Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistlebower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

As reported in the New York Times, ABC News, the Associated Press, and other media outlets yesterday, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General has issued a report on their continuing investigation of the FBI's widely criticized "national security letters" program.  The IG found that top FBI counterterrorism officials, including the current Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Executive Assistant Director for Counterterrorism, signed off on "blanket" NSLs which authorized the warrantless obtainment of records for over 3,000 phone numbers.

• National Whistleblower Center 3/13/08 Press Release
• Inspector General's Report on NSLs Dated 3/13/08
• More on FBI Whistleblower Bassem Youssef

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Yesterday, January 30, 2008, in a Senate Judiciary Committee DOJ Oversight hearing, Senator Charles Grassley (above, right) had some tough questions for Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Notably, Senator Grassley, a longtime critic of FBI policies and actions against whistleblowers, asked the AG about Special Agent Bassem Youssef, who has exposed serious misconduct in the war on terror.

In his full written questions, Senator Grassley, citing an October 2007 letter to Mukasey sent by Mr. Youssef's attorney, Stephen Kohn, says:

"Special Agent Youssef, through his counsel, provided my office with a
copy of a ten page letter (dated October 11, 2007) filed with your
office detailing threats to our nation's security caused by the failure
of the FBI to hire and promote subject matter experts within the FBI's
counterterrorism division. The examples set forth in that letter are
extremely troubling.  [Mr. Chairman, I ask that the letter be placed in
the record.]

What action has your office taken to investigate the issues and concerns
raised in Mr. Youssef's October 11, 2007 letter?

Do you plan to seek an independent review of Youssef's allegations about how lack of expertise among FBI managers is hindering its
counterterrorism efforts?  Why or why not?"

He goes on to ask Mr. Mukasey about the abuses related to National Security Letters program, of which Mr. Youssef has firsthand knowledge, and has been a vocal critic.

You can read all of Senator's Grassley's tough questions for Attorney General Mukasey after the jump...

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Early this morning, Stephen Kohn gave a 10 minute interview which provided some insight into the case of FBI counterterrorism whistleblower Bassem Youssef. For those of you who don't live in the DC area or who (like me) were not awake early enough to catch this interview, you can listen to it by clicking here.

Click here for more information and media coverage on the continuing retaliation against Mr. Youssef.

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Here are links to some of the blog posts and websites that covered FBI Whistleblower Bassem Youssef's discussion at the American Library Association conference, where he discussed the Bureau's counterterrorism shortcomings.

Here is a look at some blog posts:

Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/14/fbi-agent-criticizes-coun_n_81355.html

Wonkette:
http://wonkette.com/344491/the-fbi-agent-and-the-naughty-librarians

The Raw Story
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Whistleblower_effectively_gagged_by_FBI_0110.html

Some others:

• http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2008/01/13/arab-american-fbi-agent-faults-counterterrorism-work/
• http://www.atlargely.com/2008/01/bassem-youssef.html
• http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2008/01/fbi-warrantless.html
• http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/archives/cat_coverupdeceptions.html#076481
• http://freegovinfo.info/node/1564
• http://womenslens.blogspot.com/2008/01/egyptian-fbi-agent-speaks-out.html
• http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6522302.html?desc=topstory

And some traditional media sources:

• http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=1&docID=hsnews-000002654526
• http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-01-12-fbi-whistleblower_N.htm
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103665.html
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18028499
• http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hyFyyiD5i9Yl4A0-s47omtQcMCcAD8U4L3T00
• http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=48127&sid=6&fid=1
• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120018357493386451.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
• http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=336347

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On December 28th, I blogged about FBI Counterterrorism whistleblower Bassem Youssef, and his intention to speak at the American Library Association conference this Saturday, January 12. Since that time, Mr. Youssef has been informed by his managers that he should be very careful about what he says regarding the Bureau's deficiencies and missteps in the War on Terror.

According to a letter sent to the Executive Director of the ALA's Washington Office by Mr. Youssef's attorney Stephen Kohn, The FBI has sent a "clear warning" to Mr. Youssef regarding the content of his speech, and further, has instructed Mr. Youssef to follow strict censorship rules -- rules which he is not allowed to share with anyone outside of the Bureau. Due to threats from FBI managers and these secret censorship requirements, he is now unable to give a speech at the conference. Rather than give a prepared speech, Mr. Youssef will only be available to answer questions from the audience.

The National Whistleblower Center has issued an action alert, calling for supporters to email the Attorney General and demand that he end the senseless retalition and censorship of Mr. Youssef.

Mr. Youssef is scheduled to discuss this issue in an interview with NPR, airing tonight. Check back, I will post more information as it becomes available.

UPDATE: NPR is airing the Youssef story tonight on "All Things Considered." It will be available online at 7pm. (listen here) 

**This issue was also covered in today's Wall Street Journal and on the Raw Story blog.
    (To view the entire WSJ piece, access it through a Google News search)

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Bassem Youssef, a Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI, will be speaking at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Philadelphia on Saturday, January 12th. Mr. Youssef (pictured at right with former FBI director Louis Freeh) is a whistleblower who exposed major shortcomings in the Bureau's conterterrorism efforts, including the fact that top counterterrorism officials have no knowledge of even the most elementary details regarding the Muslim religion or terrorist ideology (See Jon Stewart's hilarious "Daily Show" segment, featuring information from Mr. Youssef's case).

Mr. Youssef is slated to address the ALA about the FBI's use of "National Security Letters" to obtain phone records of Americans without a warrant. The NSL debacle was reported in the Washington Post earlier this year. Mr. Youssef will also speak about his experiences as a whistleblower.

The ALA has long been a champion for civil liberties, privacy and intellectual freedom.

• The presentation will be videorecorded, and we will post the video as soon as it becomes available.
  
  
• See more detailed information about Mr. Youssef's case at the National Whistleblower Center's "Inside the FBI's Counterterrorism Division" webpage.

• Click here to subscribe to our RSS feeds for the latest whistleblower news updates.

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This weekend, The Detroit News reported that the remaining federal criminal charges against DOJ whistleblower Richard Convertino will be dropped. Mr. Convertino, a career federal prosecutor, was hit with conspiracy and obstruction charges after blowing the whistle on DOJ mismanagement of terror investigations.

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