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by Judicial Watch
News Conference - May 30, 2002
FBI Whistle-Blower
Judicial Watch
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
Klayman, Larry, Chairman, Judicial Watch
Schippers, David, Counsel, Schippers and Bailey, Judicial Watch Wright,
Robert, Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Special Agent Wright accuses the FBI of obstructing investigative efforts
that might have prevented some of the September 11 attacks.
Larry Klayman:
Good morning. My name is Larry Klayman. I’m Chairman and General Counsel
of Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and
prosecutes government corruption and abuse. Standing to my right is the
President of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton. Standing at my left is Special
Agent Robert Wright of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Chicago Field
Office.
We are here today to conduct this press conference because Special Agent
Wright has material information about FBI negligence and recklessness with
regard to not investigating terrorism leading up to the events of 9/11. He
is the first active FBI agent to appear before the cameras to speak
directly to the American people about the breakdown at the FBI. Special
Agent Wright is an American hero. Special Agent Wright is coming forward
on behalf of the American people at great risk to himself and to others
who work with him and are around him.
We first met Special Agent Wright several weeks, in fact months, before
9/11. We met him in the office of David Schippers. You might remember
David Schippers of the law firm of Schippers and Bailey. He was the House
of Representatives impeachment counsel during the impeachment of William
Jefferson Clinton. He asked us to participate as co-counsel on behalf of
Robert Wright because of the important information that Special Agent
Wright had to provide to the American people.
From the very beginning, Special Agent Wright asked Judicial Watch and
asked David Schippers to do everything that was appropriate under FBI
procedure and policy to allow him to speak to the American people. And,
again, this was before 9/11. To alert them that our government was not
doing enough to fight terrorism in the United States. As a result, we
wrote a series of letters to the FBI and we are going to make those
letters available to you today, under their policies and procedures,
asking for clearance for Special Agent Wright to be able to speak. He had
written a book. His book was called “Fatal Betrayal” with regard to the
intelligence mission of the FBI. He wanted to get this book out to the
American people so they could read it, so they could demand change so
perhaps things like 9/11 would never happen but it did happen.
And after 9/11 happened, I was instructed to contact Attorney General John
Ashcroft on behalf of Special Agent Wright and to offer Special Agent
Wright’s assistance to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, of which I am a proud
alumnus. Unfortunately, we were met with resistance. The chief of the
criminal division, Michael Chertoff, responded, “We’ve had enough of
conspiracy theories.” “We are not interested in talking to Special Agent
Wright.”
In addition, we contacted members of Congress, both the Senate and the
House, and we offered Special Agent Wright’s assistance in trying to
reform the FBI – this is nine months ago – right after 9/11, to prevent
further terrorist attacks and to shore up the lack of national security
apparatus which had left us so exposed. Instead of being allowed to talk
to Congress, the FBI threatened Robert Wright from coming forward –
effectively threatened him with his job. And to this date, has never
responded to our letters allowing him to testify, to come forward to
Congress or to speak to the American people -- that is not responded
positively.
The most recent letter came at 5 PM yesterday evening. It was addressed to
Dave Schippers, our co-counsel and was also faxed to Larry Klayman of
Judicial Watch. That’s me. And it’s a very interesting letter and it’s a
very troubling letter, in addition to being threatening. Because just
yesterday, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert
Mueller, undoubtedly in a cover your derrière type of public policy
pronouncement, a PR pronouncement, said that in fact that he was very
grateful for agents coming forward, agents like Coleen Rowley in
Minnesota, who we applaud. She is a very brave lady. And she did a lot a
good for this country by being able to expose the breakdown with regard to
Zacarias Moussaoui and the lack of following up on this individual,
getting training at flight schools, as other FBI memos suggest, to crash
planes into the World Trade Towers and other national monuments and
buildings.
We applaud Agent Rowley. Bob Wright wanted to come forward long before
Agent Rowley even thought of it. But instead of praising Robert Wright and
let me read you the praise that was given to Coleen Rowley. This is by the
Director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, quote – “let me take a moment to
thank Agent Rowley for her letter,” Mueller said in front of cameras
Wednesday. Quote – “It is critically important that I hear criticisms of
the organization, including criticisms of me, in order to improve the
organization. We must be open to criticism from within and from without
and to admitting and learning from our mistakes” – Unquote.
Instead, of following this new policy of openness at the FBI, an FBI who
hid from the American people for nine months, that in fact they did have
intelligence, that there were Islamic radicals training to crash planes
into World Trade towers and other monuments. This new policy of the FBI
obviously was not sincere because at 5 PM, we got this letter. And I’m
going to read it to you.
This is a letter from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, John E. Collingwood, Asst. Director Office of Public and
Congressional Affairs. As a past Justice Dept. alumni, I can assure you
that this was cleared by the Director of the FBI.
“Dear Mr. Schippers. This is in response to your correspondence to Special
Agent in Charge, Thomas J. Nair, dated May 22nd, 2002, concerning the
intent of your client, Special Agent Robert G. Wright, to comment publicly
about his duties and responsibilities. I would like to thank you for
providing the FBI with advance notice of your client’s intentions, so we
can provide appropriate guidance concerning his rights and obligations.
Your letter indicates that you and Special Agent Wright believe that the
value of the speech outweighs the interests of the FBI and is, therefore,
protected under the First Amendment. The FBI’s pre-publication review
process recognizes that employees have First Amendment rights and attempts
to appropriately balance those rights with the sensitivity of information
in FBI files – that an employee may acquire by virtue of being employed by
the FBI. An authorized disclosure of this type of information could impair
national security, place human life in jeopardy, deny subjects of FBI
investigations due process or otherwise prevent the FBI from effectively
discharging its responsibilities.“
In effect, what they are writing here is, just as Special Agent Rowley of
Minnesota revealed, would have put lives in jeopardy and jeopardized
national security. Yet, the Director of the FBI is praising her for coming
forward but writing a letter to Special Agent Wright effectively
threatening him. And listen to hear these threats, as I read this letter.
“As the FBI’s manual of administrative and operational procedures makes
clear, an employee is obligated not to disclose any information within the
scope of his employment agreement without written permission to do so.
Neither the employee nor his lawyer, therefore,” they are talking to us –
at Judicial Watch and Dave Schippers of Schippers and Bailey – “may decide
when information otherwise prohibited from disclosure may be publicly
disseminated.”
The FBI is threatening not just Robert Wright. The FBI is threatening his
counsel as well, at the same time that Mueller is praising Coleen Rowley
for coming forward after FBI gross negligence and recklessness is exposed
and the public is in an outcry.
