The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University released a comprehensive Justice Department report Monday, documenting the enforcement actions of the Federal Bureau of Investigations from Sept. 11, 2001 to the end of June 2006.

The report raises questions about the FBI’s investigation of criminal matters involving individuals the government has identified as international terrorists during the past five years.

Since Sept. 11, terrorism has been a top priority of the FBI and the overall size of the agency has grown accordingly.

‘There’s been a steady increase in the number of special agents and a jump in intelligence offices, but the work they’re responsible for has gone down,’ said Susan Long, co-director of TRAC.

Federal prosecutors are authorized by department rules and customs to reject agency recommendations for prosecution when they decide that filing charges in a case is not appropriate, the report stated. A smaller number of ‘prosecutorial declinations’ would generally point to a higher quality of investigative work.

Surprisingly, however, prosecutors declined to bring charges in 131 of 150, or 87 percent, of international terrorist case referrals from the FBI between October 2005 and June 2006, according to the report.

The report is based on month-by-month data obtained by TRAC from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for United States Attorneys under the Freedom of Information Act.

Long said before Sept. 11, federal prosecutors prosecuted two out of three referrals for international terrorism.

In the 12 months immediately following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the prosecution of individuals the government classified as international terrorists surged sharply higher than in the previous year, according to the report. Prosecutions increased from 53 to 118. But since then the trend has been mostly down, with only 19 in the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2006.

‘The FBI is one of the most important agencies of government,’ said David Burnham, co-director of TRAC. ‘What they are doing and not doing on many subjects has many consequences.’

Prosecutions in traditional FBI investigations since 2001 – including organized crimes, drug cases and white collar crimes – have also decreased, according to the report.

The latest available data from the Justice Department states that the government reported filing 577 new white collar crime prosecutions during June 2006. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by TRAC, this number is down 5.3 percent during the previous month.

‘We want to know what the FBI is doing,’ Burnham said. ‘We want our money’s worth.’

Brian Roehrkasse, spokesperson for the Justice Department, said the number of international terrorist case referrals reflects the FBI’s new, post-Sept. 11 priorities.

‘Some cases recommended to prosecutors are done to obtain access to additional information and don’t necessarily lead to prosecution,’ Roehrkasse said.

Dan Hetzel, a senior aerospace engineering major, agreed.

‘A lot of post-9/11 focus has been on prevention rather than prosecution after the fact,’ he said.

TRAC, a data research organization, has been studying a wide range of federal agencies and programs since 1989. The organization periodically makes data available to the public on the day-to-day workings of the federal government.

‘As the premier federal investigate agency, it’s important to take a look at what they’re doing,’ Long said. ‘We all want our government to be successful.’

Published on November 6, 2006 at 12:00 pm