YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Whistle Where You Work #19 - FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley, Air Traffic Controller Whistleblower

Whistle Where You Work #19 - FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley, Air Traffic Controller Whistleblower — Transcript

by Government Accountability Project · 5,032 words · 711 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00[Music]
0:30Today we're talking with Colleen Rally,
0:33the FBI agent who blew the lid off of
0:36the preparations or the lack thereof by
0:40the United States government in planning
0:42for the 911 attacks. Welcome, Colleen,
0:45to Whistle, where you work. Well, thanks
0:47for having me.
0:49Colleen, where did you grow up? Iowa in
0:52a small farm town. And tell me about
0:54your educational background. Went to
0:56college. I majored in French. I went on
0:58to law school, graduated from the
1:00University of Iowa law school, and then
1:02pretty quickly joined the FBI, which was
1:05had been my goal all along since about
1:07fifth grade. And And when did you do
1:10that? I joined the FBI in January of
1:141981. And I um then I was assigned to
1:17Jackson, Mississippi, uh Omaha, and
1:20eventually New York City, where I worked
1:22on mafia cases for six and a half years.
1:25And then in 1990, I got transferred to
1:27Minneapolis where I became the legal
1:30counsel for the office. And that a lot
1:32of different hats, freedom of
1:33information and victim witness, but
1:35mostly I taught FBI agents,
1:37constitutional law.
1:40And when did you first become aware of
1:42Zacharias Misawi? I got called at night.
1:45Uh woke me up. Actually, didn't wake me
1:47up, but I was already in bed about 9:00.
1:49That's very unusual for agents to call
1:51me at home at the time. maybe only
1:52happened a couple of times in my whole
1:54career. And what year are we talking
1:55about here? This would have been um
1:57August I think 16th of 2001 and they had
2:02just taken him into custody and I the
2:04supervisor at the time acting supervisor
2:06gave me some short facts and um actually
2:09he said you know I think we really have
2:11something here and of course I said yes
2:12my goodness but at the time there were
2:15questions about whether they could go
2:17any further on the searching. What had
2:19triggered the agents interest in him?
2:21They had been called from the flight
2:22school in Egan uh because the two
2:25different police the the uh instructors
2:28the flight instructors were extremely
2:30suspicious and a lot of people know that
2:32you know it's one fact but no it was a
2:33lot of reasons he had paid in cash and
2:36he had made up excuses for why he wanted
2:38to fly the uh learn to fly. Um it a lot
2:42of this now is revealed in chapter 8 of
2:45the 911 commission report. In August
2:482001, Msawe was detained by immigration
2:51officials, wasn't he? Well, that No,
2:53that was what he was detained by was the
2:55joint terrorism task force that night
2:58that they called me. Gotcha. And that
3:00included INS and that gave the reason
3:03because his uh visa had expired. So, in
3:06a way, he was detained because of the
3:07expired visa, but that was not the
3:09reason. He was detained. you know, they
3:11were afraid that he had the trappings
3:14and the markings of a dangerous uh you
3:16know, person and certainly indications
3:18that he was a you know, could could be a
3:20terrorist suspect. And so what did you
3:21do with this information? Well, they
3:23were asking me what they could do in
3:25terms of searching and the law at the
3:26time, now I've come under some criticism
3:28for not saying go ahead, it's an
3:30emergency. Now, this would have been
3:31August 16th, the first time I get the
3:33call and the law at the time is to play
3:35it safer and seek a warrant. And then
3:37you are uh you are then have to consider
3:41whether it should be a criminal warrant
3:43or under the foreign intelligence
3:45surveillance act the intelligence world.
3:47And before 9/11 there were all kinds of
3:50issues with the wall that separated the
3:53intelligence from the criminal. Uh at
3:55the time we decided it wasn't just
3:57myself also FBI headquarters that the
4:00better route was to attempt to get a
4:02FISA warrant through the intelligence u
4:05for a lot of reasons. And so the agents
4:07then set about doing that. They put the
4:09facts down and within a couple of days
4:10they worked really around the clock.