The letter continues. “Please note – no objections to disclosure or
publication is being interposed solely because of Special Agent Wright’s
comments may be critical or disparaging of the FBI, the government or it’s
employees. Instead, our focus has been on advising Spec. Agent Wright that
there is certain information which he is prohibited from disclosing,
pursuant to his employment agreement and FBI policy. As we have detailed
in correspondence, dated March 29 and May 10, 2002, the review the FBI and
U.S. Attorneys Office has conducted of Spec. Agent Wright’s submissions,
indicates that the material concerns an open investigation....”
Rowley was talking about an open investigation. They are still
investigating Moussaoui.
“matters occurring before a federal grand jury, “
Certainly there are criminal proceedings underway with regard to Moussaoui.
“sensitive law enforcement techniques, intelligence information and
additional material otherwise prohibited from disclosure. Because his
request was so inextricably intertwined with protected information, we
will unable to authorize him to publicly disseminate this material. “
You can’t disseminate it. That’s what they are telling Spec. Agent Wright.
“The same holds true for any oral public comments Special Agent Wright may
make regarding the subject matter described in our March 29th and May
10th, 2002 letters.“
Yesterday, we blast faxed all over creation information that we were going
to hold this press conference today, including writing to the Attorney
General’s office. We wanted him to know.
“Pursuant to his employment agreement and FBI procedures, Spec. Agent
Wright is still not authorized to publicly disseminate information, we
have previously advised, is prohibited from disclosure at this time.”
“As the guidelines further indicate, and we feel obligated to inform you,”
-- and this is key -- “breach of an employee’s employment obligations may
be grounds for disciplinary action, a civil suit, or both. In some
instances, unauthorized disclosure may also constitute cause for
revocation of a security clearance or be a criminal offense. We sincerely
hope that this sort of action will not prove necessary. We want you to
know that the FBI does take Special Agent Wright’s allegations seriously
and we have encouraged him to report any concerns he might have to an
investigative entity with appropriate jurisdiction.“
So you, the media, the members of the fourth estate, are not entitled to
know anything. The FBI gets to decide what is the appropriate
jurisdiction,
“such as the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Office of the
Inspector General, or the relevant Congressional Committees that are
investigating the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Sincerely yours,
John E. Collingwood, Asst. Director, Office of Public and Congressional
Affairs.“
What unbelievable hypocrisy, if not illegality in threatening Special
Agent Wright for coming forward and talking to you, just like Special
Agent Rowley of Minnesota talked about Zacarias Moussaoui.
Our client, Special Agent Wright, what he has to say is even more damning
of the FBI than the testimony of Coleen Rowley. Because Special Agent
Wright had ten years of experience in dealing with the FBI. And as you are
going to hear from him, he was thwarted, thwarted from doing his job in
investigating Islamic money laundering in the United States, which monies
went to finance terrorist activities here and overseas. The monies
primarily were laundered by Hezbollah and Hamas, groups which have been
protected by successive American administrations because of the
administrations’ coziness with Yassar Arafat. These are the groups that
support Yassar Arafat. These are the groups which support the man, favored
by our Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to lead the negotiations on
behalf of Palestinian Authority in the Middle East.
Now, we have tried before now, before this press conference, to get this
information out. Special Agent Wright had gotten to know a reporter at the
New York Times and that reporter was actually wanting to write a story
about what he had to say many months ago. And it was in that context that
we asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not only to clear the
manuscript, the book, that Special Agent Wright is writing about the
betrayals of the intelligence community, but also to clear certain
questions. The FBI would not clear those questions. And the article was
never written.
But we are in front of you today to make as much disclosure as we
possibility can, without jeopardizing Special Agent Wright, without
subjecting him to criminal prosecutions, without subjecting him to further
threats and intimidations by a Director of the FBI, who simply, and this
is my opinion, did not do his job and let the country down. By an
administration, which despite being elected on the basis of restoring
national security, slept for nine months and did virtually nothing to
shore up the inadequacies of the FBI. And by an administration which comes
forward yesterday only to cover their backsides, after it becomes apparent
that they hid information from the American people for nine months –
material information, as to how in the new admission of FBI Director
Robert Mueller, the 9/11 attacks could have possibly have been prevented.
But rather than allowing Special Agent Wright to come forward and speak,
like Colleen Rowley, who is now being disingenuously praised by the FBI
Director, our client is being threatened. He is going to say as much as he
can and we produce certain materials to you, which are public. And we are
available to answer questions to the extent we can, particularly council.
We thank you for coming. And it’s important that you as members of the
media, members of the fourth estate, get the information out to make this
story as important as the Coleen Rowley story because it is complementary
of that story – and to hear what Special Agent Wright has to say about the
so-called reorganization of the FBI, because all it is is cosmetic –
simply putting icing on an otherwise stale cake. There needs to be a total
reorganization. There needs to be a new agency, as you’ll hear. The FBI is
incapable of fighting terrorism. And, in fact, we are now hearing
predictions on almost a ten-minute basis of new terrorist attacks,
statements by the Vice President himself that we are powerless to prevent
nuclear and biochemical attack. Just this morning, statements by the U.S.
Customs Service that we will not be able to restrain containers containing
nuclear devices coming into this country.
And I ask, as Chairman of Judicial Watch and as representative of the
American people, what have you, the Bush Administration been doing for the
last nine months – that just now you are advising the American people that
we don’t have the defenses, even after having lost 3000 lives.
I now introduce you to Special Agent Robert Wright. And I want to
introduce you to our co-counsel, David Schippers, who has been
instrumental and a true American hero in his own right, in bringing, no
pun intended, Special Agent Wright to the attention of the America people.
David Schippers has some comments. He is in his office in Chicago,
Illinois. I turn you over to Dave Schippers and then Bob Wright.
David Schippers:
Good morning, everybody. I’m not going to take much time but I have not
seen that letter that Larry just read because I’ve been out of town. I
just got back last night and I talked to Larry and he told me about the
letter and about the same threats that we have been getting from day one.
This young man, Robert Wright, is, in my opinion, a great American because
he’s had the courage to come forward. We have dotted every I and crossed
every T. We’ve done everything that the FBI requires before an individual
comes out and talks publicly. At every stage, we’ve been completely
dismissed. We’ve been dismissed by the Congress. We’ve been dismissed by
the Attorney General. We’ve been dismissed by the FBI, indeed we have been
threatened by the FBI and by the Attorney General’s office. At one point,
when Mr. Wright was going to talk to a representative of the Congress, he
was told that both he and his lawyer could find themselves in great
difficulty if he made one wrong statement. This is the type of thing and
this is the way the FBI over the years has kept people from any kind of
criticism.
