By Deborah Charles - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday will grant the FBI greater leeway to conduct domestic counterterrorism surveillance following the agency's concession it had made mistakes in assessing clues before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The new guidelines will loosen rules that restrict the surveillance of public gatherings, religious and political organizations and surfing the Internet, officials said.
Previously, FBI agents had to offer evidence of criminal activity in order to get approval for such surveillance.
Justice Department officials said Attorney General John Ashcroft will announce the new guidelines as part of an effort to change the FBI's focus from traditional crime-solving to fighting terrorism.
The FBI has been under fire for its failure to act on information that might have prevented the deadly attacks.
"The guidelines allow FBI field agents to do everything possible within the bounds of the Constitution and the law to keep Americans safe from future terrorist attacks," one Justice Department official said.
Officials say the changes will allow FBI agents to do what any ordinary citizen or local police officer to do -- monitor and watch events in his area.
They deny accusations by civil liberties groups that the moves just give the government more authority to restrict personal freedoms.
"What these guidelines do is allow them to do what any other law enforcement organization, or in fact any public citizen can do -- go on line, go to public places or events and see what's going on," the official said.
"They are strictly focused on counter-terrorism activities. If an agent has reason to believe that there may be a terrorism enterprise in his area, he no longer has to wait for the terrorist to act to begin gathering information," he said.
The White House defended the change and said it would not violate the rights of Americans.
"The president is confident we can protect American people and protect people's individual rights," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The president is confident that we can protect the American people from terrorist attack and protect American individual rights."
The new guidelines come a day after FBI Director Robert Mueller announced a series of changes in the FBI to focus on fighting terrorism.
Mueller, plagued with criticism over how the bureau failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, admits the FBI could have done a better job of putting together the clues but said he doubts the hijacked plane attacks could have been prevented.
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