Rise
of a Wired World: 1993-2001
Louis J. Freeh was
sworn in as Director of the FBI on September 1,
1993. Freeh had served as an FBI Agent from 1975
to 1981. He was appointed U.S. District Court Judge
for the Southern District of New York in 1991 and
served on that Court until he was nominated to
be Director of the FBI during the summer of 1993.
Director
Freeh began his tenure with a clearly articulated
agenda to respond to deepening and evolving crime
problems both at home and abroad. During the summer
of 1994, determined to forge strong, international
police partnerships, Director Freeh led a delegation
of high-level diplomatic and federal law enforcement
officials to meet with senior officials of 11 European
nations on international crime issues. At the outset,
Richard Holbrooke, US Ambassador to Germany, declared, "This
is the evolving American foreign policy. Law Enforcement
is at the forefront of our national interest in
this part of the world." On July 4, 1994,
Director Freeh officially announced the opening
of an FBI Legal Attaché Office in Moscow,
the old seat of Russian communism.
Subsequently,
the Bureau sharpened joint efforts against organized
crime, drug-trafficking, and terrorism, and it
expanded standardized training of international
police in investigative processes, ethics, leadership,
and professionalism, including in April 1995, the
opening of the first International Law Enforcement
Academy (ILEA) in Budapest, Hungary (pictured left).
The Bureau also expanded its international presence
by opening 21 new Legal Attaché offices
overseas.
The
Bureau also mounted aggressive programs in specific
criminal areas. During the years 1993 through 1996,
these efforts paid off in successful investigations
as diverse as the World Trade Center bombing in
New York City (1993); the bombing of the Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City (1995); the UNABOMBER
Theodore Kaczynski (1996); and the arrests of Mexican
drug-trafficker Juan Garcia-Abrego (1996) and Russian
crime boss Vyacheslav Ivankov (1995). In response
to public outcry over the tragedies at Ruby Ridge,
Idaho, and Waco, Texas, the Bureau formed the Critical
Incident Response Group (CIRG) to deal more efficiently
with crisis situations.
As
computers and access to the Internet became commonplace
in homes across the United States, the FBI began
to put in place measures to address crime in cyberspace.
It created the Computer Investigations and Infrastructure
Threat Assessment Center (CITAC) to respond to
physical and cyber attacks against US infrastructure.
The FBI has also played a crucial role in the investigation
and prevention of computer crimes. In 1991, the
FBI's Computer Analysis and Response Teams (CART)
began to provide investigators with the technical
expertise necessary to obtain evidence from the
computers of suspects. In 1998, the FBI's National
Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) was created
to monitor the dissemination of computer viruses,
worms, and other malicious programs and to warn
government and business computer users of these
dangers. In addition, having begun in the FBI's
Baltimore Division in 1995, but branching out to
most FBI field offices, the Bureau's Innocent Images
Program has successfully identified and stopped
large numbers of pedophiles who have used the Internet
to purvey child pornography and to lure children
into situations where they could be harmed.
Between
1993 and 2001, the FBI's mission and resources
expanded to address the increasingly international
nature of crime in US localities. The FBI's budget
grew by more than $1.27 billion as the Bureau hired
5,029 new Agents and more than 4,000 new Support
Personnel. To prepare the FBI for both domestic
and foreign lawlessness in the 21st century, Director
Freeh spearheaded the effort by law enforcement
to ensure its ability to carry out court-authorized
electronic surveillance in major investigations
affecting public safety and national security in
the face of telecommunications advances. Important
legislation passed during this period included
the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement
Act (CALEA) of 1994, the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act of 1996, and the Economic
Espionage Act of 1996. Director Freeh left the
Bureau in June 2001 for a position in the private
sector.