Now, you will note at the end of that letter, we were told that there are
appropriate people that we can go to with our complaint. What was it? Bob
can tell you, I think it was six or eight months ago, Bob, before 9/11,
Bob filed a formal complaint with the Inspector General’s Office against
the FBI and against the manner in which they were conducting or not
conducting their anti-terrorist activities. Very recently, within the last
two weeks, I finally received acknowledgment from the Dept. of Justice,
Office of the Inspector General. The individual is charged by statute and
by executive order with investigating any complaints by FBI agents or
other whistleblowers within the department.
I was told that the Inspector General’s office, quote, does not have the
facilities to conduct an investigation of this scope. Therefore, we are
going to send it over to the joint committee of the Congress, the Senate
and House Joint Committee. Now, I don’t know if they have sent it over
there or not, but I haven’t heard word one from the Senate or the House
about Robert Wright and what he has. It seems to me that this is just the
typical method – throwing it over to the Congress, tell the Congress that
they can investigate and then tell Agent Wright he is not allowed to
divulge anything to the Congress.
When I heard Director Mueller yesterday, congratulate an agent for coming
forward, I thought perhaps that maybe there is a new aura in the bureau
and maybe things are going to change. They may change in Mr. Mueller’s
mind but the bureaucracy will never change. And by adding to that
bureaucracy, all it does is give them more individuals that they can hide
stuff with and places to place the blame. I’m going to let you talk to
Bob. Bob, be very careful, because you are in their crosshairs, as am I,
again, and just don’t go into any specifics, any particulars about any
case – even though, you and I both know, that there is no case, but they
claim there is. So, we’ll follow their guideline, the same guideline that
put 3000 people on the street dead in New York. Go ahead.
Larry Klayman:
Let me add, Dave, before we get into that, that despite the fact that Bob
is being prevented from speaking, specifically just like Agent Rowley has
been praised for speaking, look at Rowley’s letter. If you were to take
the letter that we received yesterday evening from the FBI and it had to
have been reviewed by the FBI director at this point, because they knew
Bob was out there, if you had taken this letter and juxtaposed it with
Rowley’s letter, Rowley would likely be criminally prosecuted, be put away
for life. You can see the hypocrisy in what they are saying. And the
double hypocrisy is that when Bob started to try to get his story out to
the New York Times, a reporter by the name of Judith Miller, a Pulitzer
prize, award-winning reporter, I might add, one of the top reporters on
terrorism, was that the FBI flew people in to meet with her and gave her
what ever information, of course in a twisted way, that she desired. But
yet Bob was not allowed to talk to with her. That’s why ultimately, one of
the reasons that she didn’t write the story. So you can see the hypocrisy
here and what Director Mueller said yesterday was just words.
David Schippers:
And, of course, as a consequence, they are in the crosshairs. Go ahead
Bob.
Larry Klayman:
And we have some corroboration here today that we are going to provide.
Bob Wright:
First of all I would like to say that I am not representing the FBI.
Anything I say is not supported by the FBI or the opinions of the FBI.
These are my own personal opinions.
What I am about to read to you, I had submitted for pre-publication review
and it was approved. This was back in February.
Since August of 1999, I’ve been working to legally expose the very real
and foreseeable Middle Eastern terrorist threats to the American citizens
at home and abroad. From 1993 to 1999, I was assigned to the Chicago
Division’s Counter Terrorism Task Force. In this capacity, I became
familiar with the techniques used by international terrorist organizations
to surreptitiously move money, launder money in and out of the United
States, including the use of domestic financial institutions in support of
terrorist and paramilitary activities and operations in the United States
and abroad, including the State of Israel and elsewhere.
Against the wishes of some at the FBI in 1995, when I uncovered criminal
violations in several of my cases, I promptly initiated active terrorism
criminal investigations on these subjects. I developed probable cause to
believe that some of these transfers or transmissions had been of money
intended to be used in the support of domestic and international terrorism
activities. The illegal transfers that supported specific terrorist
activities involving extortion, kidnapping, and murder, and at least one
Israeli citizen.
The successful investigation, which was code-named Vulgar Betrayal,
V-U-L-G-A-R Betrayal, led to the June, 1998 seizure of $1.4 million
dollars in Middle Eastern terrorist funding. This seizure was the first
occasion that the United States government utilized the civil forfeiture
laws to seize assets in the United States. These funds were linked
directly to Saudi businessman, Yassine Koty (phonetic spelling). On
October 12th, 2001, approximately one month after the attack, Yassine Koty
was designated by the United States government as a financial supporter of
Osama bin Laden.
Despite the unqualified success of the investigation of the Middle Eastern
terrorists, FBI management failed to take seriously the threat of
terrorism in the United States. Specifically, FBI management intentionally
and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed my attempts to launch a more
comprehensive investigation to identify and to neutralize terrorists.
The FBI’s lack of support for the Vulgar Betrayal investigation was
obvious to my new supervisor. In 1998, who after only four months of being
on the squad, wrote, quote, “Agent Wright has spearheaded this effort
despite an embarrassing lack of investigative resources available to the
case, such as computers, financial analysis software and a team of
financial analysts. Although far from being concluded, the success of this
investigation so far has been entirely due to the foresight and
perseverance of Agent Wright – close quote.
Although the Vulgar Betrayal investigation had been proposed for
designation as a major FBI case because of its far-reaching scope, in 1999
in an effort to further the terrorist investigation, I had to purchase
much needed software, computer software and a scanner with my own funds
since I was unable to obtain enough necessary funding from the FBI.
I sought to communicate my experiences, as Larry had said and Dave had
said, to Congress and others in the public interest, following the
September 11th attacks. However, a threat was leveled by a Dept. of
Justice official against me through my attorneys to prevent me from
meeting with members of Congress during the week following September 11th.
Larry Klayman:
It came from the Attorney General’s office.
Bob Wright:
In fact, the following morning, in order to prevent me from traveling to
Washington, D.C. from Chicago on my own time, I was told by the FBI
Division that I could not travel outside of Chicago without permission
from the FBI.
My efforts have always been geared towards neutralizing the terrorist
threats focused on taking the lives of American citizens, in addition to
harming the national and economic security of America. However, as a
direct result of the incompetency and, at times, intentional obstruction
of justice by FBI management to prevent me from bringing the terrorists to
justice, Americans have unknowingly been exposed to potential terrorist
attacks for years.
