FBI agent indicted Oxford, MS- A Mississippi FBI agent was indicted Thursday on charges of making false statements and failing to disclose a conflict of interest in an FBI building he had a financial interest in. The indictment alleges that FBI agent Philip Halbert Neilson, 49, of Oxford, Miss., beginning in 2001 took an active role in the construction and lease of the Oxford FBI Building and failed to disclose that he had a financial interest in the building since 2004. The indictment also charged that in 2004 and 2005, as the supervisory senior resident agent in charge of the Oxford office, “he was required to truthfully complete an annual report of his assets and income, liabilities, and positions with organizations outside of his FBI employment,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Authorities also charged that NELSON submitted false financial disclosure reports and in October 2008 lied to an agent of the Dept. of Justice Office of the Inspector General during an interview. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine, though the guidelines would call for a far lesser sentence. Deborah Madden, an FBI spokeswoman in Mississippi, said Neilson “is still employed by the FBI” but declined to say whether he was on leave or on the job. The case is being investigated by Special Agent Susan Howell of the Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, and Assistant United States Attorneys René Salomon and Rich Bourgeois of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana. Bill Introduced Requiring Intelligence Officials to be Consulted about Arrested Foreign Terrorists Washington, D.C. - Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced legislation   NAFA’s Telephone Number is 1-586-792-51 81 The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the writer(s) only and may not reflect the official policy of the National Association of Federal Agents and/or its members.

requiring U.S. intelligence officials to be consulted following a foreign terrorist’s detention by the United States. The legislation is intended to address the handling of the so-called Christmas Day terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was charged in civilian criminal court. At a recent Homeland Security Committee meeting, Senator Collins said she learned during her questioning of witnesses that none of the three top U.S. intelligence officials had been consulted before Abdulmutallab was placed into the U.S. civilian court system. That determination was made without their input or knowledge. Senator Collins said the way in which Abdulmutallab was handled “may have prevented the collection of valuable intelligence about future terrorist threats to the United States. Frankly, I was stunned to learn that the decision to place the captured terrorist into the U.S. civilian criminal court system had been made without the input or the knowledge of any of those three top intelligence officials: the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. These officials were never consulted by the Department of Justice. The decision was made without them.” Joining Senator Collins as co-sponsors on the legislation were Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and fellow committee members, Senators Robert Bennett (R-Utah) and John Ensign (R-Nevada). Senator Collins said that the decision to place Abdulmutallab in civilian court “likely foreclosed the collection of additional intelligence information. We know that interrogations of terrorists can provide critical intelligence, but our civil justice system, as opposed to military detention, encourages terrorists to ‘lawyer-up’ and stop answering questions. Indeed, that was the case here. Abdulmutallab had provided some information to law enforcement officials in the hours immediately after his capture, and we surely would have obtained more if we had treated this foreign terrorist as an enemy belligerent and placed him in the military tribunal system.” Collins’ bill would require that the nation’s senior intelligence officials be consulted before the decision is made to try future foreign terrorists in civilian court “ This bill forces the law enforcement and intelligence community to recognize that preventing the next attack should be their first priority,” said Senator Lieberman. “Terrorists like Abdulmutallab are not acting alone and they are not merely criminals - they are enemy combatants fighting for Islamist terrorist organizations - and likely have vital information that will help us in this war.” Specifically, the bill would require the Attorney General to consult with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center,

 

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