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FBI Whistleblower Testifies Before Senate
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Rowley was hailed as a hero for blowing the whistle on the FBI. |
WASHINGTON
D.C., June 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) whistleblower Coleen Rowley testified Thursday
before a U.S. Senate committee aimed at assessing the performance of
U.S. intelligence agencies prior to the events of September 11.
Rowley,
hailed as a “hero” by Republican Senator Arlon Specter, expressed
surprise at the reaction to her blistering memo accusing the agency of
ignoring pre-September 11 warnings about terrorism.
"I
never anticipated this kind of impact," she said.
Specter
went on to say that her letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller –
dubbed the “Phoenix Memo” - criticizing FBI attempts to stifle
calls for investigation into possible leads in Phoenix in relation to
Zacarias Moussaoui - was “filled with passion.”
Rowley,
a 22-year veteran of the bureau, said she had received hundreds of
e-mails and phone calls from agents, a lot of whom told her they had
similar stories about missed clues and follow-up opportunities from
the agency's headquarters.
However,
not everyone hailed Rowley’s testimony and allegations. U.S.
Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger stated that Rowley’s concerns were
unfounded, stating simply, "She's wrong. We apply the same
standard of probable cause in every case,” Associated Press (AP)
reported.
Heffelfinger
stated that his office would have reacted accordingly, had it been
approached by the Minneapolis office, in a further illustration of the
much criticized lack of cohesiveness plaguing the agencies.
"We
need to streamline the FBI bureaucracy in order to better combat
terrorism," she said. "The need for people at FBI
headquarters who can connect the dots is painfully obvious."
She
also derided the bureau's "pecking" orders, a culture of
careerism, a negative tendency by higher-ups to micromanage and an
overall fear of criticism pervading the law enforcement agency.
She
spoke of her own worry for the critical remarks she made, though both
Mueller and lawmakers insisted she will not suffer any fallout from
airing FBI dirty laundry, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Rowley,
the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based FBI lawyer, charged in her 13-page
memo of May 21 that the agency mishandled the case of Zacarias
Moussaoui, the only person so far charged in connection with the
attacks.
Moussaoui
is presumed to have been the 20th hijacker to be aboard the four
commercial aircraft that were crashed into U.S. targets, killing more
than 3,100. He was arrested in Minnesota on federal immigration
charges on August 16.
Rowley's
memo condemned federal agents at FBI headquarters for ignoring
warnings about possible hijackings and blocking a search of the French
national's possessions that could have revealed significant
information.
The
mother of four children said she spent "a fairly sleepless
three-day period" writing the memo.
Rowley's
testimony Thursday at the open hearing is pivotal to the wide-ranging
congressional investigation into the attacks.
Earlier,
FBI Director Robert Mueller admitted the need for a "top to
bottom" review of the agency amid criticism it had not done
enough to prevent the attacks.
"It
is a paper-driven organization that has established regimens that we
have to look at from top to bottom," he said.
President
George W. Bush on Thursday, in a televised speech to the nation,
proposed the creation of a new Cabinet-level Department of Homeland
Security, to be tasked with the "overriding and urgent
mission" of preventing terrorist attacks like those of September
11.
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