Page 158 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Federal Bureau of Investigation———133

Association for the Advancement of Colored People. POWER REMOVED
Investigations of the KKK were initiated because AND RESTORED
Southern juries refused to indict Klan members for a
series of murders. The investigations ultimately led to In 1975, Attorney General Edward Levi issued guide-
the prosecution of KKK leader Edward Y. Clarke lines covering the FBI’s domestic security operations,
under the Mann Act; he was convicted in 1924. which reined in the FBI’s authority and ability to
initiate and carry out investigations without oversight.
In 1983, during the administration of U.S. president
THE HOOVER YEARS Ronald Reagan, Attorney General William French
Smith rescinded the guidelines and issued his own,
J. Edgar Hoover, appointed director of the bureau in
which again permitted the FBI to initiate domestic
1924, ushered in the era of massive growth and profes-
security/terrorism investigations to anticipate or pre-
sionalization of the agency. Over the course of a half-
vent crime. Smith’s guidelines permitted investiga-
century, Hoover’s administrative skills, public relations
tions to begin when individuals or organizations
talents, and political abilities propelled the bureau to its
advocated crime or indicated an intent to engage in
position as the foremost law enforcement agency in
crime. The Department of Justice was to be notified
the country. In 1935, the bureau received its current
whenever such an investigation was begun. The Smith
name, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Monitoring
guidelines allowed the antiterrorist investigations
of politically “undesirable” individuals and groups
into CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People
expanded. Concerns about fascist and communist sabo-
of El Salvador) to expand, eventually encompassing
tage during the 1930s led the bureau to interpret a 1916
more than 100 disparate groups opposed to U.S. activ-
statute as authorizing it to conduct noncriminal investi-
ities in Central America. After five years of work the
gations into the supposed activities of foreign govern-
investigations had uncovered no evidence of terrorism
ments, when requested to do so by the U.S. Department
and were halted.
of State. In 1939, Hoover managed to free the FBI from
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,
the requirement of a State Department request, thus
domestic security and counterintelligence investi-
allowing the FBI to initiate espionage investigations.
gations were radically curtailed, with resources shifted
During World War II, U.S. president Franklin
to crime investigation. The FBI’s counterespionage
D. Roosevelt directed local law enforcement officials
activities did, however, uncover the spy Aldrich Ames
to give the FBI any information they discovered about
in 1994.
subversive activities. Wartime investigations by the FBI
During the 1980s, the term terrorism was increas-
were successful in identifying and convicting German
ingly used to describe what would previously
agents and saboteurs, including eight Germans who
have been described as internal security concerns.
came ashore in Florida and New York from enemy
Following the overthrow in 1979 of the Shah of Iran by
U-boats. (After the war, foreign intelligence became the
fundamentalist Islamic groups, the FBI gave particular
responsibility of the newly formed CIA.)
attention to Islamic Americans of Middle Eastern ori-
During the Cold War era, the FBI was occupied with
gin. In addition, the FBI was concerned about armed
potential threats to internal security from the U.S.S.R.
Christian militia groups, violent antiabortion activists,
and communist sympathizers. Although the agency’s
and white supremacists. As the 1990s saw the 1993
successes included convictions of foreign spies, serious
bombing of the World Trade Center and the 1995
doubts began to be voiced about its methods, the
bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
subjects of its investigations, and the legality of its
in Oklahoma City, the concerns seem to have been
activities. Hoover authorized the first Cointelpro (coun-
justified.
terintelligence program) in 1956; its aim was the dis-
ruption of the Communist Party within the United
States. Subsequent Cointelpro operations targeted orga- TERRORISM
nizations ranging from the KKK to the “new left”; its AND COUNTERTERRORISM
operatives routinely engaged in illegal wiretapping.
Only after Hoover’s death in 1972 did a series of con- The FBI divides terrorism into domestic and inter-
gressional hearings make existence of these programs national categories. Of the 335 terrorist incidents within
public knowledge. the United States recorded by the FBI between 1980