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FBI Blocked Own Probe of Terror Suspect: Report
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FBI
Director
Mueller
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WASHINGTON, May 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Colleen Rowley, an FBI employee, slammed the Federal Bureau of Investigation officials for hampering an investigation of terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui in August by resisting calls for search warrants and admonishing agents for seeking help from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to media reports.
The Friday edition of The Washington Post quotes a letter from Rowley, general counsel for the FBI's Minneapolis field office, to FBI Director Robert Mueller as saying evidence gathered in the Moussaoui case, combined with a July 10 warning about possible terrorists taking flight training in Arizona, should have prompted stronger suspicions at FBI headquarters that an attack was being planned.
Rowley said Minneapolis investigators had “significant evidence of Moussaoui's ties to terrorists”, including corroboration from a foreign source that Moussaoui was dangerous, the daily said, citing officials familiar with the letter.
Rowley’s thirteen page letter also stated that, "When, in a desperate 11th-hour measure to bypass the FBI HQ roadblock, the Minneapolis division undertook to directly notify the CIA's counter terrorist center, FBI HQ personnel chastised the Minneapolis agents for making the direct notification without their approval.”
FBI officials declined to comment on Rowley's letter, the Post said.
Mueller was questioned about the letter during an appearance Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, sources told the daily. One official said that Mueller "has not tried to diminish the mistakes that were made."
Mueller has called for an internal investigation into Rowley’s assertion and the U.S. Congress has added her allegations to their investigation into intelligence agency actions prior to September 11, news agencies reported.
Mueller sent a letter to employees in November after receiving Crowley’s letter stating that he would not tolerate actions taken against “whistle blowing” agents, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
“I will not tolerate reprisals or intimidation by any bureau employee against those who make protected disclosures, nor will I tolerate attempts to prevent employees from making such disclosures," Mueller wrote.
Moussaoui, 33, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, was arrested in August on immigration charges, shortly before the September 11 attacks with hijacked airliners killed some 3,000 people in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.
He has been charged with six counts of conspiracy, including conspiracy to destroy aircraft, use weapons of mass destruction and murder U.S. employees. Four of the charges carry a possible death penalty.
The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has also been slammed for deciding against warning U.S. airlines to increase security, saying it did not have sufficient information at the time.
The aviation agency was told by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that student-pilot Moussaoui was being investigated after his instructors at a Minnesota flight school reported that he paid in cash to learn to fly Boeing 747s despite having almost no prior flight experience.
Aviation officials defended their actions to the Wall Street Journal in a report last week.
"The FAA is not an intelligence-gathering agency. It's a regulatory agency. We rely on the intelligence community to gather information and rely on their advice on whether to issue advisories," said FAA spokesman Scott Brenner.
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