FBI would use sting to snag corrupt pols

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- The new head of the FBI's criminal division said that, if necessary, agents would run a sting operation to catch crooked politicians.

"We look for those opportunities a lot," Assistant FBI Director James Burrus told McClatchy Newspapers. "I would do it on Capitol Hill. I would do it in any state legislature. ... If we could do an undercover operation, and it would get me better evidence, I'd do it in a second."

In the 1970s, FBI agents posing as Arab sheikhs tape-recorded Sen. Harrison Williams, D-N.J., and six congressional representatives agreeing to take bribes in what became known as the Abscam investigation.

Public corruption has taken a new prominence in the FBI's work with the recent guilty pleas from two members of Congress who resigned because of corruption -- Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., and Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Agents have also been investigating the Alaska state legislature.

The FBI has added a fourth public corruption squad with 15 to 20 agents in its Washington field office.