Rowley Responds to Criticism of Her Recent Trip to Crawford, Texas

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Colleen Rowley: American Patriot. Thanks, Colleen!

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Rowley Responds to Criticism of Her Recent Trip to Crawford, Texas
August 25, 2005

Coleen Rowley recently visited "Camp Casey" outside of George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas with Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey to offer moral support to those who have lost loved ones in the war in Iraq. The vigil was initiated by Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004. Sheehan and other families of soldiers, including Lourey, requested a meeting face-to-face with President Bush in order to ask him to explain what "noble cause" their children have died for. Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey is the mother of Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Lourey, who was killed May 26, 2005 in Iraq.

However, the trip was harshly criticized by right-wing pundits and bloggers, who characterized the mothers and other protesters outside President Bush's ranch as, among other things, "left-wing radicals" and "anti-war extremists."

In an interview with Inside Minnesota Politics, reporting directly from the camp, Rowley explained that the group is actually comprised to a large extent of military families from all over the nation who are "reflective of mainstreet America." She also said claims that her trip was politically motivated were unfounded, because she had publicly objected to launching the war in Iraq -- well before she decided to run for Congress. Rowley said such criticisms were trying to falsely marginalize her when, according to most national polls, her views about the Iraq war are shared by a majority of Americans. Rowley also said that Sheehan's vigil has, if nothing else, put an end to the "fear-induced silence" that has thus far constrained so many Americans from speaking out and asking the hard questions.

Rowley had warned in a "whistle-blower" letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller in February of 2003 that launching the war in Iraq would prove counterproductive to efforts to contain international terrorism. In her February 26, 2003 letter to FBI Director Mueller, Rowley explained that "the diversion of attention from al-Qaeda to our government's plan to invade Iraq (would be) a step (that) in all likelihood would bring an exponential increase in the terrorist threat to the U.S. at home and abroad" and "the bottom line is this: we should be deluding neither ourselves nor the American people that there is any way the FBI, despite the various improvements (being) implemented, will be able to stem the flood of terrorism that will likely head our way in the wake of an attack on Iraq."

Since the war in Iraq began, both US and British intelligence services have noted a substantial increase in terrorist attacks around the world. Intelligence studies also point out that Iraq has become the new training ground for terrorists, that is, for foreign "jihadists" pouring into Iraq who had no previous history of violence. U.S. State Department figures show the number of significant terrorist incidents soaring: from 2003's 20-year record of 175 incidents that killed 625 people -- to 651 such attacks that killed 1,907 people in 2004. Although a change in counting methodology may have accounted for some of the increase, Rowley believes that this data makes it impossible for the Bush Administration to argue that they are "winning the war" on terrorism.