Meanwhile, in the Moussaoui Trial…
As the "20th hijacker"'s lawyers try to spare their clients a death sentence, it may well be the FBI who takes the biggest beating.
[FBI agent Harry] Samit, [who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001], acknowledged that he had told the Justice Department inspector general that "obstructionism, criminal negligence and careerism" on the part of FBI headquarters officials had prevented him from getting a warrant that would have revealed more about Moussaoui's associates. He said that opposition blocked "a serious opportunity to stop the 9/11 attacks."…
Samit's complaints echoed those raised in 2002 by Coleen Rowley, the bureau's agent-lawyer in the Minneapolis office, who tried to help get a warrant. Rowley went public with her frustrations, was named a Time magazine person of the year for whistleblowing and is now running for Congress.
I'm still left wondering where the reticence to get a FISA warrant came from–by all accounts, the FISA court is a total rubber stamps for law enforcement. Maybe that will come out in this trial.