Word: freeh
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RICHARD JEWELL FBI agents in Atlanta were under tremendous pressure from headquarters to make progress in solving the Olympic Park bombing. So they came up with a scheme to trick Jewell into being interviewed by saying it was part of a training tape. Freeh was monitoring the investigation closely and called to insist that the agents inform Jewell of his Miranda rights. At that point Jewell smelled something funny, stopped talking and asked to see his lawyer. When the case against him collapsed, veterans blasted Freeh for botching their scheme to trick him into talking. Never mind that they were...
...computerized fingerprint scanners installed in police cars across the country. If that goal is ever realized, it will be four years late and double the cost projected. The upgrade effort is already such a mess, plagued by contractor and design lapses, that Congress refuses to fund it anymore. But Freeh maintains an ambitious vision: to build a whole new technological infrastructure to track global crime. "We have people with laptop computers in Russia moving money out of Citibank accounts in New York City, and people with laptops in Sweden shutting down our 911 system in northern Florida," he told TIME...
RUBY RIDGE The year before Freeh arrived, tax resisters in Idaho wound up in a standoff against federal agents. Vicki Weaver and her teenage son were shot to death; her husband Randy Weaver collected $3 million in a wrongful-death suit and became a martyr in the militants' crusade against encroaching law-enforcement agencies. Six officials connected with the showdown were disciplined for "inadequate performance, improper judgment, neglect of duty," even though investigators found no actual misconduct. That might not have gone down so badly had Freeh not promoted as his No. 2 the supervisor of the whole operation, Larry...
...defenders are quick to note that Freeh has been far more willing than past directors to change the agency culture. "We rebuilt our credibility by full cooperation with the investigations, admitting our mistakes, and more importantly making sure we have structures in place that will prevent those mistakes from recurring," says Freeh. After Waco and Ruby Ridge, he created a new, less paramilitary "crisis-management unit" and completely overhauled the way the bureau handles hostage situations. In the spring of 1996, when the Montana Freemen holed up in their compound near Billings, FBI agents were under far stricter rules...
...firestorms, Freeh can take comfort in the fact that his agency retains a special cachet; he can thank The X-Files and The Silence of the Lambs for helping inspire 65,000 people to apply for a few hundred upcoming agent slots (starting salary for an FBI agent: $42,000). He can also take some solace from the fact that while a cozy office in a big law firm may look pretty appealing to him right now, he can depart in his own time; Clinton is in no position to fire him, given the ongoing investigations into campaign contributions. Does...