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Ashcroft Announces "Wartime" Overhaul of Department of Justice
WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday announced a planned "wartime" reorganization of the Department of Justice and several of its agencies, including the INS and the FBI.
Ashcroft said he was submitting to Congress Thursday a five-year blueprint "for the comprehensive reorganization of the department to meet our new antiterrorism mission."
"Today, I am announcing a wartime organization and mobilization of the nation's justice and law enforcement resources," Ashcroft told Department of Justice employees.
Ashcroft said that since September 11, when terrorists destroyed New York's World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, the Department has redefined its mission, and warned his "wartime reorganization" means the Department will no longer do "everything we once did," reports CNN.
Included in the ten-point plan are initiatives to streamline and consolidate the department, transfer ten percent of Washington-based workers to the field, diversify staff, update information technology and improve relations with state and local law enforcement agencies.
"The war on terrorism will not be fought in Washington but in the field by agents," Ashcroft said to Department staff reported the BBC.
The plan also mandates "fundamental change in several of the most critical components of American justice and law enforcement, starting with the organization that is at the center of our counter-terrorism effort, the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Ashcroft said.
"Defending our nation and its citizens against terrorist attacks is now our first and overriding priority," he proclaimed.
He said he expected preliminary recommendations for reform by the end of the year, and that the new FBI chief, Robert Mueller, had been reviewing the agency's management and organization since September 11.
Ashcroft is also expecting INS commissioner James Ziglar to unveil proposed reforms of the Immigration and Naturalization Service "soon," he said.
"As a nation of immigrants, the United States will continue to welcome America's friends. But we will not allow our welcome to be abused by America's enemies," Ashcroft said.
"In the war on terrorism the restructured Immigration and Naturalization Service will focus on preventing aliens who engage in or support terrorist activity from entering our country," he warned.
President George W. Bush has ordered officials to "tighten up" U.S. visa policies because many of the terrorists who hijacked the airliners used in the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center entered the United States legally.
The U.S. law enforcement and intelligence community were stumped by their lack of foreknowledge of the catastrophic September 11 terrorist strikes and have come under fire subsequently for the slow pace of investigations into that attack and the more recent outbreaks of anthrax infections on the U.S.'s east coast.
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