FBI could start looking up citizens without cause soon

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs, or other racial and ethnic groups.

Law-enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Find terrorists before they strike.

Although President Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on race or ethnicity, the new rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors in launching a national security investigation.

Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons - such as evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated - to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents.

The new policy, law-enforcement officials told the Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.

Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person's race or ethnicity.

More than a half-dozen senior FBI, Justice Department and other U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the new policy agreed to discuss it only on condition of anonymity, either because they were not allowed to speak publicly or because the change is not yet final.

The change, which is expected later this summer, is part of an update of Justice Department policies known as the attorney general's guidelines.

They are being overhauled amid the FBI's transition from a traditional crime-fighting agency to one whose top mission is to protect America from terrorist attacks.

"We don't know what we don't know," said one FBI official who defended the plans. "And the object is to cut down on that."

Another official, while also defending the proposed guidelines, raised concerns that they would draw criticism during the presidential election year over what he called "the P word" -

profiling

.

If adopted, the guidelines would be put in place in the final months of a presidential administration that has been dogged by criticism that its counterterror programs trample privacy rights and civil liberties.

Critics say the presumption of innocence is lost in the proposal. The FBI will be allowed to begin investigations simply "by assuming that everyone's a suspect, and then you weed out the innocent," said Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey acknowledged the overhaul was underway in early June, saying the guidelines sought to ensure regulations for FBI terror investigations do not conflict with ones governing criminal probes. He would not give details.

The changes would allow FBI agents to ask open-ended questions about the activities of Muslim- or Arab-Americans, or investigate them if their jobs and backgrounds match trends that analysts deem suspect.

FBI agents would not be allowed to eavesdrop on phone calls or dig deeply into personal data - such as the content of phone or e-mail records or bank statements - until a full investigation was opened.

The guidelines focus on the FBI's domestic operations and run about 40 pages long, several officials said.

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the guidelines governing when to open a national security investigation were part of a "harmonizing" process that will not give the FBI any more authority than it already has.

"Any review and change to the guidelines will reflect our traditional concerns for civil liberties and First Amendment liberties and our traditional investigative emphasis on using the least intrusive means feasible," Roehrkasse said yesterday.

Although the guidelines do not require congressional approval, House members recently sought to limit such profiling by rejecting an $11 million request for the FBI's security assessment center.

Lawmakers wrote that it was unclear how the FBI could compile suspect profiles "in such a way as to avoid needless intrusions into the privacy of innocent citizens" and without wasting time and money chasing down false leads.