- Historic Sites “The Most Dangerous Institution” For nearly a
hundred years, the FBI has been fighting for America—with its
discipline and professionalism often at odds with its shadowy,
extralegal tactics. August/September 2002 | Volume 53, Issue 4
When American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the north tower of
the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation director, Robert S. Mueller III,
had been at his post for just one week. Suddenly he found
himself responsible for both investigating the gravest crime in
American history and for preventing further attacks. Mueller had
faced a daunting job even before the terrorists struck. He had
been assigned to revamp a tradition-bound bureaucracy of 27,000
employees, an organization that for years had given the
impression of lurching from one blunder to the next. His goals
were to bring effective management to the Bureau, beef up its
intelligence capabilities, reorder its priorities, and force the
insular institutio