Posted on 05/25/2002 12:15:02 AM PDT by TheOtherOne
Whistle-blower says FBI HQ rewrote search warrants for terror suspect
By JOHN SOLOMON
01:26 ET
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2002. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
WASHINGTON (AP) - An FBI whistle-blower contends that the bureau's headquarters removed important information from a search warrant application whose rejection kept the government from learning more about terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11.
Coleen Rowley wrote in a memo earlier this week that agents in Minneapolis became so frustrated by roadblocks erected by supervisors in Washington they began to joke that FBI headquarters was becoming an "unwitting accomplice" to Osama bin Laden's efforts to attack the United States, said government officials who have seen the memo.
As new details emerged about the letter Rowley wrote to FBI Director Robert Mueller, key members of Congress sought on Friday to extend her whistle-blower protections and invited more agents to come forward.
"We encourage more of the same," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla.
A joint panel of House and Senate members, meanwhile, set the first hearings in June to examine what the government knew before Sept. 11 about terrorist threats and what mistakes it made.
Officials familiar with Rowley 's memo, speaking on condition of anonymity, said she alleged FBI headquarters terrorism supervisors rewrote the Minnesota office's warrant applications and affidavit and removed intelligence about Moussaoui before sending them to a legal office that then rejected them as insufficient.
She alleged that some of the revisions "downplayed" the significance of some intelligence linking Moussaoui to Islamic extremists, and blamed the changes on a flawed communication process.
"Obviously, verbal presentations are far more susceptible to mischaracterization or error," Rowley , an FBI counsel, wrote in her 13-page letter, excerpts of which were obtained by The Associated Press.
The Minneapolis office was concerned after arresting Moussaoui at a Minnesota flight school in August 2001 that he was seeking to hurt Americans and wanted to gather more information through national security and search warrants, including getting information off his computer.
Some of that information came from an associate of Moussaoui who told the FBI the flight student held extreme anti-American views. Other intelligence came from France linking Moussaoui to radical Islamic extremists in the region, although not directly to al-Qaida, officials said.
The officials said Rowley identified the warrant revision process as flawed, particularly complaining that Minnesota was never consulted about the changes that were made before the warrant applications were forwarded to the offices that rejected them.
Officials said Rowley in other parts of the memo attacked the public explanations that Mueller and other FBI senior officials have offered about why the FBI failed to connect the dots before Sept. 11.
Rowley wrote she had come to the "sad realization" that officials had skewed facts in the post-Sept. 11 accounts and were trying to "circle the wagons" to protect FBI headquarters from embarrassing disclosures.
She also criticized the culture of Washington headquarters, saying FBI higher-ups were too concerned with "petty politics" and too afraid to make tough decisions that could affect their career ascensions, the officials said.
Several times, Rowley complained in the letter that Minneapolis had never been told of a separate memo written in July by a Phoenix FBI agent warning that Arab pilots in Arizona with ties to radical Muslims were training at flight schools.
"Headquarters personnel never disclosed to the Minneapolis agents that the Phoenix Division had only three weeks earlier warned of al Qaeda operatives in flight schools seeking flight training for terrorist purposes," Rowley wrote.
Actually, the Phoenix agent had not connected the pilots to Osama bin Laden but rather to a militant Islamic group in London whose leader received communications from bin Laden encouraging violence.
FBI officials have repeatedly said the agency failed to connect the two matters before Sept. 11.
But on Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and committee members Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, questioned whether the head of the FBI's radical fundamentalist anti-terrorism unit in Washington may have handled both matters and been in a position to make the connection.
Officials said the unit chief was directly involved in the Moussaoui deliberations in August and was one of the first names copied on the Phoenix memo a month earlier.
But one law enforcement official who demanded anonymity said the unit chief contends he never saw or was aware of the Phoenix memo being handled by his unit before Sept. 11 even though he was copied in on it.
"Please explain his role ... (and) what connection, if any, he or others drew between the two ongoing investigations; and whether he or others brought such a connection to the attention of higher-level FBI officials," the senators wrote.
Separately, Grassley disclosed he has given Rowley "written assurance that she will be protected for her cooperation with the Judiciary Committee's investigation" and urged Mueller "to ensure there is no retaliation against Ms. Rowley."
And/Or Clinton appointees and campaign contributions!
Regards,
TS
The question rises, when did the investigation take place? The article says prior to 911 but we all know the AP sometimes has a leftist bias... the imprecise reporting makes one wonder if there is a story unreported? Is TRIXPOTUS at the root somewhere?
Maybe, but it appears that the problems with the FBI far surpass the Clintons and their corrupting ways.
I fear if we just reflexly blame the whole mess on the Clintons the incompetence and corruption within the FBI will continue.
The FBI probably could not have stopped 911 but Zacharias Mousaaui definitely needed more looking into and the FBI blew it!
This is not true. While you are probably stuck with these guys on the public payroll, creative reassignments are used all of the time. Nothing prevents the director from forming a paperclip accounting audit task force in a remote location, and reassigning these folks to it - say at the FBI field office at Pt. Barrow Alaska - not that one wishes these folks on the undeserving eskimos and polar bears.
Either way it's all good since the cold winter air brings you to your senses.
You can bet the FBI is still watching "religious right", "militia", and "right wing" groups, and monitoring gun shows. Even after 9-11, I know of liberals who fear that "right wing Christians" still want to send them to the gas chambers. They expect the FBI to monitor and infiltrate these groups, on the chance that someone might say something that offends the left.
Besides admitting that they are generally incompetent, the FBI would have to admit that it spends most of its resources watching conservatives who might "do something".
Rewriting and omitting key evidence puts this in a whole nuther category than ineptitude.
I won't for moment defend the Clintons but this goes far beyond, and in some cases, predates them.
We will not advance the process of cleaning up the failures and corruption at the FBI if we limit it to the Clintons and their influence.
These field agents are taking the sort of risks that you take when you know that somebody at Headquarters is an enemy agent.
It has been obvious for some time that the FBI has been successfully infiltrated by terrorists.
The whole idea is imply,suggest, and generally misinform with the intent of doing harm to the President.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.