top secret america

Coleen Rowley, one of three whistleblowers chosen as persons of the year for 2002 by Time Magazine, will speak about her experiences in the FBI and broader issues of official surveillance and massive data collection. When Coleen Rowley was an FBI agent in Minneapolis, her office got a lead just three weeks before 9/11 that a known extremist had paid $8.000 for lessons to fly a Boeing 747. Her office arrested him, but, her superiors would not allow a full investigation. In a May, 2002 memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Rowley brought some of the pre 9-11 lapses to light, calling his defense of the agency a "rush to judgment to protect the FBI at all costs." Several weeks later Rowley testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about problems facing the FBI and the intelligence community, and her memo to Mueller in connection with the Joint Intelligence Committee's Inquiry led to a two-year Department of Justice Inspector General investigation. This event is a benefit for Under the Hood Outreach Center and Café - http://underthehoodcafe.org Location: 5604 Manor, 5604 Manor Road, Austin, Texas http://5604manor.org A ZGraphix production. http://zgraphix.org Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala. http://austin.indymedia.org