4:12They had a real many paged uh draft
4:16declaration of facts that they sent to
4:18our headquarters to get an emergency not
4:20just a FISA but an emergency FISA. And
4:23when was this? Uh well August 16th to I
4:27think 18th. So some right right around
4:29the 18th at these facts or 19th
4:31somewhere in there that they would have
4:33gotten them. The same time that they
4:35sent a draft declaration, they also sent
4:37out leads to uh uh both uh Great Britain
4:40and France for uh doing background, the
4:44agents, you know, really did everything
4:46just very timely and very uh very
4:49astute. They were very astute. You just
4:51can't, you know, praise their work more.
4:53As well as the flight instructors, I
4:56should mention that the real
4:57whistleblowers initially were the flight
4:58instructors who called the FBI. They
5:00went against their bosses. So when you
5:02when you mix the government and the
5:04private, this story really is a great uh
5:07great example of where private
5:09whistleblowers need protection because
5:10they went against their um their bosses
5:13who of course Usawi was a paying
5:15customer and a cash paying customer at
5:18that and and flight schools have lost
5:20that those customers. In fact, I think
5:22this flight school's gone out of
5:23business. So you can see how uh
5:26everybody along here did the right thing
5:28up until Now that's what I wanted to get
5:30to. What did headquarters do with the
5:32information you sent them? Well, again,
5:34you you had this mixture of human error
5:36and and not really doing some some
5:39mistakes and wrong things as well as a
5:41misunderstanding of the law. The wall
5:43had grown so high that turns out later
5:46uh court of FISA court of appeals says
5:48that was never correct understanding of
5:50the law. But at the time the people at
5:52headquarters believed that it the
5:55probable cause was not there. uh the 911
5:58commission report. It's kind of hard to
6:00talk about what they understood unless
6:01you te tell about what what the mistakes
6:03were. One of the mistakes that the 911
6:06commission report found out was that
6:08they didn't understand that the fact
6:10that Mousawi was working for the
6:12Cetchians that was a foreign group. When
6:15you go to the FISA court, you have to
6:17say that you're working on behalf of a
6:19foreign power or a or a terrorist group.
6:22and our headquarters people didn't
6:24recognize that the Chetchins could have
6:26been um described as a foreign power or
6:29a foreign terrorist group. That was one
6:31mistake. There was another more
6:33mistakes. One other mistake that's
6:35really never been talked about much is
6:37that the legal person in the FBI, the
6:39unit chief, never read the the um
6:43declaration. Uh Grassly in the What
6:46would they have learned had they read
6:48it? Yeah.
6:49uh it these these facts again it's
6:52multi-page declaration and I won't be
6:53able to recite all of them but um there
6:56were such things as paying in cash and
6:58when the suspicious flight instructor
7:00questioned him about being u uh Islam or
7:04whatever Mousawi had had said things
7:06that that didn't make sense um there
7:09were he did have certain interest in
7:12parts of the plane that were weird his
7:14background in being a private pilot made
7:17no sense what What the sum of it was
7:20that the flight instructor and again you
7:22have to you have to um rely on an expert
7:26like that in the field. If you're an FBI
7:27agent and he's a flight instructor who's
7:29taught for 20 years and he says to you,
7:32"Yes, this is one of the most suspicious
7:34students I've ever had or the most
7:36suspicious." No, that counts for a lot
7:39because I'm an FBI agent. How would I
7:41know what what is suspicious? But you
7:43are the flight instructor and it wasn't
7:45just one. Okay, so all of these things
7:47in total probable cause under the under
7:50this case law of gates and stuff is that
7:52you look at all the facts together. Now
7:55when the draft declaration went into
7:57headquarters, the another mistake was
7:59that the person at headquarters rewrote
8:01portions of it. Um and and of course I
8:04was in tune to that because our FBI
8:06laboratory uh Frederick Whitehurst that
8:09was something he pointed to when his
8:11scientific reports would get slightly
8:13arandized or slightly changed and that's
8:16not right. If you do uh your report you
8:18know and it's my science report so your
8:20boss is going to rewrite a few words.
