FBI whistleblower Rowley discusses terrorism, civil liberties

Acacia O'Connor Editor in Chief

Pinned on Coleen Rowley’s dress was a peace button, with a sticker of an American flag under it stating “Think—It’s Patriotic.” In a lecture entitled “How not to counter terrorism,” Rowley, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, gave a room packed with students a glimpse into federal intelligence.

For 24 years Rowley was an agent for the FBI and is best known for alerting the agency’s director to information about Zacarias Moussaoui, a co-conspirator in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Rowley asserted that information about Moussaoui conveyed by her Minnesota field office was ignored by the bureau. She later testified for the 9/11 Commission in front of the U.S. Senate about the FBI’s failure to properly address an identified terrorist threat.

In 2002 Rowley was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year along with two other whistleblowers—Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom. When they were interviewed by Time, all three expressed displeasure with the term as being “too much like ‘tattletale.’

“Before the Time magazine it was considered kind of a pejorative term because you think of somebody snooping,” Rowley said. “I made the joke about Gladys Kravitch because she always blew a whistle when she saw Samantha doing witchcraft, on Bewitched. Actually Time magazine made it better, made it seem more respectable than before.”

Rowley retired from the FBI in 2004, and ran for Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district in 2006 and lost. She currently writes for The Huffington Post, a highly trafficked news and opinion blog.

Her talk at Vassar on Feb. 16 was put together by Professor of English Don Foster and the student members of “It’s Just Who We Are: Constructions of an Academic Community.” It was sponsored by the English Department Speakers Fund.

“When I asked if she could stay for an extra day to meet with students and give a talk, she was happy to do so,” Foster said in an e-mailed statement. Students met with Rowley for an informal luncheon and conversation on Tuesday afternoon.

“I was just really impressed with how genuine she seemed,” Tyler Maland ’11 said of the informal meeting. “She wasn’t pushing an agenda. She’s just upset at how the system she took part in has operated.”

In his introductory remarks, Foster called Rowley an exemplary American. “The FBI motto is ‘Fidelity. Bravery. Integrity.’ Coleen Rowley embodies those three values, plus one more: Intelligence,” Foster said. “Which is why she also happens to be a terrific writer and speaker.”

“The problem with the “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity,” is that the Fidelity is first. Integrity is last,” said Rowley in her speech’s opening. She went on to detail the FBI’s traditional methodology in finding suspects—a process that she said has been turned on its head since Sept. 11 and President Bush’s “War on Terror.”

Rowley also fielded questions from the audience about the 9/11 Commission Report and the use of torture in the interrogation of accused terrorists.

“I encourage everyone to work for a government agency,” Rowley said in response to a question about being part of bureaucracy. “I think you can have equal effect in both ways. I think I like being on the outside better—you can be non-partisan and you can talk on the issues.”

Students at the lecture and lunch were impressed by Rowley’s frankness. “She’s a very interesting person,” said Maland. “You can tell that she’s very directed toward the truth. She’s completely truth-oriented, and she kind of doesn’t care who gets in her way to find the truth. I think a lot of people might consider her leftist—but if you talk to her politics has nothing to do with it.”

Though Rowley is clearly unafraid to speak out, Foster agreed that the term “whistleblower” doesn’t quite fit. “It’s a tired metaphor,” he said. “Rowley does not blow whistles or toot horns. She speaks the truth to power.”