The FBI Agent
If the Patriot Act gives the FBI new sweeping powers to investigate terrorism, there's at least one agent who says he isn't sure what to do with his new freedoms, or if they even matter in Fairbanks, Alaska. He lives and works in the town of 80,000 people, and he writes off labels like "Big Brother" and warnings that America is headed toward a Soviet-style, information-controlling regime as stemming from ignorance.
Agent "Fairbanks," who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with bureau policy for dealings with the media and would not allow his interview to be recorded, contends that the Patriot Act won't really affect this Alaska community.
The office set aside for the FBI is located in the Federal Building near downtown Fairbanks. With a front counter, two desks and several boxes overflowing with paperwork stacked in a corner, the room defies the stereotypical FBI image of the man in dark sunglasses with a wire running into his ear.
"A lot of the powers I have are silliness," the Alaska G-man says, leaning back in his chair. "It's still way up in La-La land. They [lawmakers] pass this stuff, but it's like, 'Come on, guys, this doesn't change anything.'"
Much of what the act allows, such as roving wiretaps (shifting tap locations to match a suspect's movements), would take at least 15 agents to implement and maintain, he says.
Agent Fairbanks gives the example of phone-taps in investigations of the Mafia. If government agents are listening in on a conversation that doesn't refer to criminal acts, they must stop listening. However, agents may listen in every 20 seconds or so to check on the topic of conversation. This process could require a 24-hour monitoring team of agents--there are only two men in Fairbanks, 12 agents in Anchorage and fewer than 20 in the state of Alaska.
"They'd either have to shut down the Anchorage office, or bring people in from Seattle," he says.
And what about Section 215, which says that agents may compel any tangible items from private entities or businesses? In other words, investigators can look into medical records, college transcripts and library user records, among other things. The provision has some librarians worried about user privacies.
"From my perspective," Agent Fairbanks says, "nothing has changed."
He says that even before the act was passed, librarians wouldn't tell him what people were reading. Why should they tell him now, he wonders? While the Patriot Act implies that agents may compel items from institutions like libraries, he's not sure he would carry the law that far."What am I going to do," he asks, spreading his hands, "arrest a librarian?"
He says he's not going to be the first agent to haul a librarian into court over user records and test the Patriot Act in front of a judge. "They'd (the FBI) probably back us in the lawsuit, because we're technically correct," he says, "then they'd fire us."
He continues, "Even though I now have an arrest power--call it a corporate environment--in the FBI, they don't want us making probable cause arrests."
For a wiretap, arrest warrant or anything else under something so serious as the Patriot Act, he says, his request would most likely go all the way to the top--Washington, D.C.
And why, he asks, would an FBI agent need to know what people are reading in Fairbanks?
"Even if you're reading books about Arabs or terrorists or making a bomb," he ventures, "maybe you're writing a novel."
Given its remote location, Agent Fairbanks says this town may be an exception across the country. The powers of the Patriot Act may be more applicable in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago or New York, where, in such populated areas, terrorism would both be less easily discovered and more harmful on a mass scale.
Still, that doesn't mean terrorism couldn't surface in Fairbanks, he says, however unlikely it may seem.
And, he adds, "You wouldn't need me to tell you because the threat would be obvious."
As for the "Big Brother" concerns--surveillance of local activist groups like the Bill of Rights Defense committee or the Alaska Civil Liberties Union, he says that kind of thing doesn't even factor into his job.
"Nobody in any of these groups is doing anything of concern to the federal government," he says. "The Patriot Act wouldn't be used against those guys."
Agent Fairbanks thinks many people get their impression of the FBI from film and television. But when he trains in Quantico, Va., most of the agents he encounters are pretty normal guys. "They're not S.W.A.T.-teamish," he says. "They're pretty mainstream."
Behind the public's perception of hard-as-stone government enforcers, Agent Fairbanks says, most agents have children and go shopping and attend soccer games on weekends--same as any other American worker. They just happen to be the federal government's police force.
"Most guys (FBI agents) are very cautious about stepping on people's toes," he adds.
And while he doesn't believe the FBI is out to spy on or arrest everyone, Agent Fairbanks sees the concern of some people. "There's a lot of stuff in the Patriot Act that, if taken to court probably would be bad." He says, "but that's what the courts are for."
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