8:22Well this draft declaration that
8:24happened the person at headquarters was
8:26changed three or four things. So all of
8:29this led to the thing and the fact that
8:32the unit chief did not read it was
8:34another huge uh problem. You can imagine
8:37how can you say it's not probable cause.
8:38What what if he went into a judge and he
8:41you to sign something and later out
8:43later on found he hadn't read it. I mean
8:44that that's how bad this was. So um
8:47after 911 of course then nobody was
8:49revealing these very human errors and we
8:52know the rest of the story because when
8:54the truth did not come out after 911
8:56about some of these things. What
8:58happened? What rushes in to fit uh fill
9:00a vacuum? The wrong approaches rounding
9:03up immigrants. You know, very quickly
9:05after 9/11, they instituted the harsh
9:07interrogation tactics. Was that a
9:09problem? I mean, come on. I mean, the uh
9:12it's just there was just a whole number
9:14of things and that's the reason why
9:16truth is really a key thing and
9:18especially in in a national security
9:20environment. In 2002, you wrote to FBI
9:23Director Robert Mueller a letter and you
9:26said that you were concerned at the time
9:28that the agency was misrepresenting some
9:31of the facts surrounding what had
9:34happened uh in the run-up to 9/11. Uh
9:37what motivated you to write this letter?
9:39Well, at that time they had um they had
9:43started a joint intelligence uh
9:45committee uh inquiry under a Pentagon
9:48analyst, Ellener Hill, and there were
9:50staff and and we were all being called.
9:52Uh it was kind of surprising I was even
9:55called to come back. The reason I was
9:57called is because this legal issue of
9:59probable cause kind of figured in. I
10:01think that was the reason I got called.
10:03But also in that interim they had uh a
10:07timetable of events had been uh set to
10:10paper and the timetable left out some of
10:13the more embarrassing facts like this
10:15this this great example is did you read
10:17the affidavit that you'll not find that
10:18in the t timet and yet other things that
10:21kind of backed up there's no probable
10:23cause there's nothing we could have done
10:25that was in there so when I got that
10:28call I it was a long story but for like
10:30two days I didn't even sleep because I
10:31thought oh I'm going to forget all these
10:33these these issues. And so then I just
10:35started jotting it down because I didn't
10:36want to forget when I talked to them.
10:38But as soon as I got about seven, eight
10:40pages written, I thought, you know what,
10:42it's eight and a half months later. Look
10:44at the course we're on and it's a lot of
10:46it's because the truth is not known. I'm
10:48going to put down everything I know in
10:49here in a, you know, a comprehensive way
10:52as best as I can in two days. And then
10:54I'm going to give it to our internal
10:57affairs, the FBI's own internal affairs.
10:59Uh because I I thought this actually
11:02required a closer look and give it to
11:04the director and I also copied at the
11:07last minute the two senators that I knew
11:09were on that committee, um Feinstein and
11:13Shelby. And the only reason I I put them
11:15on, they weren't the heads of it. I put
11:16them on because I'd seen in the paper
11:18that they were asking questions. Did
11:20anybody respond to your letter? Well,
11:22the response came uh very quickly
11:25because in a day or two, I think it was
11:27about 48 hours, um someone probably in
11:31Congress shared it with CNN and with
11:34Time magazine or New York Times. And so
11:36then I then we our office got called by
11:39I think CNN initially and they said,
11:41"Oh, there's something about a memo." I
11:43went, "Oh, no, that must be the same
11:44memo." But I I myself did not take it to
11:47the press. I took it internally, you
11:50know, and what was shocking was I took
11:52this to people who are certainly got
11:54secret clearances. The people on the
11:56intelligence committees, Feinstein and
11:58Shelby, in a closed envelope, and yet
12:01the FBI afterwards classified it and was
12:04talking about firing me for taking it to
12:06people with clearances. And I was
12:08shocked about that. I mean, I was in the
12:09FBI for 21 years at this time, you know,
12:12legal counsel. And I couldn't believe
12:14that this would come to the point where
12:16they would talk about firing me for just
12:18sharing it with an intelligence
12:20committee. It's And you did speak before
12:22a Senate committee and you also uh spoke
12:25before the 9/11 commission. No, I did
12:28not speak to the 911 commission. You
12:29didn't? No. Um the they were under
12:32severe time constraints and so all of
12:35chapter 8 uh which is the system was
12:37ticking ticking uh was was a blinking
12:40red or something. The system was
12:41blinking red. That is all from Elellanar
12:44Hills and the joint intelligence
12:46committee and the IG investigation that
12:48my complaint gave rise to. So Glenn Fine
12:52in the Department of Justice did a
12:53400page sum report for two years on my
12:58letter that stemmed from my letter and
13:00that was used by the 911 commission. And
13:04uh before we go back briefly to talk
13:06about what how you were treated at the
13:08FBI after this letter, tell me about the
13:11lessons you think we should be learning
13:13from 9/11. Well, the lessons are um you
13:16know the largest lesson here is to get
13:19get to the truth quickly. The terrorists
13:22are a lot more flexible than we are.
