FBI chief to stay on under new president, aide says

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – FBI Director Robert Mueller, a leader of the Bush administration's fight against terrorism, intends to serve out a 10-year term and has sought to quash rumors he would soon quit, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

There has been speculation Mueller would leave during the presidential transition following the November 4 elections.

"Stop the rumors about me leaving," spokesman Richard Kolko quoted Mueller as telling aides. He said Mueller made clear he did not intend to leave until his single term expires in September 2011.

Mueller took over the FBI on September 4, 2001, a week before the September 11 attacks that forced the bureau to dramatically shift focus to preventing terrorism. This has put him in the forefront of debates over wiretapping, interrogation of suspected terrorists and other civil-liberties issues.

Mueller has differed in congressional testimony with CIA Director Michael Hayden over harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Mueller has said the FBI does not use coercive interrogations, and his agents internally reported concerns over CIA interrogations they witnessed at Guantanamo.

Hayden has acknowledged that the CIA on three occasions used waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning widely regarded as torture, and he has sought broader latitude for questioning than the U.S. military allows.

Mueller has also won praise from lawmakers in Congress for joining other senior legal officials in threatening to resign if U.S. President George W. Bush did not back down over his intention to extend a warrantless eavesdropping program.

However, he later supported granting immunity to telecommunications firms that took part in the eavesdropping.





Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081022/ts_nm/us_usa_politics_fbi

Let's start with a clean slate.

Because it means they will soon be needing to spend more time with their families :evilgrin:

:dem:

Mr. Mueller, forget about sticking around...You'll be lucky if you are'nt indicted for aiding and abetting the high crimes and misdemeanors of the current administration.

If Obama says he's out,then he's out.

The president may remove a director with adequate cause. President Clinton dismissed Director William Sessions halfway through his term on charges that Sessions misused official resources—such as using FBI aircraft for personal trips.

Congress can also remove an FBI director by impeachment. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution says that any civil officer can be removed if the Senate convicts him of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." A two-thirds vote is required for conviction. (Mueller, of course, has not been charged with any of these.)

The man's really got to do a whole lot of butt kissing now in order to keep his job. If he's kept, he will start out under the new administration owing someone big for retaining him.

I'm starting to see this phrase cropping up, apparently to replace the 'War' on Terror meme.

I find it disingenuous. There is no 'war' and yet this administration has consistently used 'war' as their excuse for allowing chimpy to embrace his inner dictator.

All this crap needs to stop if we're ever to have a sane collective dialog.

up to.

Thinks McCain has the thing in the bag.

when he's up to his eyeballs in them. Mueller has done nothing but cover up for BushCo all these years. Maybe he's on the payroll and they hope he'll stay there and continue to cover up for them when they leave.

and congress.

The democrats in Washington might be dumb, but they ain't stupid.

I think We the People, will demand a change from top to bottom soon.

America knows that Mueller is just another BushCo flunkie. He's done about as good of a job as "Brownie" did.

We can't let this guy cover Bush's ass!

Needs to clean house... I like the augean stable analogy... The best way to do it is to scrub them all and start fresh.