Curbing It Without Killing it

The freewheeling days of J. Edgar Hoover are over. Now Congress and the Executive branch must find ways to limit the FBI's activities and prevent future abuses of its vast powers. Last week several experts gave their recommendations to Democrat Frank Church's Senate Intelligence Committee. The proposals fell into four categories:

A LEGISLATIVE CHARTER. Both critics and supporters of the FBI agreed that Congress should enact legislation spelling out what the FBI can and cannot do, particularly in the area of keeping watch on violence-prone dissidents and potential subversives. Said FBI Director Clarence Kelley: "I would welcome any guidelines."

Democratic Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota argued that the FBI should be allowed to put citizens under surveillance or infiltrate activist groups only when the bureau has clear evidence that federal laws have been, or are about to be, violated.

Kelley's retort: the FBI must sometimes infiltrate groups to learn whether laws are about to be broken. Said he: "As a practical matter, the line between intelligence work and regular criminal investigations is often difficult to describe. What begins as an intelligence investigation may well end in arrest and prosecution of the subject."

William Ruckelshaus, a former Deputy Attorney General and former acting FBI director, suggested a compromise. He urged that Congress spell out the FBI's authority "to investigate individuals or groups who may through violence present a threat to other individuals or groups." But Ruckelshaus would have Congress give the Attorney General the power to set the guidelines on how the FBI would use its authority.

ADMINISTRATIVE CURBS. Since assuming office in February, Attorney General Edward Levi has taken a number of steps to leash the FBI. For one thing, he has required that White House requests for FBI action be made in writing and through official channels. He also has instructed Kelley to report to him all improper requests; in his 2 1/2 years as director, said Kelley, there have not been any.

Last week Levi told the Senate committee that his department is drafting an order that would allow the FBI to investigate domestic dissidents only if there is "a likelihood" that they are involved in violent and illegal activities. The directive would also prohibit the FBI from trying to discredit or disrupt the organizations unless there was no other way to eliminate "an immediate risk to human life." Under the draft guidelines, the FBI would have to inform the Attorney General of all domestic security probes; in turn, he would be required to halt any investigation that failed to meet the written standards.

Levi's proposed guidelines on domestic surveillance did not satisfy many of the committee members. Said Mondale: "Guidelines written by the Executive Branch can be re-written by the Executive Branch, by those who follow you. They will mean absolutely nothing in the face of a willful President or a willful Attorney General." Thus the committee will probably recommend that the standards be written into law. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, in fact, urged that "specific statutes should authorize, prohibit or regulate every investigative and enforcement method. Government agents should not have to guess what is permitted." Both committee members and Justice Department officials favor requiring court approval of wiretaps in domestic-security cases; such approval is now a federal requirement only in criminal cases.

CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT. Levi announced that an Office of Professional Responsibility was being set up within the Justice Department to watchdog all of the agency's employees, including those of the FBI. The witnesses and the Senators agreed that Congress should go a step farther and set up its own committee to oversee the FBI. Ruckelshaus urged that such a committee "be privy to all information the FBI has relating to any specific investigation [and] operate as openly as possible." The committee's job would be to see that any new law was honored; demand the names of groups being infiltrated; oversee the use of bugs, wiretaps and informants; monitor FBI relations with the Attorney General; and judge the propriety of orders from the White House. Kelley was all for an oversight committee. "Congress must assume a continuing role, not in the initial decision-making process but in the review of our performance," he said. He added: "I think that I can discuss everything but the identity of informants with an oversight committee."

LIMITED TENURE. The committee probably will adopt the recommendation of several witnesses that Congress set a limit to an FBI director's term. Recalling Hoover's 48-year tenure, Ruckelshaus urged that a director be restricted to eight or nine years. Clark recommended four years, starting at the mid-point of a presidential term to ease the danger of Presidents and directors becoming too cozy. In fact, the Senate voted last spring to limit the director's term to ten years. A bill setting a 15-year limit is now before the House Judiciary Committee, which will not act until all of the investigations of the FBI are completed in early 1976.

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