Word: mueller
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mueller, like his predecessors, is walking a narrow line. "The reason the folks at FBI headquarters are paralyzed is they have to undergo a Senate inquisition every time they act," says a former Clinton Justice Department official. "If they investigate Wen Ho Lee, it's profiling. If they don't investigate, they're attacked for letting the China stuff go by. They can't win. They are paralyzed because the Senators who are jumping up and down today about the FBI being paralyzed will be jumping up and down tomorrow when they...
...Both Mueller and whistle-blower Rowley will be pressed hard about the FBI's many problems and the wisdom of the new rules when they testify on Capitol Hill this week. Bureau veterans are the first to say that little in last fall's antiterrorism bill or last week's new rules would have helped stop the hijackers as they went about planning their strike. The problem was not just that clues pointing to the 19 terrorists weren't discovered; it was also that wispy evidence and agents' observations about the possibility of hijackings weren't being analyzed, evaluated...
...Bush's thermostat has barely fluttered. Instead, he mildly conceded that "the FBI was an organization full of fine people that loved America" but "it needed to change." Even in private, advisers say, Bush has kept his cool amid revelations that have led some to call for Director Robert Mueller's head. As Bob Dole used to wonder, "Where's the outrage...
...White House, where Bush, aides claim, isn't interested in placing blame. "The President is focused on how we prevent a future attack," says communications director Dan Bartlett. "Armchair quarterbacking won't undo history." He and others add that Mueller became FBI chief just a week before the hit. But keeping calm on the sidelines serves another presidential purpose. Ever since it leaked that Bush had been briefed in August on the possibility that al-Qaeda might employ hijacking to advance its terrorist aims, the White House has carefully tried to insulate the President from suggestions that...
...White House was content to watch last week as searchlights shone on FBI headquarters. Mueller played his best Janet ("The buck stops with me") Reno, admitting to "misstatements" about what the FBI knew before 9/11 and announcing plans to reorganize the sclerotic bureau into a nimble, terrorist-foiling machine. Was the White House concerned that Mueller may have gone too far? "Our goal was to position him as the reformer," says a senior White House aide. Which explains why the words reform and reformer kept tripping off the lips of Administration spinners as they refuted charges--from FBI whistle-blower...