Special counterterror teams provide window on new FBI

By Eric Schmitt

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
2:00 a.m. August 19, 2009

NORWALK — The report last month was chilling: a 55-gallon drum of radioactive material had gone missing during shipment from North Carolina to California. Even worse, the person who signed for the cargo wasn't an employee of the company that ordered the load.

The FBI consulted health officials, quizzed radiation specialists and tracked down the trucker who dropped off the material that could be used in a radioactive-bomb attack. Three hours later, the shipper found the drum — still sitting on a loading dock 20 miles from its destination in the Los Angeles area — having confused it with a similar shipment sent to a different company on the same day.

For an FBI team that vets tips and threats about possible terrorist activity, it was another false alarm in a job largely defined by hoaxes and bogus leads.

“A lot of time, we are chasing shadows,â€