Since August 1999, I have been working to legally expose the FBI’s
incompetence and dereliction of duty in the terrorism arena. As a result,
starting in August of 1999, I began writing a manuscript. It was
single-spaced 500 pages. It was entitled, “Fatal Betrayals of the
Intelligence Mission.” The manuscript outlines the FBI’s intentional, at
times, failures to pursue the terrorists and thereby to prevent terrorist
attacks. Ironically, I completed the text of the manuscript two days after
the September 11th attack. On September 10th, I had all but the last three
pages completed.
In addition, on November 5th, 2001, through my attorneys, a 38-page
complaint was filed with the United States Dept. of Justice, Office of
Inspector General’s Office, for (quote) "dereliction of duty by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, failing to investigate and prosecute
terrorism, and obstruction of justice in retaliating against Special Agent
Robert Wright, Jr."
Also, on January 14th, actually February of 2002, through my attorney,
David Schippers, a 118-page complaint was filed with the United States
Dept. of Justice, Office of Inspector General, detailing whistleblowing
retaliation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation against myself.
FBI rules and regulations prohibit me from disseminating these documents
to anyone, including Pres. Bush and members of Congress before submitting
the written material to the Pre-publication Review Unit of the FBI.
Therefore in a good faith effort to legally share the contents of all
these documents with the President, members of Congress and the American
people, I have abided by the FBI’s established rules and submitted the
manuscript and complaints to the FBI’s Pre-publication Review Unit for
review.
On June 9th, 2001, after questioning by friends, co-workers and family
members regarding my motive for writing this manuscript and for exposing
the Bureau’s dereliction of duty in the terrorism arena, I drafted a
mission statement which was completed ninety-one days before September
11th. And I will read that to you now. That also was reviewed by FBI
Headquarters and approved.
The Mission Statement reads:
The FBI is America’s top law enforcement agency and as such, its mission
is to protect America and its citizens at home and abroad. The strength of
the FBI has always been in the public’s trust and integrity in the quality
of the FBI’s investigations. However, in light of the many FBI mistakes
which have surfaced during the past decade and additional mistakes which
will be exposed in future legal actions and a book I’m writing, entitled,
“Fatal Betrayals of the Intelligence Mission”, America’s confidence level
in the FBI will further erode.
However, as a nation, we must work together in seeking to regain the
confidence level we once had in the FBI to achieve its vital mission of
protecting the safety and welfare of its citizens at home and abroad. The
FBI is going through a difficult time. However, I am confident that the
FBI and the American people can overcome these difficulties. Together we
can and must resolve the difficult issues surrounding the problems within
the FBI. America cannot afford to have its top law enforcement agency
continue to be lax in areas fundamental to the national security of this
country.
I love America and I love the FBI, particularly its purpose and its
mission. However, the mission has been seriously jeopardized in my opinion
to the point that American lives have been needlessly lost. Accordingly, I
am seeking a thorough review and complete housecleaning to identify and
fix the FBI’s problems, whether they be managers, agents, procedures,
policies, and/or inadequate laws.
In my opinion, there are a combination of reasons why the FBI has failed
to maintain the public trust. These include the lack of quality managers,
the lack of program goals and objectives, the lack of modern computer
technology, the failure to modernize investigative objectives, the agency
is overwhelmed with too many investigative violations, a lack of
independent oversight of the agency – any by that, I mean incompetent
managers are not held accountable for mistakes. There are serious
intelligence vs. criminal investigative conflicts which have contributed
to the preventable deaths of American citizens. The FBI’s duplication of
investigative jurisdiction of other federal law enforcement agencies, such
as the DEA and the ATF.
As an eleven year veteran of the FBI, it is my opinion that the management
of the FBI is incapable of resolving these issues on its own. Any cosmetic
attempt by the FBI to fix itself is not realistic, in my opinion. Little
would actually change, mainly due to the mentality of the poor FBI
leadership. And again, this was written before Director Mueller became the
director.
Therefore, in the interest of America’s national and economic security, I
believe President Bush and Congress should work together to implement a
task force made up of experts from outside the FBI to conduct a top to
bottom review of the FBI’s hiring procedures, investigative procedures,
outdated or unnecessary investigative violations, information technology,
records management, overall organizational structure and the FBI’s
mission.
And many of these have been addressed since this was drafted. The task
force should include experts, in my opinion, from state and local law
enforcement offices, computer technology experts, management information
specialists, and state and federal prosecutors. I believe that anyone who
is affected by or relies upon the FBI should be involved in this critical
and necessary restructuring of the FBI.
The information collected by the FBI should be utilized to effectively
protect American citizens and the national and economic security of
America. I believe a significant portion of the criminal activity
investigated by the FBI is linked directly to the sale or use of illegal
drugs. The FBI has even established drug squads throughout the country to
investigate drug-related matters. However, in my opinion, there is a
separate federal agency, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the DEA, which
already exists. Therefore, I believe such a taskforce investigating the
FBI for restructuring, should seriously consider consolidating the DEA
into the FBI. More importantly, the task force must seriously consider
removing the terrorism investigative matters from the hands of the FBI.
For reasons of consistency, reliability and national security, these
responsibilities should be assigned to a new federal anti-terrorism
agency. Simply switch the terrorism responsibilities of the FBI with the
drug enforcement responsibilities.
Knowing what I know, and again this was written ninety-one days before the
attack, knowing what I know, I can confidently say that until the
investigative responsibilities of terrorism are removed from the FBI, I
will not feel safe. The FBI has proven for the past decade it cannot
identify and prevent acts of terrorism against the United States and its
citizens at home and abroad. Even worse, there is virtually no effort on
the part of the FBI’s national terrorism unit to neutralize known and
suspected terrorists residing within the United States. Unfortunately,
more terrorist attacks against American interests, coupled with the loss
of American lives will have to occur before those in power give this
matter the urgent attention it deserves.
Realizing more American lives are going to be needlessly lost, no one
should expect me to consciously sit idly by and to pretend to forget the
things I know. By sharing what I know, the terrorism problems plaguing
America may be corrected. Knowing what I know, I truly believe I would be
derelict in my duty as an American, if I did not do my best to bring the
FBI’s dereliction of duty to the attention of others. Therefore, in an
effort to prevent more deadly terrorist attacks against American interests
at home and abroad, I have made it my mission with the legal assistance of
Attorney David Schippers to legally expose the problems of the FBI to the
President of the United States, the United States Congress and to the
American people.
The main objective of the manuscript – there’s going to be people who say
that this is for profit and that's just not the case – it was to be made
available to Congress so changes could be made. And the manuscript
outlines in very specific detail what I believe allowed September 11th to
happen. Yes, it was written before September 11th, except for the last
three pages. And I don’t know if Congress is aware of it, if the Bureau
has made Congress aware of it or not, but that’s part of the purpose of
today’s press conference – so that they are well aware of it. I believe
that they need to review this, whoever is the investigative arm does need
to review this document, in my opinion.
