The FBI has broken with tradition and made changes in its top management that, rather than elevating onetime agents, tapped officials with extensive experience outside of the bureau for key positions, reports the Los Angeles Times. The realignment Director Robert S. Mueller III, put nonagents, including a former oil company executive and a man who rose through the ranks of the CIA, atop three of the bureau’s five major branches. The moves were an acknowledgment of troubles the bureau has had keeping up with advancements in science, computer technology, and human resources.
The changes leave FBI careerists in charge of the criminal and intelligence branches. Mueller also named a longtime agent to fill a new position of associate deputy director. But he created three positions that he filled with bureau employees who made their mark elsewhere. Donald Packham, a former BP senior executive, will oversee human resources and training. Kerry Haynes, a former CIA director of technical collection, will run a new science and technology branch. Chief Information Officer Zalmai Azmi was given expanded duties overseeing computer operations. Mueller established a unit to study threats from weapons of mass destruction, headed by Vahid Majidi, a scientist formerly at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
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