Posted on 09/29/2003 2:34:29 PM PDT by OutSpot
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two former FBI managers were hired as government contractors after their retirements, despite criticism of both men in an inspector general's report on FBI discipline. One ex-official, Joseph Wolfinger, is senior vice president and general manager of a Virginia firm that is conducting counter-intelligence training for FBI agents. The contract, which began earlier this year, is worth up to $410,000 if continued for five years, the bureau said. The other, Charles Mathews, former special agent in charge of the Portland, Ore., office, was hired to teach counter-intelligence training to Indonesian police. The FBI said Mathews received $700 per day for nine days - $6,300 from the bureau program run through the University of Virginia. Both men were criticized by the Justice Department inspector general last fall. The IG concluded the FBI "suffered and still suffers from a strong, and not unreasonable, perception" that top managers receive slaps on the wrist for misconduct that brings stronger penalties for lower-level workers. The report and whistleblower complaints about the fairness of FBI internal discipline led FBI Director Robert Mueller earlier this year to hire former Attorney General Griffin Bell and a former associate director, Lee Cowell, to conduct an independent review that is still under way. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a leading Senate investigator of the FBI's internal problems, questioned - in a letter placed in the Congressional Record - whether the retired officials' "former colleagues and friends are rewarding them with lucrative contracts." "The senator is the worst sort of bully," Wolfinger responded to The Associated Press. He said Grassley "thinks that he can have his own blacklist of people with whom the government should not do business." He said the contract was "competitive and aboveboard." Mathews said he did not want to comment on Grassley's remarks. The contracts caught Mueller off guard. In late July, after Grassley wrote him on the subject, Mueller told the senator at a hearing he had not known about the contracts before receiving the letter. The FBI now is preparing answers to Grassley questions. Wolfinger retired in 1999 as assistant director of the FBI training division and began working in November, 2000 for MPRI, a company that provides education and leadership training to governments and private companies around the world. In 1997, he arranged a conference for managers who were coming to Washington for a retirement party for then-deputy FBI Director Larry Potts. The conference allowed the officials to claim government expenses for a trip they otherwise would have financed out of their own pockets, the inspector general report said. "The Potts retirement party is widely believed within and outside the FBI to be an egregious example of senior managers being excused or lightly disciplined for misconduct that would have resulted in severe sanctions if less senior employees had been involved," Inspector General Glenn Fine concluded. At one point, meeting notes indicate, an internal board voted for a letter of censure against Wolfinger. An FBI official told the internal investigators that Wolfinger was not disciplined because he was then close to retiring. Wolfinger said the inspector general unfairly did not give him a chance to respond to the findings. "The conference that we did at the (FBI) academy the day after the party was arranged because we wished to take advantage of the fact that some SACs (special agents in charge) would be in town for the party," Wolfinger said in an interview. "We were making significant changes in the training program for the new agents and wanted to discuss them with some of the senior field leaders. It was not well attended but the meeting was held and I met personally with those who were there." Mathews originally was chosen for the counter-intelligence teaching job while still with the FBI, bureau spokesman Ed Cogswell said. After Mathews announced his retirement earlier this year, the bureau decided to continue with the arrangements because of his counter-intelligence expertise, Cogswell said. The IG found misconduct by Mathews when he failed to remove himself from the investigative team looking at coverup allegations involving the 1992 shootings at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. In those shootings, subject of numerous government investigations, the son and wife of separatist Randy Weaver were killed during gunfights with law enforcement officials. In 1995 the government paid Weaver and his three surviving children $3.1 million in compensation. Mathews, one of those reviewing the conduct of bureau officials in the incident, "should have been disciplined for failure to carry out ... assigned duties - completing thorough and impartial inquiries," the inspector general said. Specifically, the report said he should have dropped out of the probe because of his close relationship with one of the officials under investigation.
Please chime in with your feelings about Larry...
Larry Potts - He received a letter of censure for failure to provide proper oversight with regard to the rules of engagement employed at Ruby Ridge.
"Rogers acknowledged that the Rules of Engagement he proposed specified that any adult with a weapon observed in the vicinity of the Weaver cabin or in the firefight area "could and should be the subject of deadly force."
According to Rogers he discussed this rule with FBI Assistant Director Larry Potts who concurred fully" Also involved in Waco. ... is now working for Investigative Group International (IGI), a private firm retained by President Clinton to investigate judges, reporters, and other potential enemies of his administration (according to a deposition of IGI director Terry Lenzner).
Larry Potts was a buddy of Louis Freeh. Within the FBI, these special people are called "FOL" - Friends of Louie.
[NYT 5/11/97] In 1997 Potts retired from the FBI and joined the Investigative Group International, Inc. as the Executive Vice President [site]
From shooting Mrs. Weaver, gassing and burning the Davidians, failing to raid Elohim City and prevent OKCBomb, covering up TWA Flight 800, smearing Richard Jewell, to persecuting John O'Neill on the eve of the greatest terrorist attack in history, the FBI still personifies the bluster of the feeb clusterSNAFU:
We're not always right, but we're never wrong.
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.