13:24Maybe it's because they're more decisive
13:25and there's only a few of them. I don't
13:27know. They don't have a bureaucracy. I
13:28don't know. But they mess up for
13:31instance on their first attack of the
13:32World Trade Center and you know they go
13:34back at it a second time and they they
13:36if you know right now with with uh
13:39aviation you know everybody's thinking
13:41that they're going to do same the things
13:42the same way probably not the next
13:44attack will be different. We're we're
13:46slow first of all to even tell the truth
13:49about the mistake let alone then analyze
13:51why it happened and then go back to the
13:53drawing board. And I think that's our
13:55our Achilles he healed. Um the war on
13:59terror was a wrong metaphor. I think
14:01that's another problem because this
14:03wasn't a war. It should have been
14:04treated as a an effort to reduce and
14:07limit you know terrorism. But when that
14:10vacuum existed and you know it allowed
14:12the leaders at the time to come in and
14:14say oh we're going to declare war on
14:17who? What you know al Qaeda are
14:19terrorists that are scattered all over
14:20the world. But we started launching
14:22bombs on a couple of countries and we've
14:24and then of course to to have used
14:26tactics that don't even work such as
14:28torture and uh warrantless monitoring
14:31and this massive intelligence the
14:33mistakes. I mean I I talk on this topic
14:35and it's like hours just to go through
14:37the litany of things that have happened
14:39since 9/11. But it all stems back to if
14:43you had people first of all listen to
14:46people initially uh before it even
14:48happened. Uh there wasn't just the
14:50Minneapolis FBI talking about finding a
14:52terrorist. There were other things out
14:54there. Uh they had talked about bolting
14:56cockpit doors in other contexts before
14:58this. And so if they people had been
15:01listened to first, first of all, you
15:03might have prevented or at least
15:05minimized 9/11. And then second of all,
15:08when a mistake does happen and the worst
15:10does happen, then get to the truth as
15:12quickly as possible and figure out what
15:14went wrong instead of this constant
15:16suppression in order to prevent
15:18embarrassment from people, you know,
15:20being, you know, losing their they don't
15:23know if they would have lost their jobs.
