Bi-Partisan Request Questions FBI Management of its Counterterrorism Program

Washington, D.C., February 16, 2006. The Chairman, Ranking Member and senior Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee requested the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (“IG”) to open a formal investigation into FBI retaliation against agents who have raised concerns about “deficiencies in the war on terror.”  The Committee members raised specific concerns over the treatment of Mr. Bassem Youssef, a senior manager within the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. Mr. Youssef, who is the highest ranking Arab-American FBI agent, made disclosures to FBI Director Mueller regarding “abuse(s) of authority” and “substantial and specific danger(s) to the public” caused by the FBI’s “mismanagement” of its counterterrorism program. 

The letter was signed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, the Ranking Member of the Committee, Patrick Leahy, and a senior member of the Committee, Charles Grassley.

Mr. Stephen M. Kohn, an attorney for Mr. Youssef and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblowers Center, issued the following statement regarding the Judiciary Committee letter:

Based on his extensive experience successfully battling Middle Eastern-based terrorist organizations, Mr. Youssef developed significant concerns that the FBI’s current management policies did not adequately protect the American people from another terrorist attack. Mr. Youssef raised these concerns with the Director of the FBI. After raising these concerns, the FBI retaliated against Mr. Youssef and stopped his transfer into the FBI’s elite anti-terrorism unit. Out of spite, and contrary to the public safety Mr. Youssef was forced to work at a job in which his extensive knowledge of the Middle East counterterrorism operations and his fluency in Arabic were not utilized.

By retaliating against Mr. Youssef, the FBI “cut off its nose to spite its face.”