FBI's Freeh Admits Agency Has 'Culture' Problem

Photos Reuters Photo Audio/Video Louis Freeh Accepts Criticism for FBI's McVeigh Case Errors - (ABCNews.com)

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outgoing FBI (news - web sites) director Louis Freeh, under attack for a third day in Congress, conceded on Thursday ''cultural problems'' at the bureau contributed to the mishandling of documents in the Timothy McVeigh (news - web sites) case.

In his third appearance on Capitol Hill this week, Freeh once again took responsibility for blunders by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that led to last week's postponement of the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh until June 11.

But he also stressed he had no evidence that any of the more than 3,000 documents not given to McVeigh's defense team were intentionally withheld or that the papers would change the outcome of the case.

``I do not see either a purposeful withholding here, or materials which would go to the guilt or innocence of someone. That is not to diminish the seriousness and egregiousness of this matter, which I have accepted as such and will make a sincere effort to change,'' Freeh told the Senate appropriations subcommittee.

Pressed by Democratic Sen. Ernest Hollings (news - bio - voting record) of South Carolina as to whether a ``cultural problem'' led to FBI offices ignoring 11 separate requests for all information to be handed over, Freeh conceded this might be the case.

``It is a good point. I think there is a cultural problem here in not taking seriously the very clear and specific commands that were given in a very important case,'' Freeh said in response to Hollings.

``That's a cultural defect which I will attempt to address by the stand-down that we are going to do (in the FBI),'' he said.

``HEADS OUGHT TO ROLL''

Saying some ``heads ought to roll'' in the FBI, Hollings said the McVeigh case was not an isolated incident and cited two other cases where the FBI did not hand over documents.

``This should not be looked at as an error but as a culture which must be cleaned up,'' said Hollings.

The mishandling of the files followed other bungled FBI cases, including failure of the agency until this year to arrest one of its own agents, Robert Hanssen, who was indicted on espionage charges on Wednesday, and the botched investigation of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee (news - web sites).

Freeh, who is set to leave the bureau next month after announcing his resignation on May 1, said one of the biggest areas of concern at the FBI was the large number of young, inexperienced agents.

He said 41 percent of current FBI special agents had less than six years' experience and they frequently handled the most complex cases.

``The margin for error is going to be at risk unless we take active training measures,'' said Freeh.

Freeh appeared on Wednesday before a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee hearing and a day earlier at a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee hearing where he was grilled about the McVeigh case and other issues.

While critical of the FBI's recent performance, several senators praised Freeh for his tenure at the bureau and said he had led it through difficult times.

``I admire what you have done. I think you have made a strong agency a lot stronger,'' said Republican Sen. Judd Gregg (news - bio - voting record) from New Hampshire.

Discussing future challenges for the FBI, Freeh said the issue of encryption -- scrambling data to prevent tampering by unauthorized users -- was an area of ``unfinished business'' and little progress had been made over the past eight years.

``My prediction, as I leave ... is if we do not solve the encryption problem very decisively in a very short period of time, many of the avenues of investigative opportunities will become either difficult or closed to us.''

Gregg asked Freeh to provide Congress with suggestions on how to tackle this issue before he leaves the bureau.

Earlier Stories
CORRECTED: FBI's Freeh Admits Agency Has 'Culture' Problem (May 17)

Archived Stories by Date:

May 29 May 28 May 27 May 26 May 25 May 24 May 23 May 22 May 21 May 20 May 19 May 18 May 17 May 16 May 15 May 14 May 13 May 12 May 11 May 10 May 09 May 08 May 07 May 06 May 05 May 04 May 03 May 02 May 01 Apr 30

News Resources Message Boards: Post/Read Msgs (44 msg May 18, 11:30 AM ET) Conversations: Start a live discussion News Alerts: police | Timothy McVeigh | FBI | Sen. Ernest Hollings | Sen. Judd Gregg | Wen Ho Lee More Alerts: News Bulletins, News, Mobile, Stocks