For FBI director, values instilled by Princeton crucial to success

Mueller was awarded the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Award on Saturday, which recognizes an individual alumnus’ commitment to public service. Though Mueller said that a friend at a dinner party once joked that it was “the award given to those who cannot make it in the private sector,” Mueller emphasized that he was honored to receive it.

Speaking after Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson GS ’86, Mueller opened with a humorous remark on the era in which he had been a college student.

“In 1966, man had yet to walk on the moon,” he said. “A gallon of gas was only 32 cents. And Lisa Jackson was just learning to walk.”

Mueller said that while he benefited from the University’s rigorous academic curriculum and top-notch faculty, just as important for his growth was the University’s impact on his character.

“Since its earliest days, Princeton has had a unique way of instilling ideals, such as leadership, humility and service, into the educational experience, and the institution is all the stronger for it,” he said.

Such values are highly relevant, Mueller emphasized, in a high-tech, hyper-connected and rapidly changing world. The advent of the Internet and social media has enabled cheap, quick communication that transcends nation-state borderlines and wide oceans.

Alluding to The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s adage that “the world is flat,” Mueller noted that globalization has broken down the traditional geographic and temporal barriers that once hampered communication. In so doing, he explained, it has both contained and enabled the threats posed by foreign terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, which use new technology to recruit, train and coordinate its members.

“The Internet has become a routine part of our everyday existence, in the way we communicate, conduct business, socialize and share information. Unfortunately, the same is true for criminals and terrorists,” he said.

Traditional nation-state jurisdictional boundaries and criminal justice systems have not evolved to meet this changing world, Mueller added, noting that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies must evolve to meet the new threats posed by terrorist groups, cyber predators and hackers.

His remarks reflected the massive shift in the FBI’s focus that has occurred since he took the helm in 2001, when it began the transformation from a domestic white-collar crime, narcotics and fraud-oriented law enforcement agency to one devoted largely to preventing terrorist attacks on the United States.

“But our values — adherence to the Constitution and to the rule of law, honesty, fairness and integrity — these values can never change. We will protect the security of our nation while upholding the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen. It is in the highest and best tradition of the FBI,” Mueller told the audience.

His statement seemed to acknowledge public concerns raised about the FBI’s post-9/11 power, which have spiked since the FBI reoriented itself to foil terrorists.

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Mueller said that his University classmates embodied the critical qualities of leadership and humility, noting in particular the example of David Hackett ’65. A fellow lacrosse teammate, Hackett commanded a rifle platoon commander in the Marine Corps at the start of the Vietnam War. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet just south of the buffer zone between North and South Korea, around the 38th parallel. The end of Hackett’s life was tragic, but its trajectory taught Mueller the meaning of leadership “in times of adversity ... through example ... and indeed, leadership through service.”

Mueller’s classmate Lee Rawls ’66, who worked with him for many years in law enforcement, taught him the value of humility through humor. At a heated FBI meeting, Rawls reportedly once diffused the tension by asking the room, “What is the difference between the director of the FBI and a four-year-old child?” Mueller recalled the answer with a smile: “Height.”

The values instilled by his friends were cultivated by Mueller’s later experiences. After graduating with a degree in Politics in 1966 and obtaining a master’s degree in international relations from NYU, he joined the Marine Corps and spent a year in Vietnam as the leader of a rifle platoon. Mueller received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service.

After Vietnam, Mueller earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia and worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco. In the next 20 years, Mueller held a variety of positions with the Department of Justice and worked in private practice.

Mueller was nominated by former President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2001, becoming the sixth director of the FBI just a week before the 9/11 attacks. His term was supposed to end in September 2011, in accordance with new guidelines on FBI leadership meant to prevent a repeat of J. Edgar Hoover’s half-century reign, but President Obama and the Senate gave Mueller a two-year term extension this past summer.

He closed his speech by recognizing Woodrow Wilson’s belief that universities must teach their students about world affairs and instill a sense of commitment to their own nation.

In Wilson’s view, “the school must be of the nation and for the nation,” Mueller said. “Wilson asked, ‘Who shall show us the way to such a place?’ By virtue of the Princeton tradition, we have our answer.”