From: Director@KEEPANDBEARARMS.COM (Angel Shamaya)
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu
Subject: FBI Whistleblower Harassed?
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 22:01:40 -0700


Well, gosh. It seems the FBI has a system much like that of the mob --
 don't talk bad about "the family" and make your first loyalty to the
people who can get you a promotion.  Tell the truth about wrongdoing,
lose your power, authority and upward mobility.  Lovely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/25/60minutes/main530750.shtml

FBI Whistleblower Harassed?

Nov. 25, 2002

Robert Mueller (AP / CBS)

(CBS) Not long after the Sep. 11 attacks, FBI director Robert Mueller
issued a memorandum to all FBI employees, urging them to report
wrongdoing, misconduct or any other behavior within the FBI that
could hamper the bureaus efforts to battle terrorism.

He offered his personal assurance that retaliation against any FBI
whistleblower would not be tolerated. But in the case of one FBI
agent who appeared on 60 Minutes three weeks ago, Muellers orders
seem to have been ignored, Ed Bradley reports.

Special agent John Roberts says he was threatened, intimidated and
humiliated for exposing what he said has become a pattern of
misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI and that has gone
unpunished.

Heres what he said on 60 Minutes that got him into hot water: I
dont know of another person in the FBI who has done the internal
investigations that I have and has seen what I have, and knows what
has occurred and what has been glossed over and what has, frankly,
just disappeared, just vaporized and no one disciplined for it.

What disturbs Roberts is a double standard of discipline at the
bureau, in which, he says, senior officials are rarely punished and
often promoted, while lower level employees end up taking the blame.
Roberts is a chief of the bureaus Internal Affairs department and
for the past 10 years has investigated and documented hundreds of
cases of wrongdoing by FBI employees. And as he told 60 Minutes
several weeks ago about misconduct in the FBIs translation
department, he doubts that double standard will ever change.

I think the double standard of discipline will continue, Roberts
said. No matter who comes in, no matter who tries to change, you--
you have a certain - certain group that - that will continue to
protect itself. That's just how it is,I would say, no matter what
happens.

Roberts said he had found cases since 9/11 in which people were
involved in misconduct and were not reprimanded. Instead, they were
promoted.

You would think that after 9/11, that's a big slap on the face.
Hello! This is a wake-up call here, Bradley said.

Depends on who you are. If you're in a senior executive level, [it]
may not hurt you. You'll be promoted, Roberts said.

What happened to Roberts after that interview aired may be the
beginning of the end of his 20 years at the FBI. Roberts says he was
called in to a meeting in the office of his boss - assistant FBI
director Robert Jordan - and was read the riot act for what he had
said on 60 Minutes - even though the FBI had given Roberts written
approval to be interviewed about his criticism of the FBI.

According to investigators familiar with that meeting, assistant
director Jordan told Roberts : "You dissed me and the director."
Jordan later went on to suggest that Roberts might be transferred or
fired.

The way that Roberts was treated got the attention of Democratic Sen.
Patrick Leahy and Republican Sen. Charles Grassley. They sit on the
Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the FBI. Earlier this
year, Mueller testified before that committee that retaliation
against FBI employees who report wrongdoing would not happen on his
watch.

Now, Grassley is trying to hold the FBI director to his word.

Ed Bradley: When you look at what's happened to John Roberts after he
criticized the organization what do you make of the pledges by
director Mueller?

Sen. Grassley: It seems to me that director Mueller has acknowledged
the importance of whistleblowing. And hes got to step in then and if
he doesnt then, I think he's gone back on his word to the Congress
of the United States that whistle blowers need to be protected.
Because, for sure, Roberts has not been protected. No - you don't put
domesticated animals through what Mr. Roberts went through.

Grassley and Leahy are leading a bi-partisan congressional
investigation into the FBIs treatment of Roberts.

In effect ,they sought to end his career, says Leahy. And keep in
mind, this is not - we're not talking about some rookie FBI agent.
We're talking about a person whose life was the FBI, who was the
epitome of what you want in law enforcement. And to be treated like
this - it seemed to me that they're sending a signal throughout the
FBI, you dare question something, you're going to get clobbered.

Roberts, who spoke freely a few weeks ago,would not speak to Bradley
this week because his lawyer, Steve Kohn, says he is too afraid.

As John would say, his legs have been cut off. His authority as a
supervisor has been taken away, Kohn said.

Kohn says Roberts was humiliated by assistant director Jordan in
front of some 40 people, including Roberts wife, Brenda, who works
in the same department. According to some who were present, Jordan
read sarcastically from a transcript of the 60 Minutes report, and
said that John Roberts had betrayed everyone at the FBI.

Says Kohn: And the assistant director got up there and said, 'We are
a family and we have to understand that if we say harmful things to
the family we're all hurt.' and that was the message to everybody. It
was that John Roberts violated the trust of the family.

