International Terrorism: FBI Investigates Domestic Activities to Identify Terrorists

• NCJ Number: 127269
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 47 pages
• Corporate Author: US Government Accountability Office
• Sale Source: Azimuth Inc.; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Legislative/Regulatory Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, September 1990

Annotation

Between January 1982 and June 1988, the FBI closed about 19,500 international terrorist investigations. A General Accounting Office (GAO) questionnaire generalized results to an adjusted universe of 18,144 cases.

Abstract

GAO estimates that half of the 18,144 cases were opened because the FBI suspected that individuals or groups were involved in terrorist activities. Thirty-eight percent of the subjects were U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens. The FBI monitored first amendment-type activities in 11.5 percent of the cases and indexed information on non-subject individuals in 47.8 percent of the cases and on non-subject groups in 11.6 percent of the cases. It closed 67.5 percent of the cases because it did not have sufficient evidence against the subjects. Because the FBI limited access to sensitive files and denied access to open case files, the GAO could not determine if the FBI abused individuals' first amendment rights or if it had a reasonable basis to monitor their activities. 5 appendixes, 8 tables and 5 figures