Sneaking and Peeking -- Then and Now

Breaking bread with a room full of Post reporters and editors probably doesn't rank very high on FBI Director Robert Mueller's list of 100 most desirable things to do while in Washington. But there he was in our dining room on Wednesday, gamely fending off questions about FBI failures and having his say about tracking terrorists and reorganizing his beleaguered agency.

In response to one questioner's concerns, Mueller offered reassurances that on his watch, FBI agents will remain firmly within the constitutional scheme, even as they use their new investigative powers to keep the homeland safe.

At the time, it all sounded pretty good to me.

But then I went back to my desk and read the fact sheet on the attorney general's newly issued guidelines for detecting and preventing terrorist attacks.

Now, despite promises in the Ashcroft guidelines to preserve constitutional and statutory limits, I find myself longing to once more hear the director's comforting words about the bureau's steadfast devotion to the restraints of the Bill of Rights.

Sorry to be such a worrywart, but there's a whiff of something in the guidelines that brings back the odor of another time in America.

The new guidelines direct the FBI to "detect and neutralize" suspected terrorists before they can commit a crime. At first reading, it sounds great. But the language also calls to mind an era when the FBI, in the name of protecting the nation, also set out to "expose, disrupt, and otherwise neutralize" activities of domestic groups whose conduct was nowhere near the stage of prosecutable acts. It was called COINTELPRO. And the Constitution took a beating.