The New View with Former FBI Special Agent Coleen Rowley

“I have an exceptionally low tolerance for hypocrisy,” says Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and whistleblower. Join The New View for this deeply revealing conversation about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, the politicization of the FBI, the problem of top echelon informants, Russiagate, Trump Derangement Syndrome, the deep dark history of the Espionage Act, raids on anti-war groups and more. Rowley says that the two-party system is being used to divide and conquer the populace, creating conflict while the party leaders are power mongering with each other. US citizens live in a bubble but people from other countries see that the US is completely disintegrating. “The disintegration of empires is the most dangerous period,” says Rowley, who tells us why she will never again vote for either of the two major parties.

Coleen Rowley is an American former FBI special agent and whistleblower, and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district in 2006. Rowley is well known for testifying as to concerns regarding the FBI ignoring information of a suspected terrorist during 9/11, which led to a two-year investigation by the Department of Justice.[3]
In January 1981, Rowley became a special agent with the FBI and was assigned to the Omaha, Nebraska, and Jackson, Mississippi, divisions. Beginning in 1984, she spent six years working in the New York City field office on investigations involving Italian organized crime and Sicilian heroin. During this time she served three temporary assignments in the U.S. embassy in Paris and the consulate in Montreal. In 1990, she was transferred to the FBI's Minneapolis field office, where she became chief division counsel. There she taught constitutional law to FBI agents and police officers, and oversaw the Freedom of Information, Asset Forfeiture Program, Victim-Witness and community outreach programs.[4]

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Rowley wrote a paper for FBI Director Robert Mueller documenting how FBI HQ personnel in Washington, D.C., had mishandled and failed to take action on information provided by the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Field Office regarding its investigation of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Failures identified by Rowley may have left the U.S. vulnerable to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Rowley was one of many agents frustrated by the events that led up to the attacks.

In May 2002 Rowley testified to the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the DOJ Inspector General about the FBI's pre-9/11 lapses due to its internal organization and mishandling of information related to the attacks.[4] "We have got to call America's attention to this in order to stop the continuation of errors",[8] Rowley stated. Mueller and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pushed for and achieved a major reorganization, focused on creation of the new Office of Intelligence at the FBI.[9] This reorganization was supported with a significant expansion of FBI personnel with counterterrorism and language skills.

In February 2003, Rowley wrote a second open letter to Mueller, in which she warned her superiors that the bureau would not "be able to stem the flood of terrorism that will likely head our way in the wake of an attack on Iraq".[10] In April 2003, Rowley stepped down from her legal position to return to being an FBI special agent. At the end of 2004 she retired from the FBI after serving for 24 years.[4]

Rowley jointly held the Time magazine Person of the Year award in 2002 with two other women credited as whistleblowers: Sherron Watkins from Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom.[11] She also received the 2002 Sam Adams Award.[12]

Since 2003 Rowley has spoken publicly on ethics and ethical decision-making to various groups.[18] She is a writer and blogger. She joined other whistleblowers on the June 2015 speaking tour "Stand Up for Truth" which went through London, Oslo, Stockholm and Berlin.[19] She returned to lecture at her alma mater three times, in 2003,[20] 2004[18] and 2015.
Rowley authored a chapter in Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad. edited by Alan Cutis and Kevin Phillip (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005, 496 pages, ISBN 0742542173).

She has been a regular contributor at The Huffington Post since January 2006[21] and Rowley has written for The Guardian.[22]