chief blocked Moussaoui warrant, is rewarded
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - An FBI supervisor whose headquarters unit denied a pre-Sept. 11 search warrant against Zacarias Moussaoui has won a presidential citation and large cash bonus, incentives the agency's congressional critics say reward incompetence.
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Sen. Charles "Chuck" Grassley, R-Iowa, complained in a letter to the FBI director, "You are sending the wrong signal to those agents who fought - sometimes against senior FBI bureaucrats at headquarters - to prevent the attacks."
Mr. Grassley asked Mr. Mueller to explain in writing his decision to nominate Mr. Bowman. He told Mr. Mueller that Senate testimony by Mr. Bowman during a closed Judiciary Committee hearing in July raised serious questions about the competence of lawyers in the unit.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Intelligence Committee during its oversight investigation of the FBI, complained last month - just days before Mr. Bowman won the award - that Mr. Bowman's law unit provided "inexcusably confused and inaccurate information" to FBI investigators in Minneapolis during the Moussaoui case.
Mr. Shelby said in an 84-page report that the FBI unit's advice turned out to be "patently false" and led agents in Minnesota on a "wild goose chase for nearly three weeks."
On Thursday, Mr. Shelby said the award showed "no accountability for poor performance at the bureau. ... They continue to reward bad behavior, and the results speak for themselves."
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