Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
The Clinton-era FBI chief was seen as a straight arrow who prepared the bureau for the demands of a new century. Now critics question whether he left the nation vulnerable to attack.
Jun 4, 2002 | Twelve months ago FBI director Louis Freeh left his post on a triumphant note. Appearing alongside Attorney General John Ashcroft at a June 21 press conference, he announced the indictments of overseas terrorists suspected of killing 19 American soldiers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, when their barracks were bombed during the summer of 1995.
"This investigation," Ashcroft said, "exemplifies the leadership, the integrity and the compassion that Louis Freeh has delivered for America during the past eight years of his service as director of the FBI."
Clearly gratified, Freeh told reporters: "It certainly will be my last director press conference, and I'm leaving very satisfied and very pleased."
Today, though, the bureau is under intense criticism for its failure to heed terrorism warnings from agents in Phoenix and Minneapolis in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and suburban Washington, D.C. And while critics have focused on the performance of current FBI director Robert Mueller, Freeh's responsibility for the bureaucratic breakdowns is likely to come under close scrutiny during congressional hearings that open this week.
Freeh was expert in political survival, some say, forging an alliance with top Republicans after he'd turned against the president who appointed him. And though he still wins strong grades from some lawmakers and analysts, the critics say his eight years on the job may have left the agency -- and the nation -- vulnerable.
"If people are looking for a scapegoat, I'd nominate Louis Freeh," says Ronald Kessler, author of "The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI."
It's no secret the FBI suffered a series of embarrassments during Freeh's tenure, some of them deadly. They include the botched handling of the investigations into Waco and Ruby Ridge; the bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Village and the heavy-handed tactics used against Richard Jewell; the breakdown of the FBI crime labs; the inept pursuit of suspected atomic spy Wen Ho Lee; the belated discovery of turncoat agent Richard Hanssen; and the failure to deliver thousands of documents to defense attorneys during the trial of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
The FBI fiascoes seemed to come like clockwork under Freeh, and they continue to roll out to this day. A recently uncovered March 2000 memo reveals that agents mistakenly destroyed evidence gathered in an investigation involving Osama bin Laden.
Yet Freeh has remained largely unscathed.
An episode just last summer showed the continuing esteem he enjoyed on Capitol Hill. During confirmation hearings for Mueller, Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, continued to heap praise upon Freeh, "an extraordinary public servant" who, he said, "accomplished a great deal during his tenure to modernize and restructure the FBI so it can handle the challenges of the future."
And while Mueller took over as director only a week before Sept. 11, critics and press accounts have focused on his role. Freeh has managed to avoid the spotlight. Currently a senior vice chairman for credit card giant MBNA Bank, he has stayed away from the press since September, and he did not return calls seeking comment. Nor did three of his former deputies.
"Freeh is being smart by keeping a low profile. He doesn't want to get involved," says Kessler. "But people who follow the bureau know Mueller is trying to rectify his [Freeh's] problems."
Freeh did speak publicly over the Memorial Day weekend, but it was a decidedly low-key affair at the Camden, Maine, public library for a small forum on the ethics of war. Asked by a reporter afterward about the recent FBI revelations, Freeh said simply: "Someone needs to get all of the facts first to see what really happened. I don't rely on the newspapers for my information."
It seems unlikely, though, that Freeh will be able to remain in the background as his former bureau is poked and prodded by investigators. And with Congress about to begin hearings examining American intelligence failures, and specifically the missteps of the FBI, Freeh may soon be addressing a slightly more contentious audience than he did at the library.
"He's been a major player in counter-terrorism for the better part of the last decade, so Congress will want to hear what he has to say for himself," says John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense policy group.
"He should be asked to testify as well as the rest of the ranking officers," adds I.C. Smith, a retired FBI special agent in charge and 25-year veteran of the bureau. "I'm not a Mueller and Ashcroft fan, but this didn't happen on their watch. It was Louis Freeh's team in place when the [9/11] terrorists were setting up their infrastructure and exploiting the system. He can't avoid that."
Detractors blame Freeh for a leadership style that featured arrogance, cronyism and micromanagement. Since 1994, all new FBI agents have to take a polygraph test, but Smith says Freeh left office without ever submitting to one. He tried to promote to deputy a friend implicated in the Ruby Ridge killing. And he personally approved the use of photographic suspect lineups during the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, a decision usually left to field agents.
Yet thanks in part to his high-profile fights with Clinton, Freeh managed to skate by as director and was never held accountable by the Republican Congress or the Beltway press, two influential groups that today seem indifferent to revisiting Freeh's troubled reign in search for clues to what's gone wrong at the FBI.
Former Clinton administration officials say they recognized the problem. But Clinton, crippled by the self-inflicted wounds of a sex scandal, refused to take action against the FBI director.
"We viewed Freeh as a guy who was wholly incompetent but who held on to power by making himself useful to the press and Republicans on the Hill," says one Clinton White House aide. "He was a political opportunist who played Clinton, and he's managed to escape the judgment of history for his mismanagement of the FBI."
Former agent Smith is less pointed, but he draws a similar conclusion. "I like Freeh -- he is bright, a quick study. But he probably didn't have the broad intellect to be FBI director. He just wasn't prepared. His view of the world centered around a pizza connection [mob investigation] or two. He didn't have an appreciation of the intelligence business."
As for his often admired ability to dodge political bullets while director, "that helped Freeh, but it didn't help the FBI," says Kris Kolesnik, who worked for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and who, as the chief investigator of Grassley's Judiciary subcommittee, oversaw several inquiries into the FBI.
"He survived, but the FBI never learned its lesson and too many problems piled up," says Kolesnik, now the director of the National Whistleblower Center.
Defenders, however, see a more effective administrator. Freeh oversaw a 65 percent rise in the FBI's budget, they say, and opened up dozens of offices overseas to fight terrorism. "I hope his reputation is not in danger," says Bob Blitzer, the FBI's former head of counter-terrorism who left the bureau in 1998. "His work ethic was incredible. He busted his ass every day. And I do think he made a lot of contributions to the FBI."
"Freeh's legacy is not in danger within the FBI," adds Nancy Savage, president of the FBI Agent Association. "He prioritized investigative matters. People say he put the 'I' back in the FBI. And he showed tremendous foresight on terrorism. He was beating that drum relentlessly. It was his passion."
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