Who'll Win in a FBI Reorg?

FBI director Bob Mueller is about to announce radical changes in the way the FBI looks and operates. The recently announced retirements of two top officials — deputy director Tom Pickard and assistant director Neil Gallagher — are only the beginning. A number of other assistant directors and special agents in charge are reportedly planning to kick in their retirement papers soon.

Mueller hasn't said who will replace them, but word around the bureau is that he is considering bringing back the concept of William Webster's top management triumvirate — instead of one deputy as chief operating officer, he may name three people to roughly equal number-two slots. The idea is that a single deputy burns out too fast; Louis Freeh went through a slew of them. Also, Webster liked the triumvirate idea because it kept one person from having too much power.

There's power enough for three. But which three? Smart money says Mueller will elevate Assistant Director Dale Watson, currently head of counter-terrorism, to the counterterrorism/national security slot. The task of overseeing criminal investigations — most of the bureau's work — could go to current Assistant Director Reuben Garcia, Assistant Director Barry Mawn, now head of the flagship New York Office, Bruce Gephardt, the special agent in charge in San Francisco, with whom Mueller bonded when he was U.S. Attorney there — or another field commander.

The third person has to be a tech whiz; he or she will oversee the hugely expensive, long overdue, crucial information systems upgrade, code-named Trilogy. The FBI computers have to be engineered talk to each other and to INS, Customs and State computers to make sure no more terrorists get through the visa system. Problem is, with first-rate IT people able to command their own prices, even in this economy, why would anybody go to work on old-school government gear for peanuts?

Meanwhile, there's no light at the end of the anthrax case, and the best suspects in the September 11 investigation remain overseas. Key members of Congress haven't been happy with the bureau in a while. FBI veterans would like to give jurisdiction on certain crimes back to other federal agencies — drugs, for instance, would be better worked by the DEA, solo. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms could handle abortion clinic bombings, and the Secret Service is better than the FBI at certain complex credit card and cyber-cash scams. But some lawmakers want the FBI on those issues. Now Mueller faces the tricky job of satisfying Congress while assuring Attorney General John Ashcroft he's not making end runs to Capitol Hill, as Freeh was prone to do.