FBI Deputy Director Bruce Gebhardt urged special agents-in-charge to "instill a sense of urgency" in the counter-terrorism mission and make sure all information is shared with FBI headquarters in Washington.
"You are the leaders of the FBI," the e-mail said. "You cannot fail at this mission."
FBI spokesman Bill Carter said Thursday that Gebhardt regularly communicates with FBI field agents to "emphasize or re-emphasize" points considered important by senior bureau officials.
FBI Director Robert Mueller last week sent a message to all employees, from file clerks on up, reinforcing counter terrorism as the bureau's top priority, Carter added.
Attorney General John Ashcroft spent two days this week visiting federal prosecutors and anti-terrorism task forces in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Tampa, Fla., to emphasize the focus on fighting terrorism.
"These task forces are an important part of our effort to safeguard the U.S. people," Ashcroft said in Charlotte. "We must never forget we are still at war."
The FBI's general counsel, Kenneth Wainstein, told the Bar Association conference that the quality and quantity of counter terrorism intelligence produced by the FBI will increase following this week's appeals court ruling. Part of that ruling removes a legal wall that had separated FBI intelligence agents from prosecutors and law enforcement agents.
In the past, Wainstein said, FBI agents from the criminal and intelligence wings sometimes might be working on the very same targets and not know it.
The decision gives the FBI greater leeway in obtaining surveillance warrants by requiring only that foreign agent intelligence be a "significant purpose" of the eavesdropping, opening the door to using this power for cases that ultimately result in criminal prosecution.
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