15:24Every single person after 9/11 who was
15:27involved and and frankly didn't do that
15:29was promoted. And you were threatened
15:31with being fired. Well, I originally
15:34was, but the media, you know, it's a
15:35double-edged sword. But because Time
15:37magazine came out within a week or so
15:39and had my picture on the cover, the
15:42agents association, of course, who knew
15:44all this was true, backed me. Uh,
15:47Senators Grassly, Lehey, Wellstone, and
15:50Mark Dayton. We took all of these things
15:53and, you know, again, a lot of luck. I I
15:56feel kind of bad when I talk to
15:57whistleblower groups because I I am kind
15:59of a lucky one compared to so many
16:02others, you know, and I don't know how
16:03it happened that I lucked out. But I had
16:05a lot of support and it got me through
16:07that uh whistleblowing memo. Um now I
16:12kept going though because after 9/11
16:14then all these other things kept
16:16happening. So I kept speaking out and I
16:18found different ways through
16:19pre-publication review. I wrote a
16:21chapter about the war on terror and
16:23civil liberties. And there were
16:24different things I did and eventually uh
16:27and I knew I was getting close to
16:29retirement, you know, so I I thought,
16:31okay, I if I can push the envelope and
16:33you know, from an integrity standpoint,
16:36uh people often come up to me and say,
16:38thank you for what you did as if it's
16:40over. Well, I said, no, it's not over
16:42until this gets back on course. Um I I
16:45have this little button stop torture,
16:46for instance. things like that. Until it
16:48actually totally put that those evils in
16:51the Pandora box back in and we can
16:53actually say we're kind of back on
16:55course, I don't think it's over.
16:58[Music]
17:28Heat. Heat.
17:32[Music]
17:46Welcome back to Whistle Where You Work.
17:47I'm Mark Cohen and with me is Peter
17:50Nesbbit who has a very interesting story
17:53about what happens when two planes
17:56converge over an airport. Uh what's
17:59going to be done about it? Are you safe?
18:03Welcome, Peter. Thank you.
18:04Uh where are you from?
18:07Oakidge, Tennessee is where I call home.
18:09Currently living in Austin, Texas. And
18:12uh tell me about your professional
18:14background. I started off in the United
18:16States Air Force as an air traffic
18:18controller and was fortunate enough to
18:19be hired with the FAA after my tour with
18:22the Air Force and I've been with the FAA
18:24ever since. I've worked in Louisville,
18:25Kentucky, Oakland, California, Dallas,
18:28Texas, uh Memphis, and now Austin. Okay.
18:32And let me talk to you a little bit
18:33about something that happened in Memphis
18:35when you were on duty. Uh tell me about
18:38what is a goaround. A goaround uh can
18:42either be controller or pilot initiated
18:44and it's generally to avoid an unsafe
18:46situation. Could be another aircraft on
18:48the runway, a mechanical malfunction,
18:50something of that nature, but it's
18:52essentially to avoid uh a potential
18:54problem. Okay. And a potential problem
18:57would be uh potential collision in the
18:59air, crash on the ground, what it could
19:02be an aircraft crossing the runway
19:04unexpected. It could be an unsafe gear
19:05indication. Um it could be a a vehicle
19:09on the runway. Any of a number of
19:10different things. If the runway is not
19:11clear for an aircraft to land, the
19:13aircraft must execute a goaround. And
19:15how often do goarounds happen? It's a
19:18it's a fairly common thing. It does
19:19happen. And uh sometimes it's it's not
19:22an uh an unusual maneuver or an unsafe
19:24maneuver, but sometimes go-arounds do
19:26conflict with other airplanes. And and
19:28what happens when the reason for the
19:31goaround is converging airlines?
19:35Well, uh in an instance that I observed
19:37in Memphis, an aircraft executed a
19:38goaround one evening and uh there was
19:41another aircraft on approach to a
19:44converging or a converging runway. They
19:47were intersecting flight paths. And so
19:50when the first aircraft executed the
19:51go-around, it flew into the flight path
19:53of the other airplane landing on on a on
19:56a converging approach path. And um as a
20:00result of that goaround, the second
20:02aircraft was forced to be issued
20:03goaround instructions as well to avoid a
20:05collision. But the FAA doesn't really
20:06prescribe separation for goaround
20:09maneuvers like that. And that's kind of
20:11the problem. They leave it up to
20:12controllers or pilots to visually
20:15separate those airplanes. I see. So what
20:17did you do? Well, I wasn't responsible
20:20for working the airplanes involved. I
20:21was working a ground patrol position,
20:23but I was standing next to the
20:24controller that was responsible for that
20:26position. And I I saw it firsthand. And
20:30uh when it happened, when the aircraft
20:32executed the goaround, the air traffic
20:35controller was standing next to me
20:36immediately told the pilot to stay low,
20:37stay low, stay low in order to avoid the
20:40airplane that was flying overhead from
20:42right to left.
