Yesterday, Thursday US EST, Friday NZT, a press conference was held at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. by US based NGO Judicial Watch with FBI agent Robert Wright. Prior to the Press Conference Wright was threatened with criminal prosecution if he shared his views with the public.

According to its website ( http://www.judicialwatch.org./ ): “Judicial Watch, Inc. was established in 1994 to serve as an ethical and legal "watchdog" over the US government, legal, and judicial systems to promote a return to ethics and morality in our nation's public life.

As a non-partisan, non-profit foundation based in Washington, D.C., and with offices throughout the country, Judicial Watch relies on supporters, like yourself, to help us root out corruption in our government and to make sure offenders are brought to justice. “

Robert Wright, an agent for 10 years, was a member of an FBI counter- terrorism taskforce. He alleges that active agents were threatened and impeded in anti-terrorism investigations.

For the RealVideo broadcast of the C-SPAN press conference with FBI whistleblower Robert Wright see...

http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/idrive/ter053002_judicial.rm
Click Here.

See also a facsimile of a letter to the FBI on behalf of Wright by Wright’s lawyer…

http://www.judicialwatch.org/cases/78/schippers.gif

For initial coverage in the US media of Robert Wright’s press conference see the following links..

BLOOMBERG NEWS

FBI Agent Says He's Prevented From Exposing Agency (Update1)
Bloomberg News
By Julie Ziegler

Washington, May 30 (Bloomberg) -- An FBI agent in Chicago who has written an unpublished book attacking the agency's counterterrorist activities said the bureau is preventing him from airing his criticisms.

The agent, Robert Wright, said his aim is to expose the Federal Bureau of Investigation's failures in deterring terrorist attacks and strip the agency of responsibility for probing terrorism. He held a news conference with his lawyers to accuse the FBI of muzzling him.

CHICAGO SUN TIMES

FBI given broader power to snoop inside U.S. borders
May 31, 2002
BY PETE YOST

WASHINGTON--The Bush administration Thursday gave the beleaguered FBI broad new powers to monitor Americans, saying the agency needed a new weapon in the battle against terrorism and promising not to return to the file-building abuses of the past.
In a move aimed at averting another Sept. 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft freed the FBI to monitor Internet sites, libraries, churches and political organizations, calling restrictions on domestic surveillance ''a competitive advantage for terrorists.''

FOX NEWS

Whistleblower Complains of FBI Obstruction
Thursday, May 30, 2002
By Ian Christopher McCaleb

WASHINGTON — A government watchdog and FBI counter-terrorism agent are accusing the agency of prohibiting him from conducting his probe into terror financing activities because he complained about obstruction by bureau superiors.

Chicago-based FBI Special Agent Robert Wright, who worked in counterterrorism from 1993-1999, said the recent trajectory of his FBI career has taken a downward spiral since he complained about two incidents that inhibited his ability to continue terror funding and money laundering probes of members of Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Wright, who is filing a complaint through his counsel Judicial Watch, said in documents that the FBI would not provide him decent computer equipment, a problem that has been acknowledged by the FBI as being a bureau-wide problem.

CNS NEWS

Tearful FBI Agent Apologizes To Sept. 11 Families and Victims
By Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
May 30, 2002

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - In a memorandum written 91 days before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an FBI agent warned that Americans would die as a result of the bureau's failure to adequately pursue investigations of terrorists living in the country.

FBI Special Agent Robert Wright, Jr., who wrote the memo, led a four-year investigation into terrorist money laundering in the United States.

Wright began crying as he concluded his remarks at a Washington press conference Thursday.

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=30052002-054621-5800r
By Nicholas M. Horrock
UPI Chief White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- A Chicago FBI agent charged Thursday that colleagues stymied his efforts to investigate the funding of Middle East terrorists in 1994 and 1995 to keep cushy surveillance assignments going and protect their jobs.

Special Agent Robert Wright said these activities "allowed foreign-born terrorist operatives, such as the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks, to engage in illegal activities in the United States." He also disclosed that a Muslim FBI agent had accused him of religious discrimination during the investigation and he made public a sworn statement he had given on the charges.

Wright, who is attached to the Chicago Field Office of the FBI, held a Washington news conference sponsored by Judicial Watch -- a private, conservative watch dog group -- at which he read from and released a copy of a lawsuit he has launched against the FBI, and an exchange of letters about a book he is seeking to publish. He declined to answer questions.

ENDS