October 22, 2001	Monday	Shaba'an 4, 1422

NEW YORK, Oct 21: In the wake of Sept 11 attacks, the Bush Administration is discussing proposals that would lead to the most fundamental re-organization of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its history, shifting its focus to counter-terrorism and away from crime fighting.

In a report on Sunday the New York Times said that under new thinking the agency would give up responsibility for some of the duties on which it built its legendary “G-man” reputation, like bank robbery, drug trafficking and some violent crime investigations.

“As counter-terrorism becomes the No. 1 priority of the FBI, it has become obvious that other types of investigations will have to be de-emphasized at the bureau or turned over to other agencies,” a senior administration official told the newspaper.

Some officials say the re-structuring has already begun, even before any formal plans have been proposed, propelled by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, when thousands of bureau agents across the country were ordered to put aside other investigations to focus exclusively on counter-terrorism.

Since Sept. 11, senior officials said, Attorney General John Ashcroft and the bureau’s director, Robert S. Mueller III, have agreed that the emphasis on counter-terrorism will be permanent, and that other major changes are inevitable. They have said repeatedly in recent days that the bureau’s 28,000 employees will have one over-riding responsibility: to prevent further terrorist attacks against Americans.

The newspaper says that officials emphasized that no formal restructuring plan exists, and that any structural change in the bureau’s mission might require Congressional approval.

But the trauma of Sept. 11 appears to give this proposal a far better chance of success than many of the other ideas that repeatedly arise in Washington to re-make complicated or failing bureaucracies, like the perennial plans to re-structure the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The attorney general and bureau director strongly support the change, law enforcement officials said. And because of the investigation of the terrorist attacks, some of the ideas are already being put into place a de facto re-structuring.