FBI, Justice urged to share intelligence information

The FBI is holding onto important intelligence information a little too closely, according to a General Accounting Office report commissioned by Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., ranking member on the Governmental Affairs Committee. The watchdog agency released a report Wednesday detailing problems with information sharing between the FBI and the Justice Department's Criminal Division. The report, "FBI Intelligence Investigations: Coordination within Justice on Counterintelligence Criminal Matters Is Limited" (GAO-01-780), found that FBI and Justice Department procedures for sharing information is hindering criminal cases against spies, terrorists and other criminals. "For too long, unfounded fears of tainting prosecutions among some [federal] attorneys have led to a failure to share information that could lead to prosecutions," said Thompson, who asked GAO to review the situation. "It's time to implement coordinating methods that will result in successful cases, not in the freedom of criminals at the hands of the federal government." According to GAO, the key issue impeding information sharing is concern by attorneys for the FBI and the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence and Policy Review that a federal court may rule that the line between an intelligence investigation and a criminal investigation had been crossed because of exchanged information. A 1978 law allows evidence obtained with a foreign intelligence surveillance warrant to be used in a criminal proceeding as long as the "primary purpose" of the surveillance warrant was to obtain foreign intelligence information, rather than to pursue a possible criminal prosecution. Attorneys in the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence and Policy Review are hesitant to seek such warrants for fear they will violate the law. However, attorneys in the Criminal Division at the Justice Department consider those fears to be unfounded and say such fears have jeopardized potential prosecutions. To remedy the problem, GAO recommended that all FBI correspondence to the Office of Intelligence and Policy Review on counterintelligence matters expressly address possible federal criminal violations. The FBI should review its compliance with that requirement, and establish written policies and procedures to ensure compliance with coordination procedures, GAO said. Justice Department officials have adopted GAO's recommendations, and in an accompanying letter, Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson told FBI and Justice prosecutors to provide monthly briefings to prosecutors on foreign intelligence investigations, particularly those involving Americans.