Obama to Nominate Republican as FBI Director

Robert Mueller has been the head of the FBI for almost twelve years now. As the director of American counter-espionage, he has had an unusual term length and is the longest to hold this position since J. Edgar Hoover. Two years ago, it was Barack Obama himself who had requested for an extension to his 10-year term, insisting that Mueller had set the “gold standard” in his work. But the time has come to replace him, and it is with James Comey, a Republican and former Bush administration official respected by Democrats.

It will not be easy to replace Mueller, a safe and experienced professional who knew how to skillfully overcome the enormous security and ethical challenges that arose after September 11. Mueller assumed office on Sept. 4, 2001, one week before the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. As the son of a New York family who had attended the best schools and was known for his integrity, he did not have the traditional beer-drinking, needy personality of typical FBI agents. Perhaps that was the reason why he had so successfully taken on the heavy task of changing the culture of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by transforming the agency responsible for combating crime into a counter-terrorism organization.

While managing the necessary internationalization of a U.S. facing global threats, Mueller managed to escape relatively unscathed from the torture scandals that plagued the CIA and the military under Bush, even if he did not formally disassociate until 2004. He is also known for being opposed to the reinstatement of a National Security Agency illegal wiretapping program, which Bush was preparing to authorize under the Patriot Act.

Interestingly, it is James Comey, one of the main characters involved in the 2004 incident, who has been chosen by President Obama to replace Mueller. Comey had been appointed acting attorney general to replace John Ashcroft, who had been hospitalized for prostate cancer surgery. Comey learned that the White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and Andrew Card, head of the Bush administration, both anti-terrorism leaders, sought to take advantage of Ashcroft’s weakened state in order to persuade him to reauthorize a large-scale illegal wiretapping program. Outraged, Comey rushed to the hospital to inform his boss. With the help of Mueller, who also rushed to his bedside, Comey convinced Ashcroft not to give in to Card and Gonzales. Comey said in a 2007 testimony before Congress that Ashcroft announced on his hospital bed that he would not allow the wiretapping.

This dramatic incident brought Comey to fame, earning him a reputation as an independent professional as much with Republicans as with Democrats. Before his involvement in the Department of Justice, he was assistant deputy prosecutor in Manhattan and a prosecutor in Virginia. He is also known for his remarkable investigative work on a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. soldiers in 1996. Comey also managed a large hedge fund, an experience which is sure to help him when he is the head of an agency with a $8.2 billion budget. His new arrival occurs in a period that has been darkened by the Boston terrorist attack, which put the FBI on the spot.

One of the alleged perpetrators of the terrorist attack, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was questioned by the agency at the request of Russian officials. However, the FBI quickly stopped the investigation, an oversight which haunts Robert Mueller, worried about the growing threat of “lone wolf terrorists.”