Coleen Rowley (born December 20, 1954) is an American former FBI special agent and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

, and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) candidate for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota in 2006. She lost the general election to Republican

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

John Kline. Rowley is well known for testifying as to concerns regarding the FBI ignoring information of a suspected terrorist during 9/11, which led to a two-year investigation by the Department of Justice.

Early life and education

Rowley grew up in

New Hampton, Iowa New Hampton is a city in, and the county seat of, Chickasaw County, Iowa, United States. The population was 3,494 at the time of the 2020 census. History New Hampton was founded ''circa'' 1855. It is named after New Hampton, New Hampshire, the ...

, and graduated

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA) ...

of her high school class in 1973. Her father was a letter carrier for 31 years. She received her B.A. degree in French and with honors from Wartburg College in

Waverly, Iowa Waverly is a city in Bremer County, Iowa, United States. The population was 10,394 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Bremer County and is part of the Waterloo– Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The sister ci ...

, in 1977. In 1980, she received her J.D. degree from the University of Iowa College of Law and passed the

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

bar exam A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...

that summer.Max Lerne
Coleen Rowley
Civil liberties in times of war. PBS Now, April 3, 2005

Career

FBI

In January 1981, Rowley became a special agent with the FBI and was assigned to the

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest ...

, and

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

, divisions. Beginning in 1984, she spent six years working in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

field office on investigations involving Italian

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

and Sicilian heroin. During this time she served three temporary assignments in the U.S.

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

and the

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth co ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. In 1990, she was transferred to the FBI's

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

field office, where she became chief division counsel. There she taught constitutional law to FBI agents and police officers, and oversaw the

Freedom of Information Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigen ...

, Asset Forfeiture Program, Victim-Witness and community outreach programs. After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

in 2001, Rowley wrote a paper for FBI Director

Robert Mueller Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and New York ...

documenting how FBI HQ personnel in Washington, D.C., had mishandled and failed to take action on information provided by the

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origi ...

, Field Office regarding its investigation of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui had been suspected of being involved in preparations for a suicide-hijacking similar to the December 1994 "

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed ...

" hijacking of Air France 8969. Failures identified by Rowley may have left the U.S. vulnerable to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Rowley was one of many agents frustrated by the events that led up to the attacks, writing:

During the early aftermath of September 11th, when I happened to be recounting the pre–September 11th events concerning the Moussaoui investigation to other FBI personnel in other divisions or in FBIHQ, almost everyone's first question was "Why?—Why would an FBI agent(s) deliberately sabotage a case?" (I know I shouldn't be flippant about this, but jokes were actually made that the key FBI HQ personnel had to be spies or moles like Robert Hanssen who were actually working for Osama Bin Laden to have so undercut Minneapolis's effort.)Coleen Rowle
APFN.org Memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller. An edited version of the agent's 13-page letter
American Patriot Friends Network, May 21, 2002

In May 2002 Rowley testified to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and the

9/11 Commission The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", includin ...

about the FBI's pre-9/11 lapses due to its internal organization and mishandling of information related to the attacks. "We have got to call America's attention to this in order to stop the continuation of errors", Rowley stated. Mueller and Senator

Chuck Grassley Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Iowa, having held the seat since 1981. In 2022, h ...

( R- IA) pushed for and achieved a major reorganization, focused on creation of the new Office of Intelligence at the FBI. This reorganization was supported with a significant expansion of FBI personnel with

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

and language skills. In February 2003, Rowley wrote a second open letter to Mueller, in which she warned her superiors that the bureau would not "be able to stem the flood of terrorism that will likely head our way in the wake of an attack on Iraq". In April 2003, Rowley stepped down from her legal position to return to being an FBI special agent. At the end of 2004 she retired from the FBI after serving for 24 years.

Honors and awards

Rowley jointly held the ''Time'' magazine

Person of the Year __NOTOC__ Person of the Year or Man of the Year is an award given to an individual by any type of organization. Most often, it is given by a newspaper or other news outlet to annually recognize a public person. Such awards have typically been awa ...

award in 2002 with two other women credited as whistleblowers:

Sherron Watkins Sherron Watkins (born August 28, 1959) is an American former Vice President of Corporate Development at the Enron Corporation. Watkins was called to testify before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate at the beginning of 200 ...

from

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...

and Cynthia Cooper of

WorldCom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...

