The similarities between the new Smith guidelines and the 1979 FBI charter proposal are striking. A review of the role of the Attorney General's guidelines concludes that the current ones reflect a significant shift from the FBI's pre-1976 internal security policies to a concept of criminal intelligence tied directly to enforcement functions. The guidelines make few changes in the threshold standards for opening full domestic security-terrorism investigations, the principal differences being in the use of language drawn from the Civiletti guidelines and provisions to clarify ambiguities. The most serious ambiguity in the Smith guidelines involves the standard for opening an investigation before a crime occurs. A review of the new guidelines in the context of past policies confirm they accurately reflect a long-term policy of discouraging domestic political investigations. A statutory charter would give added protection against the use of the FBI for domestic intelligence purposes. The paper includes 152 footnotes.