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Guest Commentary May 31, 2002
Openness and Accountability Needed at FBI
The Honorable Carl Levin
I am deeply troubled by the FBI's handling of important information with respect to potential terrorist attacks in the United States both before and after September 11th.
The first direct sign of real change in the FBI, however, will be how the FBI responds to what we know about the so-called Phoenix memo and the notes of the telephone conversation between the Minnesota FBI and FBI headquarters regarding Zacarias Moussaoui. [The FBI should] release both of these memos, redacted where necessary, and hold accountable the appropriate persons or units in the FBI who did not act appropriately.
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Releasing these documents and holding people accountable for their actions with regard to the memos will demonstrate the openness and accountability essential for any restructuring. The only reason to maintain their confidentiality would be to avoid embarrassment to the FBI, and that is clearly not appropriate justification.
Lastly, we were recently told that despite the President's efforts to obtain from the FBI any information the FBI had about possible intelligence involving September 11th, neither of these documents was turned over to the President. The failure to forward these documents to the President as requested should also be investigated and the results disclosed to the public.
While nobody expects the FBI to be clairvoyant, we do expect the FBI to be competent, and in order to achieve such competency, the FBI must be both open to public scrutiny and accountable for its actions or inaction.
Carl Levin, a Democrat, is a U.S. Senator from Michigan. The above commentary has been adapted from a letter Sen. Levin wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller, May 30, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
