FBI whistleblower to be focus of 9/11 probe

A congressional probe of intelligence failures will give high priority to allegations of an FBI whistleblower, who accused Washington headquarters of hindering the investigation of terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui, leaders of the probe said today.

Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the allegations -- in a letter by Minnesota agent Coleen Rowley -- showed there was a “lack of aggressive follow-through” by FBI officials to concerns raised about Moussaoui by agents in that state.

Those concerns “deserved to have gotten greater attention,” Graham, D-Fla., said in a news conference with House Intelligence Committee chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla.

The two chairmen are heading a joint congressional inquiry that will examine the U.S. intelligence system since 1985 as well as failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The separate staff created for the inquiry interviewed Rowley on Wednesday, but Graham added: “I would think she would be someone high up on the list of people we would like to interview further and potentially call on as a witness.”

Goss, agreeing the letter was significant, cautioned: “We haven’t heard the other side of the story.”

Rowley, an FBI counsel, took the rare step this week of sending her allegations directly to the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller. Copies were sent to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Mueller on Thursday ordered an internal inspector general’s investigation of Rowley’s allegations.

FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said today that Rowley was “continuing to function in her position as chief division counsel in the Minneapolis office.”

Rowley’s 13-page letter, which accused FBI headquarters of setting up a “roadblock” to the Moussaoui investigation, was delivered Tuesday.

The Associated Press on Thursday obtained excerpts from the letter.

The two leaders said the first hearing of the joint investigation would be June 4 but the session would be closed. After a series of secret sessions, public hearings would be held in late June and run through the summer.

After the Minnesota agents violated agency protocol by going to the CIA, they were reprimanded, Rowley said.

“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.

The allegations surfaced hours after President Bush said he wanted congressional intelligence committees, not a special commission, to investigate how the government dealt with terror warnings before Sept. 11.

In the post-Sept. 11 world, Americans remain worried about new attacks, a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll shows.

About two-thirds of Americans think an attack is likely in the United States in the next few weeks, an increase from March when half felt that way, the poll suggested.

Congress acted on other terrorism fronts Thursday.

While the House worked into the night on a $29 billion anti-terrorism bill, the Senate, a target of an anthrax attack last year, sent Bush a broad bioterrorism measure. It would provide $4.6 billion to stockpile vaccines, improve food inspections and boost security for water systems.

After receiving Rowley’s letter, Mueller acknowledged his agency needed a “different approach” to fighting terrorism.

In November, the FBI director wrote a memo to all employees that promised protection for whistleblowers.

“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,” he wrote.

Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is the only person charged as an accomplice with Osama bin Laden and the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings. He was arrested a month before the attacks after arousing suspicions with his flight training.

Government officials confirmed Thursday night that the CIA received at least two pre-Sept. 11 contacts from the FBI concerning Moussaoui.

In mid-August, the FBI told the CIA of concerns Moussaoui might be a terrorist, and the CIA checked its own files and found nothing on him. The CIA also made a routine request from foreign governments that yielded intelligence from France that Moussaoui was a known Islamic extremist, the officials said.

The second contact came in late August when FBI agents in Minnesota told CIA officers they were seeking a warrant on Moussaoui, the official said.

Government officials familiar with Rowley’s letter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agent asserted that 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.

Mueller said in his statement, “I am convinced that a different approach is required. New strategies, new technologies, new analytical capacities and a different culture makes us an agency that is changing post-Sept. 11.

“There is no room after the attacks for the types of problems and attitudes that could inhibit our efforts.”Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a critic of the FBI and a strong defender of whistleblowers, said he was shocked but not surprised by Rowley’s allegations.

“The FBI for too long has discouraged agents from using anything besides outdated tactics from the era of chasing Bonnie and Clyde,” he said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., co-sponsor of legislation for an independent investigation, said the problems the Minnesota office experienced were “not an intelligence failure per se. It’s the way the FBI works.”

Officials familiar with Rowley’s allegations said the agent claimed the bureau made a series of mistakes last summer when agents became suspicious of Moussaoui and arrested him after he wanted training on a 747 simulator at a Minnesota flight school.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the allegations involve how the bureau handled efforts to get a special national security warrant and a regular search warrant to gather evidence against Moussaoui.

Law enforcement officials have said previously that information that came into law enforcement before Sept. 11 included intelligence from France suggesting Moussaoui had terrorist ties and had been placed on a watch list in 1999.

But the information was insufficient to show he was an agent of a foreign power and eligible to be monitored under a national security warrant, officials have said.

After Sept. 11, FBI agents found evidence on Moussaoui’s computer and elsewhere that linked him to the hijacking plot, according to court documents.