FBI, ATF Battle for Control Of Cases

"Everything that we're doing, they're doing," said an ATF agent not authorized to comment. "It's just a constant battle."

'Sour Relationship'

More than 30 ATF agents arrived at the smoldering Pentagon the day after Sept. 11, 2001, to help with the largest criminal investigation in the nation's history. The FBI commander threw them off the site.

Although Arlington County had authority over the scene for the first 10 days after the attacks, the two federal agencies fought over who would take the eventual lead in the investigation, recalled Arlington Fire Chief James H. Schwartz, the incident commander.

The ATF backed down, but before assuming control, the FBI again excluded some ATF agents from the site. Several frustrated ATF agents cut a fence to get closer and were ejected by U.S. marshals, Schwartz said.

"The American people are not being best served by this sour relationship and by the lack of efficiency," Schwartz said. "I think there's a huge risk there, especially when you look at it through the lens of terrorism."

ATF spokesman Robert Browning said ATF commanders told him the fence incident did not happen.

The clash at the Pentagon laid bare problems between the two agencies that had been brewing for years.

The ATF, which now has about 2,500 agents, was historically part of the Treasury Department -- it became an independent agency within Treasury in 1972 -- because it collected tobacco and liquor taxes. It has gradually acquired jurisdiction over firearms, explosives and other related crimes.

The FBI, which has more than 12,000 agents, has prided itself on fighting violent crime since the 1930s.

The competition between the FBI and ATF bred mutual suspicion. ATF agents, many of whom are former police or military officers, have long resented their FBI colleagues, who until the mid-1990s were usually higher paid.

"We fashion ourselves as federal street cops, and we don't try to make things larger than they are," said one ATF agent. "Their job is to see a bigger picture, a global connection."

As Congress debated the Homeland Security Act of 2002, an FBI memo surfaced that hinted at problems to come. It derided ATF agents as poorly trained and lacking "strategic vision." Although it was discounted by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, many in the ATF were outraged.