About the Show
Tell Somebody
"Tell Somebody" is a locally-produced weekly public affairs program on the air on KKFI since September 2005. Tell Somebody strives to provide in-depth coverage of international, national and local issues on important issues and viewpoints often ignored or distorted in the corporate media.
Tonight on Tell Somebody with Tom Klammer:
With compromised legislators and others saying NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should have gone through channels if had concerns about NSA abuses, former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley will talk about whistleblowers and the flawed protections offered them.
About the guest:
Coleen Rowley grew up in a small town in northeast Iowa. She obtained a B.A. degree in French from Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa and then attended the College of Law at the University of Iowa and graduated with honors in 1980 also passing the Iowa Bar Exam that summer.
In January of 1981, Rowley was appointed a Special Agent with the FBI and initially served in the Omaha, Nebraska and Jackson, Mississippi Divisions. In 1984 she was assigned to the New York Office and for over 6 years worked on Italian organized crime and Sicilian heroin drug investigations. During this time Rowley also served three separate temporary duty assignments in the Paris, France Embassy and Montreal Consulate.
In 1990 Rowley was transferred to Minneapolis where she assumed the duties of Principal Legal Advisor (now known as “Chief Division Counsel”) which entailed oversight of the Freedom of Information, Forfeiture, Victim-Witness and Community Outreach Programs as well as providing regular legal and ethics training to FBI Agents of the Division and some outside police training.
In May of 2002 Rowley brought some of the pre 9-11 lapses to light and testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about some of the endemic problems facing the FBI and the intelligence community. Rowley was one of three whistleblowers chosen as persons of the year by TIME magazine.
In April 2003, following an unsuccessful and highly criticized attempt to warn the Director and other administration officials about the dangers of launching the invasion of Iraq, Rowley stepped down from her (GS-14) legal position to go back to being a (GS-13) FBI Special Agent. She retired from the FBI at the end of 2004 and now speaks publicly to various groups, ranging from school children to business/professional/civic groups, on two different topics: ethical decision-making and “balancing civil liberties with the need for effective investigation.”
In February 2005, a majority of Minnesota congresspersons and senators nominated Rowley to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. This Board was mandated by recent federal intelligence reform legislation implementing the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission.
Rowley has authored a chapter in a book published by the Milton Eisenhower Foundation entitled PATRIOTISM, DEMOCRACY AND COMMON SENSE: RESTORING AMERICA’S PROMISE AT HOME AND ABROAD.