To the families and victims of September 11th, on behalf of John Vincent,
Barry Carmody and myself, we’re sorry.
Larry Klayman:
The reference to John Vincent and Barry Carmody are references to other
FBI agents who want to come forward to tell the truth. I’m going to
introduce you in a few minutes to Tom Fitton, formerly our president, who
is going to read a sworn affidavit by Barry Carmody, dealing with one
aspect of this whole sordid affair and how the FBI failed to do its job.
I want to point out that under FBI regulations, after Judicial Watch and
Dave Schippers requested clearance for Special Agent Wright to talk to the
American people and you can see that he was trying to make the change
inside the FBI before 9/11 happened. The FBI had this information, the
Attorney General most likely had this information, John Ashcroft, but they
wouldn’t even give him clearance and they had 30 days to give him
clearance. That’s the regulation. Instead of giving him clearance, they
jerked him around. And they continue to do more than jerk him around by
threatening him with criminal prosecution for coming forward. And now I’ll
turn it over to Tom Fitton who is going to read you the sworn statement of
Barry Carmody. They will be more FBI agents coming forward. And they will
be doing it in short order. Because they represent the American people
before they represent bureaucratic hacks in Washington D.C.
Tom Fitton:
Good morning. My name is Tom Fitton. I’m president of Judicial Watch.
Before I read Mr. Carmody’s declaration, I’d like to read an excerpted
portion of a sworn statement made by our client Mr. Wright, that was
released to Mr. Wright, under the Freedom of Information Act. It’s a
public document. It’s approved for release with some excisions by the
Dept. of Justice and the FBI.
“In April of 1999, Spec. Agent, the name is blanked, had telephoned and
advised me that a friend of his worked as an accountant for a company upon
which I had served the company president and vice president with federal
grand jury subpoenas. He also advised me that the accountant was concerned
about harming his application which he had submitted to the FBI to become
a translator. Through the course of my investigation, it had been
determined that this company had received financing from, the name is
blanked, a United States-designated Hamas terrorist, blanked. Each of the
aforementioned mentioned are Muslim.
“A few weeks later, I received another telephone call from the Special
Agent. He advised me that he had been telephoned by the accountant, who
stated that the president of the company was aware of his relationship
with this agent. The president inquired of the accountant to arrange a
meeting between the Special Agent and the company president regarding the
Chicago investigation. The accountant then mentioned his concerns to
Special Agent (Blank) that the funds the accountant was transferring
overseas on behalf of the company may have been used to finance the
Embassy bombings of Africa. In addition, the accountant recounted unusual
events following the receipt of the subpoenas. One of the events that was
highly unusual to him involved a friend of his coming to the United
States, from a Middle Eastern country and secretly meeting with the
company president and vice president.
“This Special Agent asked if I desired him to speak with the president of
the company. I advised him that I desired him to have the meeting and to
wear a concealed recording device or wire to record what transpired. I
then went to the United States Attorney’s Office and discussed this matter
with them and they agreed that the wire would be of great interest to our
investigation. When I returned to the office, my supervisor summoned me to
the office and advised me that this Special Agent was not going to wear
the wire and that I should forget about it.
“Later, while at the United States Attorney’s Offices on other matters,
the question of the Special Agent’s wearing the wire was brought up by one
of the attorneys. The Asst. U.S. Attorney still desired the Special Agent
to wear the wire. A conference telephone call was then arranged between
three Assistant U.S. Attorneys, a fellow FBI Special Agent, and myself,
calling from Chicago, Illinois and speaking with the Special Agent and his
supervisor in Dallas, Texas. The Assistant U.S. Attorneys expressed to
this Special Agent the importance of the investigation and the wire. The
Special Agent stated that he would only record the individual if he told
him that he was wearing a wire. One of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys told
the Special Agent that they would get a meeting location and wire it so
the Special Agent would not have to wear the wire. This was not acceptable
to that Special Agent, who then proposed placing a tape recorder on a
table and then speaking with the individual. When this was deemed
unacceptable by those present, the Special Agent advised he would meet
with the individual and report the meeting on an FD302, which is an
official report form, as he had done before in response to a similar
request, from the FBI in Tampa.
“The Assistant U.S. Attorneys present advised that this is not what they
desired and inquired what the root of the objection was to wearing the
wire. Special Agent advised that told them he feared for his safety. When
he was told that the FBI could protect him, the Special Agent said that he
did not trust the FBI to protect him. The Assistant U.S. Attorneys
continued to ask why the Special Agent would not wear the wire. And he
stated, “A Muslim does not record another Muslim.”
“Sometime thereafter, the U.S. Attorneys believing that this telephone
conference would be revisited, drafted a document describing the events
discussed. I believe this was done, as they felt the decision reached
would come into question at a later date and they desired to have a record
of his position. I believe this document may also have been signed by the
United States Attorney and is maintained by his office.
“Later, while speaking about a different matter to a Special Agent in the
FBI Washington field office. I explained the problems I was having in
getting the Special Agent to wear a wire. I was informed that his office
had problems with the Special Agent previously and I was advised that his
office had drafted a document and sent it to the FBI Dallas office
expressing their concerns about the Special Agent contacting subjects of
their investigations and not disclosing these contacts to the Special
Agents conducting the investigations.
"Further, I was told to speak with a particular Special Agent in Tampa’s
FBI Office.”
And this Special Agent is a friend of Mr. Wright and he related that the
subject of one of his investigations, who is Muslim, had once reached out
to this Special Agent that we are talking about and he refused to wear a
wire when they requested.
We have here the declaration, in addition to the document that I just read
to from, the declaration of Barry Carmody, which is sworn to under oath,
which is signed today.
Oh, and Wrights is sworn to under oath as well, the document that you all
have.
