LAW SCHOOL NEWS …
“If we safeguard our civil liberties but leave our country vulnerable to attack, we will have lost. And if we protect our citizens from crime and terrorism but sacrifice our civil rights, we also will have lost. It is not a question of conflict, it is a question of balance.”
NATIONAL SECURITY | Brian McNeill
FBI Director and Jefferson Medal Recipient Robert Mueller ’73 Reflects on Bureau’s Transformation After 9/11
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wo or three days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III ’73—who had taken office just days earlier on September 4—was summoned to the White House to deliver his first briefing to President George W. Bush. Mueller, who says he was “scared to death” and so new to the FBI that he could barely find his office, had prepared extensively to update the president on the FBI’s activities in response to the attacks. Agents had established crime scenes at all relevant locations, he told the president, had begun to identify the hijackers and were already concluding that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were responsible. “The president stopped me and said, ‘Bob, that’s all well and good. That’s what I expected the bureau to do. That’s what the bureau has been doing well for the last 100 years. What I want to know from you is, what are you doing to prevent the next terrorist attack?’” Mueller recalled in a talk at the Law School. “I felt like a high school kid
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who had done the wrong homework assignment. I got it wrong.” From that moment, Mueller said, he realized that the FBI could no longer be reactive to crime and terrorism. It had to grow more proactive and overhaul its priorities and capabilities. “The days after the attacks of September 11 changed the course of the bureau,” he said. “National security—that is, preventing terrorist attacks—became our top priority. We shifted 2,000 agents from our criminal programs to national security and we understood that we had to focus on long-term strategic change—enhance our intelligence capabilities, upgrade technology, build strong partnerships, forge strong friendships—both here at home and abroad.” Mueller spoke at the Law School after he was awarded the 2013 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law as part of UVA’s Founder’s Day celebration. Sponsored jointly by the University and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation,
the nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals recognize the achievements of those who embrace endeavors in which Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third U.S. president, excelled and held in high regard, including law, architecture, and leadership. Mueller, the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover, was appointed by Bush in 2001. FBI directors are limited by law to a single term of no more than 10 years, but Congress extended Mueller’s tenure by two years in 2011 at President Barack Obama’s request. Transforming the FBI following 9/11 was no simple task, Mueller said. “We realized that we could no longer do the drug cases we’d done before, we could no longer do the smaller white-collar criminal cases,” he said. “So we took about 1,500 agents from the drug program and put them over in counterterrorism. We took 500 agents doing smaller white-collar criminal cases and put them over [in national security posts]. Were they happy? Not particularly.” Yet Mueller realized that the FBI’s mission is not necessarily about what the agents want to do. “I love doing trials. I love doing bank robberies, drug cases, homicides, as a prosecutor. That’s what I thought I was going to be overseeing when I got to the bureau,” he said. “Turned out not to be the case. The fact of the matter is, it’s not what we want to do, it’s what the American people need us to do. What does the president expect, Congress expect, and the American people expect? They expect us to prevent the next terrorist attack.” Traditionally, he said, the FBI’s success was determined based on metrics such as the number of arrests and convictions. “Our metric now is one—how many terrorist attacks have occurred in the last 10 to 12 years on the territory of the United States.” Mueller was born in New York City and grew up outside of Philadelphia. He graduated from Princeton University in 1966 and earned a master’s degree in international