Justice Department must weed out FBI incompetence

Even if not a single salient fact emerges from the 3,135 documents the FBI turned over to Timothy McVeigh's lawyers last week that would affect the case of Timothy McVeigh, the damage has been done -- if not to the government's case against McVeigh, certainly to the perception that the FBI is competent and to the regard with which many Americans hold their government.
Misplacing or forgetting about -- or whatever the excuse is -- potential evidence in one of the most important federal trials in recent history demonstrates a kind of mindlessness that should have no place in any government agency, least of all the FBI.
Fiasco: This most recent fiasco plays right into the hands of the conspiracists who believe all sorts of ludicrous things about the Justice Department and keep the Internet humming with their dangerously fanciful notions of "truth." Despite, for example, the independent investigations that showed the Branch Davidian deaths in Waco resulted from the actions of the cult's own leaders -- there remain to this day -- eight years after the fact -- those who will never be persuaded of government innocence.
Even in the Mahoning Valley, there are hundreds of people who would rather believe that Rep. James Traficant is the victim of a Justice Department vendetta than that he played on the wrong side of federal law.
Such folks read about the McVeigh evidence and are even more convinced of their hero's righteousness.
Conspiracy: No one should doubt that Traficant won't use this information to attack the Justice Department as he takes to the airwaves May 29. Nor that other anti-government types won't use the FBI's gaffe to bolster their own conspiracy arguments -- the facts notwithstanding
One juror in the trial that found McVeigh guilty believes nothing in the reams of documents would change his verdict.
& quot;This new evidence doesn't change my mind. The prosecution proved everything to me. If there was something left out that's in those files, I don't think it was that significant. & quot; said Doug Carr. His viewpoint is shared by other jurors.
With the departure next month of FBI Director Louis Freeh, Attorney General John Ashcroft has a golden opportunity to instill a new sense of purpose in the bureau -- one that puts service ahead of secrecy and one that reminds certain employees that their agency is part of the Justice Department and not vice versa.