Robert Mueller’s ultimate legacy: Preventing an American MI5

In the aftermath of 9/11, a shocked U.S. government sought to ensure such an attack never happened again. As with many Washington solutions, the fixes were mainly bureaucratic, such as the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the position of Director of National Intelligence.

But one proposal, to create a domestic security agency akin to Britain’s MI5, would have fundamentally altered the way Americans approached intelligence. This new agency, without the powers of arrest or subpoena, would have taken over the FBI’s role in counterintelligence and counterterrorism.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, who passed away last week, was the one who prevented that from happening.  

Unlike the U.S., most countries separate their domestic security and intelligence agencies from their police and law enforcement functions. In the United Kingdom, MI5 uses intelligence to protect against terrorists and spies, whereas law enforcement agencies like New Scotland Yard conduct criminal investigations. In the aftermath of 9/11, when we learned the FBI and other agencies “failed to connect the dots,” many thought a U.S. version of MI5 would do a better job in preventing attacks.

The idea was not new. After the intelligence failures surrounding Pearl Harbor, policymakers debated how best to organize the nation’s intelligence and domestic security functions. By the end of World War II, an idea for a new peacetime central intelligence agency began to take shape. This new agency was to connect those intelligence dots by following leads whether overseas or domestic.

But when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover learned he would not lead this new agency, he protected his turf by leaking the plan, which led many Americans to fear an “American Gestapo.” When the CIA was eventually created in 1947, it was denied a domestic intelligence role. The FBI’s security domain was safe until 9/11.

Like his predecessor, Mueller fought the new bureaucratic challenge through testimony, speeches and op-eds on how a domestic intelligence agency separated from law enforcement would be a civil liberties nightmare.

As a practical matter, he stressed how “Splitting the law enforcement and the intelligence functions would leave both agencies fighting the war on terrorism with one hand tied behind their backs.” That sentiment was surprisingly echoed by the British themselves, who envied the FBI’s ability to immediately act on intelligence through arrests and searches.

But Mueller also had to back words with deeds. With the Patriot Act’s elimination of “the wall,” the FBI‘s intelligence and criminal investigative components could now cooperate against threats. The FBI created and enhanced Joint Terrorism Task Forces in every FBI field office. At FBI headquarters, an intelligence directorate would integrate and embed intelligence into all bureau programs.

Recruitment of human sources, always a requirement for FBI agents, was more heavily emphasized, with the creation of specialized human intelligence squads. Analysts, usually attached to national security squads, were also assigned to criminal matters and gained greater responsibility (and power) to direct intelligence collection.  

The lack of any major terrorist attack seemed to prove Mueller’s leadership was working. The calls for an American MI5 began to fade. Whether it was the right decision remains open to debate. Even today, FBI veterans are divided. To some, Mueller ensured the bureau survived the post 9/11 world intact by savvily adapting to the current environment. 

But many still lament the death of the “old bureau.” Agents with badges and guns did not see themselves as “intelligence collectors” and thought criminal investigations suffered from neglect. Inefficient processes, such as making agents reupload their approved reports into a new analytical system, added to a growing administrative burden. And the focus on domestic intelligence-gathering led to follies such as identifying Catholics attending Latin masses and parents raising concerns at school board meetings as potential terrorist threats.  

As long as no major terrorist attack occurs on U.S. soil, we probably will not have an American MI5. But no nation’s intelligence system is perfect, and terrorists only have to get lucky once. 

Domestic intelligence agencies such as MI5, Israel’s Shin Bet and France’s General Directorate for Internal Security have all failed to prevent terrorist attacks while facing scrutiny regarding civil liberties and human rights. Those countries all operate under different legal, political and cultural contexts than most Americans of any political persuasion would feel uncomfortable with here.  

While Mueller’s legacy may be viewed through the investigations he led, his most enduring impact may lie in what he prevented. At a moment when fear and urgency made sweeping structural change seem inevitable, he held the line against creating an American MI5.  

In doing so, he preserved a distinctly American approach to security — one that fuses intelligence with law enforcement authority under a single institution. Whether that model is ultimately the right one will always remain a matter of debate. But the fact that it still defines the nation’s domestic security framework is due to his leadership at a pivotal moment. 

Christopher M. Donohue is a retired FBI agent.

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