Rowley Faced More Than FBI Bureaucracy

Minneapolis Star-Tribune ^ | 6/6/02 | Greg Gordon

[Paul Ross]

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Minneapolis FBI agent Coleen Rowley, who testifies before Congress today, faced more than bureaucratic obstacles in August while she pressed FBI headquarters for a warrant to search the belongings of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui.

Minnesota's federal law enforcement leadership was in flux during the weeks that crucial decisions were being made.

[Paul Ross]

Bill Michael, who coordinated terrorism cases at the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis until 2000, said he doubted the evidence would have been enough to obtain a criminal warrant, but that it should have been enough for a FISA warrant.

Indeed, it should have.

And now we know who the kludge was, this Michael Maltbie. This guy is toast.

[Drango]

I'm more inclined to blame the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the rest of the media for 20 years of sniviling about the size/scope of the FBI/CIA/NSA.

[Alberta's Child]

I heard a prominent (well-respected) legal expert on the radio a couple of weeks ago who made the exact opposite point -- he said that in this particular case it would have been much harder to obtain an FISA warrant than a criminal warrant.

[miamimark]

After watching her testimony, God help us if she is one of the top agents.

[Alberta's Child]

"The French would have done it without blinking," Revell said. "They don't require warrants for their national security activities."

The French also have no qualms about sending agents to a foreign country to engage in acts of terrorism against a third party. I'm not sure we should be using tham as a standard for anything.

[Paul Ross]

The whole reason for the creation of FISA warrants was to make them easier to obtain than criminal warrants against terrorists, that no actually probability of any previous criminal action need be shown. The expert you saw was smoking something, and it wasn't tobacco.

[Paul Ross]

Noted. God help us then. She is.

[Howlin]

So far we have learned that she is a good typist. Lord, she is a BOMB.

[Paul Ross]

It is likely they deserve every imprecation in the book. They have earned it. But Maltbie appears to be a Clintonoid, and one of theirs.

[tictoc]

What was on Moussaoui's computer?

[miamimark]

I think she said she was a good "typer" but most of the older agents didn't know how. Now they're blaming the computer system. The senators questioning her are a joke, too. How sad.

[linn37]

I could'nt take anymore of her or the ignorant senators,turned the TV back over to the kids.Spongebob makes more sense.

[Alberta's Child]

You can tell that directly to Mark Levin himself -- he lurks here on FreeRepublic, though I don't know his Freeper handle.

[Paul Ross]

Are you referring to her looks? I hope that you worry a bit more about other things in assessing lawyers...

[Howlin]

Schumer should have gotten the Dell Dude to get him a better by on a computer, shouldn't he?

[Alberta's Child]

BTW, I've got my own bone to pick with Coleen Rowley. You don't write a memo eight months after 9/11, release it to the media, and have it held up to the public as a "smoking gun."

If she had any credibility she would have written the thing on September 12, 2001, not in May of 2002 after the sh!t had already started to hit the fan.

[Paul Ross]

LOL! Be glad to!

[Howlin]

Her testimony is a complete BOMB. She is nothing except a middle level employee like you'd find in ANY COMPANY that believes SHE could do it better.

There is NOTHING that she has said today that I couldn't have said.

[Steve_Seattle]

The other day Maureen Dowd predictably wrote a woman smart/men dumb column, contrasting the brilliant Rowley with the dumb-ass good-old-boys club. This article makes it clear that there was far more to it than that, that there were LAWS whose criteria had to be met in order to gain a warrant, and it was not at all clear that the FBI had sufficient evidence to obtain a warrant. The position vacancies - not mentioned in any other reports I have seen - were apparently also a major factor in the intelligence not getting more attention.

[Howlin]

Precisely. Why now???