20:44And uh did you report this to anybody?
20:47Yeah, I uh I was very disturbed by it.
20:48It was the closest that I had ever seen
20:50two airplanes come to one another. So,
20:52uh when I was relieved and went
20:53downstairs on a break, I uh filed a
20:56report with the NASA aviation safety
20:58reporting system, which is uh an online
21:02anonymous reporting system for pilots,
21:04controllers, crew members, mechanics to
21:06report unsafe uh practices, incidents,
21:09or events within the aviation system.
21:11And then what happened? Uh nothing. It
21:14was it was quiet for for a few days.
21:16I uh I read about uh an NTSB runway
21:19safety forum that was coming up and I
21:21felt that this was a runway safety
21:23issue. It was an air traffic control
21:24issue. So I then reported the issue to
21:27the NTSB and asked for their assistance.
21:29NTSB is I'm sorry, the National
21:31Transportation Safety Board. They uh
21:34generally investigate uh accidents and
21:36so I felt this would be a great
21:38um a great time for them to investigate
21:41something before the accident happened.
21:44Let's let's prevent the accident. And
21:46did they?
21:47Well, it's it's my understanding. I
21:49never received an official uh
21:51verification of this, but I was told
21:54that the NTSB forwarded my complaint to
21:57the FAA and that it eventually made its
22:00way to FAA safety andor FAA oversight
22:03and an investigation was conducted at
22:05some point. And what was the effect of
22:07that investigation? Well, air traffic
22:09controllers at Memphis had been told for
22:10a number of years that there was a
22:11waiver that allowed this particular
22:14operation to exist. Uh we had asked to
22:16see the waiver on a number of instances.
22:18We're always told that the waiver was
22:20stored at another location. They
22:22couldn't provide us with an actual copy
22:23of it, but the waiver did exist. But at
22:26the end of the uh investigation by FAA
22:28safety and FA oversight, it was
22:30disclosed that a waiver did in fact not
22:32exist and that the operation was illegal
22:35and unsafe and that Memphis needed to
22:37immediately stop running this operation.
22:40So, slam dunk victory. You I suppose
22:42that you were celebrated by your
22:44supervisors, right? Not really. What
22:47happened? The the facility uh was was
22:50upset. Um, in my opinion, they were
22:52upset. I felt that they were
22:54embarrassed. They had a little egg on
22:55their face um due to this constant story
22:58of of a waiver
23:00existing. Um, there were several
23:03airlines that operated into Memphis
23:04airport that were uh upset because their
23:07the airport capacity was reduced.
23:09Instead of landing on three, excuse me,
23:12instead of landing on three runways and
23:14we could only land on two runways at a
23:16time. So it did affect uh some of the
23:19users and you know there was the
23:21question of you know safety over profit
23:23profit over safety however you want to
23:25look at it and how did they treat you?
23:27Well it was shortly after that that I
23:29was um subjected to various acts of
23:32retaliation in my opinion. I was accused
23:34of animal cruelty animal cruelty. I was
23:37accu I was accused of animal cruelty by
23:39one FAA manager. I was accused of
23:42insubordination. I was accused of being
23:44reckless at work. uh was accused of poor
23:46work performance. Uh there was just a
23:49whole series of of false accusations
23:51that I was subjected to after having
23:54worked at Memphis for almost a year to a
23:56year and a half as being a model
23:58employee and an excellent air traffic
24:00controller. But suddenly after making
24:02the safety disclosure, suddenly I was a
24:04poor performer. And so what became of
24:06all those allegations against you?