“I Barry Carmody, a resident of Hillsboro County, Florida, hereby declare
as follows:
I am a retired, thirty-four year veteran Special Agent of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. During my service with the FBI, I was charged
with conducting criminal and foreign counter-intelligence investigations
pursuant to Dept. of Justice regulations and U.S. law. From 1995 through
February of 2000, and in the course of conducting a lawful investigation
within the jurisdiction of the FBI’s Tampa Office, I had the occasion to
seek the assistance of a FBI Special Agent who was assigned to the Dallas
FBI Office. I asked Special Agent (blanked) to record a telephone
conversation during a meeting with an individual involved in an open FBI
criminal investigation. Special Agent (blanked) refused to record this
telephone conversation, saying he would make the call but would not record
it. I said that this was unsatisfactory. It had been discussed with the
United States Attorney’s Office in Tampa and we required a recorded
conversation. He still refused to record the conversation. The refusal to
record the telephone conversation may have negatively impacted the conduct
of the FBI’s investigation. I informed FBI Headquarters twice about this
incident, in 1998 and again in 2000. I am aware of no disciplinary action
being taken against him in this matter. In fact, I have been told that
Special Agent Robert G. Wright, Jr., had a similar experience with Special
Agent (blanked) in the course of a subsequent investigation he pursued. “
Thus done and signed in the presence of the undersigned witnesses on May
30th, 2002 and it’s signed here by Barry Carmody.
Larry Klayman:
In conclusion, let me thank the excellent work of David Schippers, who has
become a national advisor to Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch is in the
process of opening a Chicago office. We are working together on this
matter. As you can see, it’s not just a question of Special Agent Rowley,
it’s not just a question of Special Agent Wright, but there are many FBI
agents that are willing to come forward and will come forward to tell the
story about what is happening at the FBI. And despite, politically
convenient statements that the FBI is being reorganized, only after these
agents either came forward or it was known that they were going to come
forward, it was known that Special Agent Wright was going to come forward
today, before Director Mueller decided he was going to announce an FBI
reorganization yesterday. Not a coincidence at all. Despite all of that,
these are simply cosmetic reforms as Special Agent Wright has talked
about. Jurisdiction needs to be removed from the FBI because the
corruption is too endemic to allow them to continue to allegedly --
allegedly protect the American people. The FBI has not protected the
American people. Special Agent Wright was prevented from doing his job. He
wished that he could have done his job. You can see the emotion. He broke
down in tears at the end of this press conference because he believes that
if the FBI had performed as it was supposed to perform, it is very likely
that we would not have had September 11th. Unfortunately, even the FBI
Director and the Attorney General, despite covering up what happened for
almost nine months, have now been forced to admit the same thing.
We look to you, the members of the media to force the FBI to take action,
to make full disclosure, to come forward to allow Special Agent Wright and
others to speak freely and fully, without threat of criminal prosecution,
so the American people -- we the people by the people, that the
constitution – can have control of their own destiny, before thousands,
according to predictions of the Vice President Cheney, millions of
Americans needlessly lose their lives through nuclear and biochemical and
other types of terrorist attacks in this country. Thank you for your
attention. We look forward to working with you to get the information out
to the American people.
Any questions?
Press Question: (mostly inaudible) What specific things -- that actually –
foreknowledge of --- that would help Hamas ---- I’m sure there is more to
it, but can you lay it out?
Larry Klayman: Well, I can lay it out in general. I can’t lay out the
actual investigations, the FBI has threatened criminal prosecution. The
issue here, and we would have laid it out and are prepared to lay it all
out, the press conference was scheduled to last an hour and a half. But,
in essence, what we are talking about here is what this administration has
admitted is the foundation of terrorist activities both domestically and
internationally. And that is the funding of terrorism. And Bob Wright
conceived of and was in on the ground floor of investigating radical
Islamic money laundering in the United States through Islamic charities,
banks and other institutions.
If that investigation had been allowed to run its course and be conducted
in a professional manner, the monies to fund terrorist operations, such as
9/11, would have been cut off. That’s what he was looking into.
With regard to Hezbollah and Hamas, these are the groups which primarily
are engaged in the money laundering in the United States, contrary to the
statements of our Secretary of State Colin Powell, the implications of
Collin Powell, who is a tacit supporter of Yasser Arafat, these are not
benign organizations. These are organizations that are funding terrorism
here and overseas. And if you cut that money off, there’s a good chance
that you would cut off the monies that ultimately went to 9/11 and other
terrorist operations. You will see throughout, what Bob Wright had to say,
that 9/11 wasn’t the only terrorist event here in the United States. Some
of them are classified. Some of them are not known. The FBI has knowledge
about many other terrorist attacks that the American people have never
been informed of in this country. So that’s in essence what we are talking
about.
And he wanted to come forward long before 9/11. We were taking those steps
beginning last summer to do that. The FBI had 30 days to allow that to
occur. They violated their own regulations. They covered it up just like
they covered up what was going on in Minnesota. And the result is, nine
months after 9/11, a brave agent by the name of Coleen Rowley comes
forward and says I don’t care what the FBI does to me, I’m going to talk.
She created such a groundswell that she brought the FBI Director and the
Bush White House to its knees and they are now thanking her. But if they
go by the letter that they just sent to Special Agent Wright, they would
be prosecuting her, probably asking for life imprisonment because she did
talk about what was going on in her investigation.
Press Question: Do we know what the FBI did to thwart this follow-up
investigation other than, number one, not providing enough computer
technology and number two, this Special Agent refusing to wear a wire when
someone interceded? Can you tell us what the FBI...
Larry Klayman: I can talk generally. I can’t get into specifics. The
general aspects of this concern, obviously not having adequate resources
to conduct terrorism reviews, not having adequate equipment, not having
managers who were willing to take strong actions as Bob Wright just spoke
to about this. The mentality of the FBI is once you get an investigation,
you milk it, you keep it going because you worry that if you don’t keep it
going, in the typical government bureaucratic way, the funding may be cut
off and you may ultimately be demoted or sent to the outer banks of
Alaska, not to mention the outer banks of Maryland, you know for
purgatory. This is the mentality there. And it’s what Rowley was talking
about as well, a lack of wanting to take risks. The political correctness
with this Muslim agent, don’t question that he is being disloyal to the
United States because if you do, you might offend Muslims in this country.
Well, if that was the case, how would we ever have caught Jonathan
Pollard. Jonathan Pollard was Jewish and they used Jewish agents to
capture him. And how would you ever catch Asian terrorists or Asian agents
if you didn’t use Asians. This isn’t a question of political profiling or
political correctness; this is a question of doing what is effective. And
you need Muslim agents to be undercover to do the work and when those
agents say they are not going to do their job because they are more loyal
to Muslims then they are to the United States then the FBI should be
taking action and removing them from their post, at a minimum. This is the
mentality of the FBI. It is the walking wounded of the bureaucratic
Washington, D.C. It’s spends more time on Mondays and Fridays planning
their vacations than doing their job. It has created the mentality for
9/11.
Press Question: Did anybody ever specifically ask for whistleblower
protection ----
Larry Klayman: Yes.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: No response. He is a whistleblower. As alluded to by
Special Agent Wright, David Schippers asked for that status –file a
whistleblower complaint. I can get you the date. I don’t have it right
now.
