Long overdue

The FBI has long needed a thorough reorganization.

Anyone familiar with the great respect and confidence the Federal Bureau of Investigation once inspired is certain to be downcast about the way the walls and roof of the FBI have been caving in recently.

J. Edgar Hoover, the brusque, self-centered dictator who once ruled the agency in tyrannical fashion, did harm. But he also did a lot of good and accomplished much. The FBI has a long list of distinguished “alumni,” among them onetime director Clarence Kelley, a 1936 Kansas University graduate. However, things have slipped badly.

It is good news, then, that there is an immediate plan to refurbish the FBI. There will be changes in the “structure, culture and mission” to meet the demands of the present and future, most notably the threats against America due to terrorists, their procedures and their devices.

Embarrassment has rained down upon the FBI in recent years, including spies in the agency’s midst, parochialism that prevented cooperation with other units such as the Central Intelligence Agency and improper handling of data about people such as those who fostered the Sept. 11 tragedies. Breakdown after breakdown has occurred.

With obvious input from the White House, FBI director Robert Mueller has publicly acknowledged the many frailties, flaws and failures and vowed to make vital changes.

An instant program will be aimed at hiring 900 new agents nationwide by the coming September. They are to be specialists in computers, foreign languages and sciences. With proper screening some outstanding people can be added.

There will be a new office of intelligence and strengthened oversight of counterterror investigations. Better linkage with the CIA has been mandated from the Oval Office, and outdated computer systems are to be replaced.

Mueller has sharply criticized his bureau’s response to attempts by agents in the field to alert headquarters to the possibility, before 9-11, that terrorists could hijack commercial aircraft and use them as weapons against innocent people.

There is much to do and not a lot of time for the FBI to do it. There is plenty of blame to go around, and in time it will be good to fully assess this situation. But for now, the goal is to make the FBI the kind of strong, effective and efficient agency the American people deserve.

We keep hearing how so many FBI people failed to “connect the dots” of data that pointed to the kinds of things that happened Sept. 11. There must be better communication among the various bureaus and their agents and more emphasis on administration that draws these people and their work into the picture rather than isolating, creating animosity and ignoring them.

This is something that should have been done years ago as the bureau began to drift along ineffectively and harmfully. The time is now to rectify such errors and oversights and make the FBI stronger and better than it ever has been.