BANFIELD: Robert Mueller has been leading the FBI since the week before 9/11 and now, 12 years later, he's stepping down, but not before speaking with Joe Johns. Have a listen.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: We're coming up on the anniversary of 9/11. We've had embassies overseas closed and reopened. Are we bracing for imminent attack?</s>MUELLER: I don't think so although we have to monitor the situation very carefully. We had the reports of the possibility of an attack on our embassies in the Middle East perhaps a month ago. We took precautions. By that, I mean the administration and the State Department. It may well be that that's been postponed. We're monitoring the situation very carefully to determine if that's the case. But I don't think at this particular juncture we see an imminent attack.</s>JOHNS: If we had the kind of intelligence we were collecting through the NSA before September 11th, the kind of intelligence collection that we have now, do you think 9/11 would have been prevented?</s>MUELLER: I think there's a good chance that we would have prevented at least part of 9/11. The four planes, there were almost 19 persons involved. I think we would have had a much better chance of identifying those individuals who were contemplating that attack.</s>JOHNS: By this mass collection of information?</s>MUELLER: By the various programs that have been put in place since then. And part of it is not just the focus of those programs on identifying communications of would-be terrorists but it's also the ability to share that information amongst the law enforcement and intelligence communities. The Patriot Act broke down those laws and included that sharing of information, and so it's both the programs but also the ability to share the information that's made such a dramatic change in our ability to identify and stop plots.</s>BANFIELD: So much more on CNN.com. Two women brought together by a near tragedy, meeting face-to-face exclusively on CNN. Don't miss this. It's next.
FBI's Robert Mueller on Liberty, Security