Press Question: What do you care whether the FBI is threatening you with
criminal prosecution (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: Well, I’m a lawyer. I have to follow the instructions of my
client. And my client values his FBI career. And my client loves the
agency and my client has instructed me not to assist him in releasing
information about the investigations. So, as a lawyer, as a lawyer I have
to obey my client’s instructions. And what we are asking of you, of the
media, is to demand that Bob Wright be allowed to come forward just like
Coleen Rowley and not be retaliated against. So he can say what it is he
has to say. And we are prepared to have other press conferences and make
you available to Special Agent Wright. But we need that media groundswell
and the public groundswell to protect this man. His career depends on what
he has put into the FBI and we can’t jeopardize that as his counsel.
Press Question: Can you tell us a little bit more just exactly what it was
Agent Wright uncovered, was it a few individuals, an extensive network and
was there clear evidence the monies were being used for terrorist
extortion and murders and such?
Larry Klayman: I can’t get into specifics but there were names mentioned
in the, in the recitation of Special Agent Wright. He talked about the
Saudi businessman that he obviously had focused on and this businessman,
it turned out, the administration had to admit it after 9/11, was actually
the right-hand money launderer of Osama bin Laden. Bob Wright was focused
on this individual years earlier. And they tried to prevent him from doing
his job, in investigating and prosecuting this particular person, this
Saudi businessman. His name is in the materials.
Press Question: (mostly inaudible) House and Senate – do most of their
work in secret -- there are however public committees in progress headed
by people that I would think would only be too anxious to sink their teeth
into this --- do you --- that somebody up in Congress is going to raise
the implications?
Larry Klayman: We have, we are in the process of doing that. But remember
that Special Agent Wright, when we went to contact Congress, because we
were bringing him to Washington to meet with a particular Congressman, in
particular, who would have furthered Wright’s interests. Right after we
did that, he was threatened by the FBI not to travel outside of Chicago.
This has been a constant threat to him. And he does value his career. And
we did get the information out in a press release a number of months ago.
But now the fact that he is appearing in front of the cameras and that’s
something which even Special Agent Rowley didn’t do. She is obviously
still quite fearful of what might happen to her. And we sympathize with
her and are available to help her if she ever needs the help.
Wright is coming forward and I hope that his face on television and the
written press will cause the American people to demand Congress to utilize
his services. And also, if you didn’t hear me, I went specifically, I
called the Attorney General’s office just days after 9/11. I said Dave
Schippers and I represent a Special Agent of the FBI Chicago Field Office
who has years of information about how the FBI did not do its job, did not
in any way investigate in a meaningful way the money laundering in the
United States. You are now claiming you want to do this. I’d like to make
him available to you, Attorney General Ashcroft.
And I was met with a response by Michael Chertoff, head of the Criminal
Division, “We are tired of conspiracy theories.” Now here is somebody,
Chertoff, frankly who bears a lot of responsibility for not getting the
job done since 9/11.
And the people in and around John Ashcroft bear that responsibility,
including the Attorney General himself, who in my opinion, has been
derelict. Now that he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he is
giving press conferences. But up until now, he has been sleeping for the
last nine months.
Press Question: As a follow-up, Congressional committees do have subpoena
power, do you know of anybody in Congress who might be willing to go up
against the FBI on that?
Larry Klayman: I would guess that somebody like Senator Shelby would be
interested in that. I have contacted individuals on the intelligence
committee, such as Senator Arlen Specter and others. And I would hope that
they would have the courage to go more strongly at this than they had the
courage to go after Chinagate, which wasn’t very much courage at all.
Press Question: (Mostly inaudible) - how do you define corruption in this
context?
Larry Klayman: Corruption is knowing when something is not being done,
knowing when the American people are being left unprotected and when you
make a decision not to do something to protect the American people which,
in fact, you are required to do under the Constitution of the United
States to protect the American people from tyranny foreign and domestic.
And you effectively allow 9/11 to occur. That is the ultimate form of
government corruption – dereliction of duty. That’s subject in the
military to prosecution, to court martial. And I suggest that some of
these bureaucrats should think seriously about whether they have risen to
the level of being even liable legally for what they have not done to
protect the American people. That’s corruption. That’s one form of
corruption. It’s no less than being bribed. It’s no less than sharing
classified information with the enemy. It rises to the level of
significant government corruption. Frankly, if not treason.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: Right now, he has been demoted to a level. He’s not being
allowed to work on terrorism investigations.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: He’s working on innocuous, meaningless things. That’s what
he is doing. He’s a paper-pusher.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: It’s in the Dirksen Building. Yea, I suggest you check with
the FBI and ask them why one of the most knowledgeable people in terrorism
is now being demoted to being a paper-pusher.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: He didn’t meet with any Congressmen. I can’t reveal that.
That was confidential communication.
Press Question: Okay (inaudible) – this was filed when?
Larry Klayman: Yes, we filed a lawsuit two weeks ago to force the FBI to
allow the manuscript to be made public. Again, they had 30 days to approve
it and they’ve had many months to approve it. We are asking the courts to
order the FBI to follow its own regulations.
Press Question: What was that date?
Larry Klayman: It was filed two weeks ago tomorrow.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: That should be investigated and that was, in fact, hampered
from being investigated. It’s not in dispute that monies were raised and
laundered by Islamic charities in the United States. Some of them tied
with Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden for use against Americans and others
in terrorist acts. That’s not in dispute. In fact, it was Judicial Watch
who filed the first complaint against the Islamic charities. You can find
it on our website at judicialwatch.org, with the Internal Revenue Service,
who spent the last eight years investigating critics of the Clinton
Administration but would not audit these Islamic charities.
Now after Judicial Watch made an issue of this and after Special Agent
Wright and others issued meager press releases and the press got onto it,
finally the Bush Administration got around to seizing some of the assets
of these charities both in Texas and the Mid -West, and most recently in
Herndon, Virginia.
But it is not in dispute.
Tom Fitton: And it’s no coincidence that initially the financing aspects
of the investigations were run out of the Chicago office of the FBI.
Special Agent Wright and his colleagues there had laid the groundwork for
what now the Administration attempting to do in going after the financing.
And he has been kept out of the loop on that.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: He was demoted in and around the time period leading up to
9/11 when he was requesting clearance for his book. When he requested
clearance for his book, he was yanked off of the terrorism investigations
and basically reduced to chief cook and bottle washer of the FBI.
