Sunday, August 01, 2010

FBI director: Agents may have cheated on test

The Justice Department is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents violated rules in taking a 2009 exam meant to ensure that they could follow aggressive new guidelines for terrorism investigations without intruding on Americans' privacy, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Wednesday. Glenn Fine, the department's inspector general, is looking into whether agents across the country improperly took the training test in groups, shared answers or completed it in unusually short periods. Investigations into the alleged cheating surfaced publicly in the bureau's Washington Field Office, where it was linked to the retirement of one of the FBI's most-senior managers. Joseph Persichini stepped down as head of the Washington office in December after he came under scrutiny for allegedly completing the open-book exam in less than 20 minutes; some test-takers required more than two hours. Disclosure of the review swiftly revived questions about the FBI's ability to apply guidelines, adopted in 2008, that for the first time allowed agents to conduct surveillance and counterterrorism and espionage investigations within the U.S. without evidence that a target has ties to a terrorist group...more

No comments: