Homeland Security key players: Pasquale D'Amuro--Executive Assistant Director for...

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Pasquale D'Amuro

When the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled FBI Director Robert Mueller in June 2002 about the bureau's failure to follow up on clues that might have helped

prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, Mueller said he had made some changes, which include a new deputy and new section chiefs throughout the agency. Among other things, he told the lawmakers, he had appointed a new chief of counterterrorism, Pasquale "Pat" D'Amuro, who had previously served as head of the FBI's joint terrorism task force and was an "expert in al Qaeda."

Today, fighting terrorism is the FBI's top priority. Staffing is up 36 percent, Mueller told another Senate committee this year, and specialized new units are monitoring threats, probing the financing of terrorist operations, analyzing terrorist communications, and more. Field agents are being trained in counterterrorism. And the FBI expanded its joint terrorism task forces from 35 before the Sept. 11 attacks to 66 today. Federal, state and local officials use the task forces to share information and work together to prevent terrorist attacks.