This is shocking, in a way. Or rather, you'd think racist, fear-addicted Republican types would make more of a stink over it. The money quote:

"This is gutting the criminal program. Incomprehensible. Just plain dumb," said one recently retired top FBI official who requested anonymity.
...
FBI insiders, reciting a litany of concerns, such as public corruption, violent crime and mortgage fraud, say the criminal program already has been cut to the bone.

"They are beyond looking at any body fat," one said. "They are lopping off limbs."

But wait, it gets worse:

To achieve the cut, the bureau transferred 400 street agents fighting crime to counterterrorism positions and eliminated 246 vacant criminal-agent positions. The cuts can't be found on any single budget line. It becomes clear only by sifting through a mountain of budget documents.

And what do you want to bet that "counterterrorism" means more spying on Americans who disagree with the Administration on issues like the WOT and occupation of Iraq? Or perhaps providing cover, security and legitimization to boondoggle operations by private contractors getting huge "national security" related contracts. Oh, I'm sure it's totally by accident that white collar crimes involving moving sums of money and paper around the world illegally will go up too:

Former FBI congressional liaison Charlie Mandigo cautioned against cutting agents at a time when sophisticated criminals are using the Internet to perpetrate fraud across state and international boundaries.

"They're leaving the door open for crime to become global," said Mandigo, special agent in charge in Seattle until retiring in 2003. "You can't expect a detective in Peoria to address a crime being committed by a person sitting at a computer in Russia. It turns the clock back 70 or 80 years to why the FBI was started to begin with -- to address interstate crime where local police don't have the capability, resources and jurisdiction."

Tech savvy crime, now so much easier here in America, thanks to Public Chimperor #1. I for one welcome our new Russian Mob identity/banking theft/blackmail operations overlords.

The Bush Administration is a criminal gang. Because only criminals will benefit from this reduction in domestic law enforcement. As we're fond of saying around here, the next Administration will have to completely clean out and restore our government agencies back to a semblence of that which functions for public benefit, and not the enrichment of cronies and criminals.