Now this sounds like the supervisors I worked for with the Fed Gov't.................
FBI Agent Alleges Moussaoui Roadblocks
Thu May 23, 8:33 PM ET
By LARRY MARGASAK and JOHN SOLOMON
WASHINGTON (AP) - An FBI (news - web sites) agent has accused Washington headquarters of mounting a "roadblock" to the pre-Sept. 11 investigation of terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. The rare letter immediately prompted an internal investigation.
Agent Coleen Rowley, a lawyer in the Minnesota office that arrested Moussaoui last August, divulged in her letter that local agents became so frustrated with FBI headquarters that they sought to break from their chain of command and notify the CIA (news - web sites).
The local agents were reprimanded for trying, she alleged.
"When, in a desperate 11th-hour measure to bypass the FBI HQ roadblock, the Minneapolis division undertook to directly notify the CIA's counterterrorist center, FBI HQ personnel chastised the Minneapolis agents for making the direct notification without their approval," she wrote in the 13-page letter, excerpts of which were obtained by The Associated Press.
Government officials familiar with her letter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agent alleged FBI headquarters did not fully appreciate the terrorist threat Moussaoui posed and hindered local agent's efforts to get warrants to gather more evidence.
"The agents in Minneapolis who were closest to the action, and in the best position to gauge the situation locally, did fully appreciate the terrorist risk/danger posed by Moussaoui and the possible co-conspirators even prior to Sept. 11," Rowley wrote at one point.
Rowley sent her letter Tuesday to FBI Director Robert Mueller and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, divulging internal discord within the FBI that is rarely aired in public.
Mueller referred the matter for investigation by the Justice Department (news - web sites) inspector general, which independently investigates allegations of internal wrongdoing. The Senate committee also was reviewing the agent's claims.
"I immediately referred this matter out of the FBI to the inspector general for investigation," Mueller said in a statement. "I respect that process and all the independence and protections it affords."
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