TRANSCRIPT OF FBI SPECIAL AGENT ROBERT WRIGHT ACCUSING FBI OF OBSTRUCTING INVESTIGATIVE EFFORTS TO PREVENT 9/11
by Judicial Watch
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.
News Conference
May 30, 2002
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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.