Word: rowleys
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...This disturbing story is told in a 13-page, single-spaced letter written to FBI Director Robert Mueller by Colleen Rowley. The letter, portions of which TIME magazine has obtained, chronicle the efforts of Rowley, the Minneapolis Chief Division Counsel, to get the FBI interested in Moussaoui. Moussaoui was arrested in August on a visa violation after the Minnesota flight school at which the French national was taking lessons notified the FBI about his suspicious behavior...
...Much of the letter recounts Rowley's efforts to convince FBI headquarters to pursue a search warrant of Moussaoui's computer. The FBI maintained that probable cause did not exist and that a warrant would not be approved by the U.S. Attorney. Rowley argues forcefully that a warrant was indeed appropriate, citing French intelligence reports given to the bureau that linked Moussaoui with radical Islamic causes...
...Rowley, an agent at the bureau for more than two decades, describes herself as a whistleblower and asks Mueller not to take retribution against her for her criticisms. She said she wrote her letter "from the heart." Rowley did not return calls from TIME...
...Rowley takes aim at what she characterized as Mueller's assertion after September 11 that the FBI may have been able to prevent the attack if it had had advanced warning. She said that she made numerous efforts before writing this letter, dated May 21 of this year, to make it clear that there had, indeed, been such a warning. She attributes the revisionism of FBI leaders to a "circle the wagons" mentality "in an apparent effort to protect the FBI from embarrassment and the relevant FBI officials from scrutiny...
...Rowley says that had the FBI supported instead of stymied the Minneapolis investigation the bureau may have uncovered other terrorists in flight training but she does not go so far as to say that the 9/11 attacks might have been prevented entirely...