The FBI is not family. The FBI is a government agency. The agents
are employees. You know, the Mafia used to talk about being family.
The FBI's not Mafia, at least they're not supposed to be. But you get
the impression that that sort of peer pressure is what you have to
be, and you don't mess with the family, says Grassley.

All of this was particularly hard on Roberts wife who broke down and
required medical assistance after Jordan addressed the staff.

Says Kohn: Her husband was ridiculed in front of every co-employee,
all the subordinates, all the support staff and she is totally
traumatized. Some of the co-workers won't look at her any more. They
won't return greetings. Essentially she - they've - been vilified and
she feels it.

Just think of how macho it is for a guy like Jordan to stand up
before a group and say those things? You know, it might- you might
need that sort of macho when you're going after bank robbers and
terrorists and bin Laden, but you don't have to do that to the spouse
of a very patriotic FBI agent, says Grassley.

Earlier this week, Grassley summoned Jordan to his office demanding
an explanation. He says he never got one.

They would not answer my questions, Grassley said. They would not
answer the questions I was told by counsel for Mr. Jordan because he
was very nervous because 60 Minutes was sitting outside of my office,
I made very clear that if 60 Minutes was a problem that I would not
speak to 60 Minutes because I was here to get basic information.

My suspicion is that he didn't want to talk to me in the first
place. Jordan ducked out a side door and headed down the street,
says Grassley.

Jordan also declined to talk to Ed Bradley. He suggested that Bradley
contact the press office.

60 Minutes went to the FBIs press office and was told Robert Jordan
would not be available for an interview. It also was told that
Director Robert Mueller, too, was unavailable. The bureau did send a
written statement saying, "The FBI is committed to fairness in the
workplace and does not tolerate retaliation of any kind." it went on
to say, "wWe have asked the department of justice Inspector General
to expeditiously investigate this matter, and welcome his findings.
If, at that time any action is appropriate, we will not hesitate to
take it."

This was not the first time that John Roberts had gotten into trouble
for criticizing the FBI. He says three years ago he was called on the
carpet because of a high-profile investigation he conducted into the
FBIs handling of the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where the wife
of white supremacist Randy Weaver was killed by an FBI sniper as she
stood inside her home. \

Roberts concluded that six senior FBI officials had lied or committed
misconduct in their handling of the case. Despite his findings, none
of them were disciplined. The only people punished were subordinate
bureau employees. Roberts testified about that last year at a
congressional hearing.

He testified that: What occurred during the Ruby Ridge investigation
should not be viewed as an isolated incident. This should be alarming
to all of us, because not only is it fundamentally unfair, but more
important because, if the rank and file of any law enforcement
organization believe their executive management condones or approves
of misconduct, that is a precursor for corruption.

John Roberts told 60 Minutes a few weeks ago that because he exposed
misconduct in the executive ranks of the FBI at Ruby Ridge and other
incidents, hes been badgered by the very people he was assigned to
investigate.

I received a call from one of those senior executives who, in fact,
asked me, Do you realize, meaning me, John Roberts, do I realize
what Im doing to the senior executive ranks of the FBI? I was
shocked. And my response was Im not doing anything. I'm merely
conducting an investigation of those who have done something wrong.


Because of that, he says, his career is at a dead end. He says he has
been passed over for transfer or promotion 14 times.

Ive been denied that. And the persons making those decisions are
the individuals against whom I alleged and investigated misconduct,
Roberts says.

So what kind of message is being sent to officials like him at the
FBI?

Where are your loyalties? If theyre to the person that can advance
your career then you will be loyal if you want to move on. If you
want to take a stand and say, Hey, enoughs enough, this is wrong.
We cant continue to operate this way then theyre doomed, Roberts
says.

As for the senior FBI officials whom Roberts found had committed
misconduct at Ruby Ridge, all of them were promoted and - in some
cases - given bonuses. One of them is Van Harp. Even though Roberts
said Harp altered a report to cover up serious wrongdoing, Harp was
promoted and awarded a bonus of $22,000. Harp now runs the FBIs
Washington field office and is heading the anthrax investigation.

The FBI itself says Harp did nothing wrong at Ruby Ridge, but last
week, the Inspector General of the Justice Department released a
report that endorsed John Roberts findings about the FBIs handling
of Ruby Ridge and his criticism of Harp. The report said the FBIs
handling of the incident was rife with misconduct, obstruction, and
was, at best, grossly deficient and, at worst, intentionally slanted
to protect the FBI and senior FBI officials. The report concludes
that the "FBI suffered and still suffers from a strong perception
that a double standard exists within the FBI.

John Roberts has been vindicated, but then you have to ask, of
course, the obvious question: If he was vindicated, why all this
retaliation against him, against his wife, why this effort to hold
him up to ridicule? asks Leahy.

This is what it comes down to, this effort to send a signal, not
just here in Washington, but in California and Texas, Illinois,
everywhere else where the FBI are, that send a signal, don't blow the
whistle. Don't be a whistleblower.

 MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.



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