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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-052402probe.story
FBI Lawyer Tells of Terror 'Roadblock'
Inquiry: In a bitter and detailed letter, the
Minneapolis official says the bureau failed to act on
its agents' suspicions in Moussaoui case.
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JOSH MEYER
Times Staff Writers
May 24 2002
WASHINGTON -- An FBI official in Minneapolis has
lashed out at bureau headquarters for putting up a
"roadblock" and failing to act aggressively enough in
pursuing suspicions in August surrounding flight
school student Zacarias Moussaoui, sources said
Thursday.
The detailed, sometimes bitter letter from Coleen
Rowley, an FBI lawyer, revealed that agents in her
office were reprimanded for seeking assistance from
the CIA in the case after they were dissatisfied with
the response from the FBI in Washington, according to
a government official familiar with the classified
letter.
Rowley's letter, sent Tuesday to FBI Director Robert
S. Mueller III and congressional intelligence
committee members, contained bureaucratic language
laced with outrage: "When, in a desperate
eleventh-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."
Rowley also criticized officials at FBI headquarters
in Washington for rejecting Minnesota agents' request
for a secret search and surveillance of Moussaoui last
summer, weeks before the Sept. 11 hijackings. And she
accused Mueller and other senior officials of trying
to "circle the wagons" in their recent defense of the
bureau's performance.
Mueller, who sources said faced heated questioning
about the letter in a closed-door meeting with
lawmakers earlier this week, said Thursday he has
referred the matter to the Justice Department's
inspector general's office for investigation.
"While I cannot comment on the specifics of the
letter, I am convinced that a different approach is
required" toward counterintelligence operations,
Mueller said in a statement.
"New strategies, new technologies, new analytical
capacities and a different culture make us an agency
that is changing post-9/11," he said. "There is no
room after the attacks for the types of problems and
attitudes that could inhibit our efforts."
The FBI has come under swelling criticism in recent
weeks over its alleged failure to pick up on warning
signs before Sept. 11, including the suspicions of a
Phoenix FBI agent who warned in July that Middle
Eastern flight school students in Arizona might be
planning an attack. The Minneapolis letter is sure to
ratchet up that criticism even further.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), ranking Republican on
the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned Mueller
intensely about Rowley's letter in a closed briefing
Wednesday, and the senator was said to be very angry
about the FBI's "failure to act," according to a
congressional source.
Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was
taken into custody in Minneapolis in August on an
immigration violation after his instructors at a
flight training school thought he was acting
suspiciously. He wanted to learn how to fly 747s, a
jetliner far above his experience level, and he paid
the $8,000 fee in cash.
Agents with the FBI's Minneapolis field office wanted
approval to execute a search warrant and conduct
secret wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, or FISA, which allows the government
to monitor suspected foreign agents or terrorists with
the approval of a secret court in Washington. But
officials at FBI headquarters turned down the request,
saying they did not have enough evidence to act. They
refused to pass the request along to the Justice
Department and the FISA court, and Moussaoui was not
conclusively linked to any terrorist plot before Sept.
11.
But subsequent investigation after the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon revealed evidence
that Moussaoui may have planned to be "the 20th
hijacker" had he not been taken into custody. A search
of his computer and his belongings turned up a flight
simulation program, along with information about
crop-dusters and other suspicious material, officials
said. That material led the Justice Department to warn
about possible attacks using crop-dusters to spread
biological agents.
Moussaoui was charged with conspiracy to commit murder
in the hijackings, and he is facing the death penalty
if convicted. After a defiant courtroom tirade several
weeks ago calling for the destruction of America, he
is now seeking to represent himself in court. His
trial is scheduled to begin in Alexandria, Va., this
fall.
The handling of the Moussaoui case before Sept. 11 has
stirred questions for months, but Rowley's letter
represents the first in-house attack and adds
significant new details to the public record.
In her detailed 13-page letter, Rowley said
Minneapolis agents realized the serious risk that
Moussaoui posed even before Sept. 11, according to the
government official familiar with her letter.
She complained that FBI officials in Washington had
changed the warrant request so that it would be more
easily rejected by the FBI office that handles such
requests. And she criticized the FBI for not
disseminating information about Moussaoui to other law
enforcement and intelligence officials before Sept.
11.
Her revelation that the agency sought CIA assistance
could prove particularly damaging to the FBI, because
the bureau's failure to share information with the CIA
about terrorist threats before the attacks has been a
central focus of the recent debate.
On a separate front, Rowley also contended that
Mueller and other FBI officials made misleading
statements in recent weeks by claiming repeatedly that
the FBI had no clear warning before Sept. 11 about the
looming threat.
Rowley was particularly upset by Mueller's insistence
in recent weeks that the bureau might have been able
to take some action to prevent the tragedy if it had
gotten more information. She and others in the
Minneapolis office tried to reach Mueller to tell him
that they thought he was skewing the facts, but the
calls were either rejected or fell on deaf ears, she
wrote.
"We faced the sad realization that [Mueller's] remarks
indicated someone, possibly with your approval, had
decided to circle the wagons at FBI headquarters in an
apparent attempt to protect the FBI from embarrassment
and the relevant FBI officials from scrutiny," Rowley
wrote.
The Justice Department's inspector general's office
will be reviewing her allegations to determine whether
department policies or procedures were violated, but
Justice Department officials say they have already
confirmed portions of her narrative.
"The tone of her letter is a little over the top,"
according to an official who asked not to be
identified, "but her facts are right."
_ _ _
Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this
report.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the
Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information
about reprinting this article, go to
www.lats.com/rights.
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