Press Question: What has happened to the Muslim FBI agent who refused to
wear a wire? You stated that a Muslim does not record another Muslim – are
these words and actions consistent with FBI policy -- agreements that an
FBI (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: To the best of our knowledge, nothing has happened to that
agent. Special Agent Wright and others requested action. Nothing was
taken. And with regard to your second question, if that was the standard
of whether one investigates as an FBI agent, then I guess the Jewish
agents wouldn’t have caught Jonathan Pollard, which they did.
Press Question: (mostly inaudible) ---was he wired?
Larry Klayman: There was several witnesses to that statement.
Press Question: (mostly inaudible) - - and because of his refusal to wear
a wire. What – the consequences of that? (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: Yeah, we can’t get into what was or was not obtained by
that. But obviously, when the FBI conducts an investigation, it’s doing it
with the eye on prosecution and it needs evidence for that prosecution.
And one way that they get that evidence is through wiring people. And one
way that you get people to talk is to have agents who are wired or
individuals who are wired that that target feels comfortable with. So, if
you can’t get somebody that the target with talk with, you can’t get the
evidence and you can’t then likely bring a successful prosecution.
Press Question: (inaudible) talk about that aspect of the case in a
circumspect way, I mean there was a case in Tampa (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: That’s as far as we can go. Yeah, the reason we went that
far is because we actually had a document that was released under the
Freedom of Information Act which set forth the parameters of what Mr.
Fitton just read to you. We have to do that because we are representing
Bob Wright. These people mean business. And unless you play this story up
big and I hope you do, Special Agent Wright is going to wind up behind the
eight ball and Special Agent Rowley is going to wind up becoming Assistant
FBI Director.
(crosstalk)
He is courageous to come forward with the mentality in Washington, D.C.
these days where any whistleblower is retaliated against. And let me tell
you a little story about -- we represent a number of whistleblowers from
people who blew the whistle on UN corruption to individuals who blew the
whistle on the Los Alamos compromise.
We have a lawsuit against Louis Freeh, former FBI director, which the
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld. That’s going forward against
Louis Freeh. And let me tell you what they did to Truloc. They seized his
computer – these are FBI agents at the direction of Louis Freeh, broke
into his house, hit his dog over the head with a gun butt – thank God he
didn’t have any children in there at the time. These are the ways these
people respond.
So, yes, Agent Wright is courageous and Agent Wright prays, and I pray for
him, that nothing happens to him.
Press Question: When will (inaudible) come out?
Larry Klayman: As soon as the FBI will clear it.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: He doesn’t have a publisher yet.
Press Question: If you get a subpoena from a member of Congress or a
Congressional committee, would that free him up, would that override the
FBI regulations? Would he then be free to talk at least to that committee,
if not the public?
Larry Klayman: Technically it wouldn’t but I assure you that the FBI would
throw the towel in as quickly as Director Mueller became a believer in
Coleen Rowley.
Press Question: I’m confused by the need for a subpoena. The letter that
read, the threatening letter that you read, indicated the places that he
could go including the Inspector General, I seem to recall that it also
listed the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which is where Agent
Rowley sent her information.
Larry Klayman: That’s a good question. That is a new thing that they added
into this letter. If you read the letters, you’ll see that they never
before mentioned Congress. This is the first time.
Press Question: But my question is, I mean, Agent Rowley didn’t hold a
news conference. She sent her information to the House and Senate
Intelligence Committees, which are enabled to receive classified
information. What I’m wondering is why Agent Wright hasn’t sent his
information to those committees?
Larry Klayman: Actually, that is something that I can’t get into but,
shall we say that Judicial Watch and Agent Wright are thorough, they don’t
leave any rock unturned. We have been working on this for months and you
can be assured that there are people in Congress who haven’t done their
job either. Congress’s new found interest is just that as well.
The hypocrisy of Congress equals that of the Bush Administration.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: Well, you can see this one individual – Kadeeb. He
obviously was implicated in and around Osama bin Laden and the American
government is investigating to see whether or not he had any role in
September 11th. But he was into people like that. You see, who were
involved in the money laundering, who may have links to bin Laden, who may
have, of course we know he did stand behind the tragedy at the World Trade
Center.
Press Question: (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: Yeah, the FBI became a recent believer in doing that.
Wright was urging them to proceed criminally against these organizations.
They did not do so until Judicial Watch and others raised a public outcry
as to why Islamic money laundering in the United States was not being
dealt with. This is a new phenomenon. And part of the reason for this
phenomenon, I believe, as Chairman and General Counsel of Judicial Watch,
is because
these monies were going through some very powerful U.S. banks with some
very powerful interests in the United States. These banks knew or had
reason to know that these monies were laundered by terrorists. And there
are very significant potential conflicts of interests in both the Clinton
and Bush Administrations -- with the country primarily responsible for
funding these charities, mainly Saudi Arabia. We have both Clinton and
Bush and in particular this Bush Administration, who is as tight with
Saudi Arabia as you can get. The President’s father used to stay with the
bin Laden family when he would go to Saudi Arabia.
So, I don’t know. I don’t know what the exact answer is. But that may help
explain why the federal government, why the FBI agents were nervous about
getting into this stuff, when the rich and powerful of Washington, D.C.
are in fact doing business with some of these entities.
Press Question: Larry, in Agent Wright’s investigations, did he ever run
across any kind of plans for attacks, just general plans for any kind of
terrorist attacks aimed at the United States?
Larry Klayman: I can’t get into specifics but you can assume yes.
Press Question: Larry, was his expertise (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: That was the leading field office.
(crosstalk)
Larry Klayman: and you’re from Chicago. Congratulations. Bob Wright played
a significant role in conceiving of these investigations. They are his
baby. And you can see, you don’t get an FBI agent to break down in tears
easily. They are pretty tough people. But this was his life.
Press Question: How many years did he specialize in (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: He’s been doing this for at least a decade, at least a
decade.
Press Question: Do you see him now spending the rest of his career in
shadow (inaudible) as a paper-pusher, denied all promotions and perhaps
not blatantly fired but encouraged to leave simply by isolating him. I
mean that’s happened before (inaudible)
Larry Klayman: Well in the words of Clint Eastwood – make his day. Because
he is going to be a very rich man if they try that. And that’s one of the
reasons why Schippers and Judicial Watch are representing him.
Press Question: (mostly inaudible) Did one of these investigations involve
-- a Chicago area – I’m sorry I don’t remember the name of the group, but
maybe you guys do, was he related to that investigation?
Larry Klayman: I can’t say. I can’t say. But you know what, after you guys
get your story out, he’s going to be able to tell everything and it’s
going to be a matter of days. Thanks.
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