Below is a letter by agent Rowley to the FBI director. It is a highly critical report of how she feels the department is not prepared for the increased attacks the war is thought to cause.

My questions are: Should the public take this seriously? Do you think she will be able to keep her job after this? Do you think the news services will give it any attention?

Also, I'm not sure how the NY Times got this letter which is supposed to be who broke the story. That may make a difference on how seriously it's taken.

Rowley letter

Is this a new letter, or is it last year revisited? Isn't this the same person who blew the whistle last time?

If so, then I think the media will be all over it in no time.

I did however, find something odd:



I don't know of a single person who thinks Iraq was responsible for 911. I highly doubt the acuracy of these polls, and her information.

Keep her job? I didn't think the federal gov't ever fired anyone

--cheers

It's says it was drafted eleven days ago.

It was originally showing up on the Google News page today...toward the top but has since disappeared from there...you have to do a search to find the handful of papers that have stories on it.

edited to add that networks and news have been saying for the last month or so that most American's polled believed the hijakers came from Iraq and not Saudi Arabia.

You never know if that's true. Not many American's pay attention.

I saw it on CNN

I think Agent Crowley's letter is a publicity grab on her part. How do you think it got to the media? Its also obviously written for a far larger audience than just the Director. Far too much of what she says has little or nothing to do with her position, or in some respects the FBI in general.

She's probably fallen victim to the lure of her prior 15 minutes of fame.She uses the term 'presumptious', but that''s an understatement.

I am starting to wonder when people in this country decided to trust every word out of a politician's mouth? Everyone knows politicians lie all the time. And this is not something stupid like his sex life...this is life and death and freedom we are talking about. I knew the first instinct would be appologetics.

The woman worked for the FBI for 22 years...yet she couldn't know what she's talking about, right?

I think the accusations about the 'round up's' for good press needs to be seriously addressed and if it turns out to be true I think those involved should be fired and then sued by everyone with dark skin for the violation of their civil rights.

Yet, isn't it funny that the network news pretends it's not a story? If it is true (and that's highly likely) it would add more protests and dissent so let's find out if it's true a few years down the road (or never) so the people can all be lulled with propaganda instead.

Some points, in no particular order:

1. If this has merit, it will get attention. Bill O-Reilly has been making a fuss about FBI screw ups, so have others.
2. I wonder about the letter writer's intentions. She questions some things : example: Do we have hard data on the number of Al-Qaeda members in the US? but then states others (less likely to be public) to a certainty example: We aren't questioning Richard Reid enough. This type of thing gives me pause.
3. The alert system. Another point she makes that gives me pause. She thinks the public is too alarmist when the threat level is raised? It went to Orange a few weeks back and no one so much as blinked. Tom Ridge made a presentation and alot of fuss was made over that, but I never got the feeling that people were panicked or overly apprehensive regarding the alert level.
4. "It is not clear that you have been adequately apprized of the potential damage to our liaison relationships with European intelligence agencies that is likely to flow from the growing tension over Iraq between senior U.S. officials and their counterparts in key West European countries." Of course it is not clear to her--why would it be? Just because Bush and some Western European leaders have disagreements over policy, doesn't mean intelligence agencies will have lack of cooperation. They are still our allies, their goals in this matter (ending terrorist threats) has not changed.
5. Our war with Iraq has weakened our war vs Al-Qaeda. To hear an FBI agent say this boggles the mind. War against Iraq=US military. War against Al-Qaeda=US (and foreign) intelligence services (CIA, etc). A government as big as our can handle 2 jobs at once.

I don't know about her motives, but some of her arguments ring false.

A few thoughts on those above.

I believe she sited the panic in the Chicago nightclub where people died after somone sprayed pepper spray as an example of the public being too alarmist.

I also don't dismiss it as unmerited if it doesn't get attention by the press. The press doesn't report many many things that are deserving.

If it's true that they are not interrogating both of the suspects mentioned that should be easy enough to prove.

If they are doing round up's that's a serious allegation. It's also one that I happen to believe after what happened when they did it in L.A.

The Chicago nightclub reaction had nothing to do with alarm over terrorism.

Enclosed space + perceived threat (any kind) = Chaos, injuries, possible death.

Its why you can't yell FIRE in a movie theater (although most people would just laugh at you now).

Reid and Walker may have already been deemed untrustworthy sources or not knowledgeable. Who knows? Hard to say, but those guys have been in custody a LONG time...I am sure they were milked of whatever they know a long time ago (and whatever it was (if anything) is certainly out of date now).



I agree there.

It is plausable that the alert increased panic. I think a lot of people including some of the news reports commented about the possiblity. It isn't something that can be proven...it's only something that can either be likely or not.

I don't think she was talking about Walker...she did mentioned Zacarious Massoui not being questioned or not being interrogated enough. If that's the case it would be very stupid...so hopefully it's not likely to be true. But if it's being alleged by someone in the FBI and who was a part of investigating the guy before the attack I would think she would have enough credibility to at least check it out and make sure.

For our safety we need to take these things more seriously.