FBI, ATF Battle for Control Of Cases

On the core issue of explosives, Ashcroft said that if a bombing was terrorist-related, the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force for that area would control the investigation. If it was not, the ATF would take charge, unless the case involved areas such as civil rights that are traditional FBI turf.

The memo left it up to the task forces to determine terrorist links. In practice, it has meant that both agencies descend on the same crime scenes, often at the same time.

Arguments Still Flare

FBI agents arrived first in December 2004 after fires devastated a Charles County subdivision, built near an ecologically sensitive bog, in Maryland's biggest residential arson case in memory. The FBI pushed to declare it eco-terrorism, sources said.

ATF agents thought the FBI, seeking to take the lead in the case, was reaching a hasty conclusion before fully examining the evidence. There were shouting matches at the scene, slowing the investigation, sources said. "There were definitely some issues," said Maryland Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph Zurolo.

Five men were ultimately convicted of setting the fires, and eco-terrorism was ruled out. The arson disputes have persisted. Sources said arguments in similar fires have flared more than a dozen times across the country in recent years.

Sometimes, the integrity of key evidence is put at risk. When letters containing flammable match devices were mailed to state governors in late 2004, the ATF-FBI battle over lead agency status grew so contentious that it reached the deputy attorney general's office in Washington. Because the ATF could not prove that the act was not terrorism, sources said, officials sided with the FBI.

The ATF then had to move evidence from its lab to the FBI lab -- in the middle of the analysis. FBI officials said they thought their lab was better positioned to glean hair and fiber evidence. The case has never been solved.

Justice Department intervention was also needed after an explosion at a Texas apartment complex in July 2006 killed a 21-year-old man. ATF and FBI agents responded.

Terrorism was again the flash point. FBI agents asserted jurisdiction in part because the device was a peroxide-based explosive, a popular weapon for terrorists worldwide. ATF agents believed there was no terrorist link. The U.S. attorney's office in Houston backed the FBI.

According to an internal ATF incident report, the FBI refused to allow the ATF to continue assisting in the probe. FBI agents then threatened to arrest their ATF counterparts if they remained at the scene, sources said. The roommate of the dead man pleaded guilty to a federal explosives charge and will be sentenced next month.

The federal fighting frustrates local police and firefighters, who are usually the first responders. They describe tense crime scenes in which FBI and ATF agents stand on opposite sides of the street.

"If you're working with one agency, you have to walk on eggshells if you mention the other," said Jeff Kirk, former commander of the Kokomo, Ind., police bomb squad, who has written to Congress about the issue. "Frankly, after all these years, I'm really tired of this alphabet soup fight."