. She also received the 2002

Sam Adams Award The Sam Adams Award is given annually to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is granted by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers. It is named a ...

Political

John Murtha at Coleen Rowley rally 17 Sept 2006

Coleen Rowley rally protesters 17 Sept 2006

In May 2005, Rowley announced that she was considering running against incumbent Representative John Kline for

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

's 2nd District seat in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in 2006. At the time of her announcement, she had been living in

Apple Valley, Minnesota Apple Valley is a city in northwestern Dakota County in the State of Minnesota, and a suburb of the Twin Cities. The population was 56,374 at the 2020 census, making it the 17th most populous city in Minnesota. In 2014, Money.com' named Apple ...

, for 15 years. Rowley had formerly voted and identified as a Republican, but on June 27, 2005, she announced that she was entering the race as a DFLer, and on July 6 officially kicked off her campaign at her home.Mark Zdechli
Kline, Rowley provide clear choice on Iraq
Minnesota Public Radio, July 26, 2006 On August 18, 2005, Rowley attended a vigil in Crawford, Texas, outside President George W. Bush's ranch requesting that the president meet with

Cindy Sheehan Cindy Lee Sheehan ( Miller; born July 10, 1957) is an American anti-war activist,Geraghty, Jim (2011-05-02)Cindy Sheehan: ‘If you believe the newest death of OBL, you’re stupid.’''National Review''. Retrieved May 2, 2011. whose son, U.S. Arm ...

to answer Sheehan's questions about the War in Iraq and the death of Sheehan's son, Casey. On January 3, 2006, an unauthorized professionally retouched image appeared on Rowley's campaign website. This image depicted Kline, a retired Marine Corps colonel, as

Colonel Klink The following is a list of characters from ''Hogan's Heroes'', an American sitcom television series which starred Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer and John Banner, and featured Robert Clary, Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon, and Larry Hovis. It ran for six ...

from ''

Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during World War II. It ran for 168 episodes (six seasons) from September 17, 1965, to April 4, 1971, on the CBS network, the longest broadcast ...

''. Kline objected to the photo, and the Rowley campaign removed the image the same day and initiated an investigation. Rowley apologized quickly. Representative

John Murtha John Patrick Murtha Jr. (; June 17, 1932 – February 8, 2010) was an American politician from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Murtha, a Democrat, represented Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the United States House of Represent ...

(D- PA) endorsed Rowley. He visited the district during the campaign and held a rally for Rowley at the local

VFW The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), formally the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, is an organization of US war veterans, who, as military service members fought in wars, campaigns, and expeditions on foreign land, waters, or ...

in Rosemount, while veterans protested outside. The Rowley campaign subsequently focused efforts on veterans' groups and others with direct experience of the war in Iraq. Financing her campaign proved difficult. Opposing an incumbent

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

such as Kline in a conservative district did not attract money from the most robust Democratic resources, such as the DNC. Kline's campaign achieved a 2–1 advantage in raising funds, and he easily retained his seat.

Civil liberties and peace activism

Since 2003 Rowley has spoken publicly on ethics and ethical decision-making to various groups.University of Iowa News Servic
Rowley To Discuss Patriot Act, Ethics At UI Lectures
University of Iowa, February 9, 2004 She is a writer and blogger. She joined other whistleblowers on the June 2015 speaking tour "Stand Up for Truth" which went through London, Oslo, Stockholm and Berlin. She returned to lecture at her alma mater three times, in 2003, 2004 and 2015.

Personal

Rowley is married and has four children. During her time in the FBI she was "the sole breadwinner of a family of six".

Bibliography

Rowley authored a chapter in ''Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad''. edited by Alan Cutis and Kevin Phillip (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005, 496 pages, ). She has been a regular contributor at ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'' since January 2006 and Rowley has written for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

''.Coleen Rowley
''The Guardian''. undated, retrieved September 29, 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rowley, Coleen 1954 births 21st-century American women American whistleblowers Candidates in the 2006 United States elections Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Living people Minnesota Democrats People from Apple Valley, Minnesota People from New Hampton, Iowa University of Iowa College of Law alumni Wartburg College alumni Women in Minnesota politics