24:09After uh after dealing with this for
24:11approximately seven eight months, I
24:13finally contacted the office of special
24:14counsel. I submitted a whistleblower uh
24:17retaliation complaint package for
24:19prohibited personnel practice. Um they
24:22were very interested in the prohibited
24:24personnel practice as well as the safety
24:26disclosures and they asked me to split
24:29my case into two parts to have a PPP
24:31case as well as a safety disclosure case
24:34which I agreed to do. And then as a
24:36result of that, there were some
24:38additional safety disclosures that were
24:39made to the OSC which were uh finally
24:42investigated by the FAA. And what's the
24:45status of the prohibited personnel
24:46practices? The prohibited personnel
24:48practice case was uh was recently
24:50settled with the FAA and I was allowed
24:53to transfer away from Memphis to Austin,
24:56Texas. And is that working out for you?
24:58Yeah, it is. The people at Austin are
25:00treating me really nice and uh it's kind
25:02of nice to be back in Texas and so I'm
25:04I'm kind of hoping that the dust will
25:06settle a little bit from that and I can
25:08carry on with my career. Okay. Any
25:10regrets about having come forward.
25:13No regrets. I mean it's it's been very
25:15difficult. Um if I had it to do all over
25:17again, I'm not sure what I would do. But
25:20um And why is that?
25:22I guess it's one of those kind of things
25:23if somebody was to tell you what your
25:25life would be like if you go through a
25:28certain course of action. I think that
25:30if we knew beforehand, I think that many
25:32of us may not take those steps. And what
25:35were the worst things that happened to
25:36you? What what was the most difficult
25:39for you to deal with personally? It was
25:41uh it was just absolutely humiliating to
25:43be accused of animal cruelty. And what
25:47what what exactly was that charge?
25:50It's it's a long story, but essentially
25:52um I I took my dog to work one day uh on
25:55a day shift because the the dog was sick
25:57and the FAA would not allow me time off
25:59from work to take my dog to a veterinary
26:01clinic and it was just me. I have no
26:03family in Memphis. And
26:06um at work, I checked on the dog every
26:10hour when I was on a break. And uh one
26:12of the facility managers called the the
26:14Humane Society and just made an
26:15accusation of of animal cruelty because
26:17I had the dog in the truck in a kennel
26:19in the truck at work. And so the animal
26:21cruelty investigator came out to uh to
26:23investigate, took one look at me, took
26:25one look at the dog, realized the dog
26:27was was healthy but yet sick. And so we
26:30uh immediately went inside. He talked to
26:32the managers. I got to tell you, I've in
26:35in my line of work, I hear a lot of
26:37stories and a lot of ways of retaliating
26:39against employees who speak out about
26:41important issues. I have never before
26:44heard of somebody being charged with
26:46animal cruelty as a means of
26:48retaliation. I mean, it's ridiculous. I
26:49I I laugh about it now, but it was just
26:51it was just the beginning of a long
26:52series of acts of, you know, false um
26:55false accusations by the FAA. Um, but of
26:58course the animal cruelty investigator,
27:00he knew there was nothing up and he
27:01ordered the FAA to allow me to leave
27:03work right then and there so I could go
27:04care for my dog. Now you're part of an
27:06alliance of FAA employees. Yes. Tell me
27:09about that. Uh I recently joined a group
27:11of uh of other FA whistleblowers and uh
27:14we have formed a group called the FA
27:16whistleblower alliance and essentially
27:19it's a it's a group of FA employees who
27:21have filed uh complaints against the
27:24agency through the office of special
27:26counsel or through the department of
27:28transportation office of the inspector
27:29general. And we exist as kind of a
27:32support group for each other to uh to
27:34share stories uh to share tactics and
27:37strategies and to um just support each
27:40other as we go through this process.
27:41It's it's a lonely process and we feel
27:44that we could help each other by sharing
27:46our our background and past experiences
27:48with us. Yeah, we certainly appreciate
27:50it and appreciate the work of Peter
27:52Nesbet and his uh colleagues in in the
27:56FAA whistleblower alliance. I'm Mark
27:59Cohen and this has been where you work.
28:04[Music]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Whistle Where You Work #19 - FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley, Air Traffic Controller Whistleblower by Government Accountability Project, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 5,032 words across 711 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.