- Bassem Youssef
Mr. Youssef is the highest ranking Arab-American agent employed by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation . He is currently a Unit Chief in theFBI ’sCounterterrorism Division. Prior to holding his current position, Mr. Youssef coordinated the nationalcounterterrorism investigation into the Islamic Group (the organization responsible for the firstWorld Trade Center bombing). He speaks fluent Arabic (the highest rankingFBI official with this skill).In 1994, he earned the Intelligence Community’s prestigious and coveted award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, awarded by the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). The award was for outstanding accomplishments in a terrorism case involving an al-Qaeda-related investigation.
After obtaining the DCI award, he was selected by the former
FBI DirectorLouis Freeh to head of theFBI ’s overseas office with responsibility for Saudi Arabia and the contiguous Gulf States, including UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain and Qatar. TheFBI ’s internal inspection of that office, conducted in 2000, highly praised Mr. Youssef’s performance. Inspection reports are kept confidential within theFBI , and are tasked with identifying problems in various programs.In July, 2006 the Justice Department's
Office of Professional Responsibility concluded that theFBI illegally retaliated against Mr. Youssef because Mr. Youssef had made whistleblower disclosures to the Director of theFBI and aMember of Congress .External links
* [http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2008/january2008/bassemyoussef.cfm "FBI Whistleblower Answers Questions in Philadelphia"]
* [http://whistleblowers.org/html/inside_the_fbi.html "Bassem Youssef's Information at the National Whistleblower Center"]
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16042604/ "NBC Nightly news"]
* [http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=128610&title=headlines-get-smarter "Daily Show with Jon Stewart Clip"]
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