Mark Rossini is a former agent with the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

who played a major role in trying to track

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

before its attacks on the United States on

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Role in tracking al-Qaeda operatives in the US

"The Spy Factory", an episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series ''Nova'', included segments of interviews with Rossini, who described his experience serving as one of the two FBI liaisons to the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

Bin Laden Issue Station The Bin Laden Issue Station, also known as Alec Station, was a standalone unit of the Central Intelligence Agency in operation from 1996 to 2005 dedicated to tracking Osama bin Laden and his associates, both before and after the 9/11 attacks. I ...

, an inter-agency team assigned to track

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

and his associates. Rossini described being aware in January 2000 that two

members,

Nawaf al-Hazmi Nawaf Muhammad Salim al-Hazmi (; 9 August 1976 – 11 September 2001)''9/11 Commission Report'', 9/11 Commission, p. 166 was a Saudi terrorist hijacker who was one of five Organizers of the September 11 attacks, hijackers of American Airlines Fli ...

and

Khalid al-Mihdhar Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar (; also transliterated as AL Mihdhar; 16 May 1975 – 11 September 2001) was a Saudi terrorist hijacker. He was one of the five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon as ...

, had valid US visas. However, a CIA employee, Michael Anne Casey, reportedly stopped him from passing the information to FBI headquarters. Rossini knew that if he reported this information to his FBI colleagues he would be breaking the law. The two men turned out to be

hijackers Hijacking may refer to: Common usage Computing and technology * Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth * Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand * Browser hijacking * Clickjacking (including ''likej ...

American Airlines flight 77 American Airlines Flight 77 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight from Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The Boeing 757-200 aircraft serving the flig ...

on 9/11. Rossini also claims Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, a manager at the Bin Laden Issue Station, covered for Casey by telling congressional investigators that she walked from her office to FBI Headquarters to deliver the information about al-Mihdhar having a US visa. FBI log books reportedly proved Bikowsky's claim false.

Criminal conviction and resignation from FBI

In late 2008 Rossini pled guilty to five felony counts for criminally accessing records in an FBI database more than 40 times in 2007. Many of the records were related to a federal investigation of

Anthony Pellicano Anthony J. Pellicano (born March 22, 1944) is an American private investigator and convicted felon, known as a high-profile Hollywood fixer. Pellicano served thirty months in a federal prison for illegal possession of explosives and firearms. I ...

, a former high-profile private investigator. At least one of the records was provided by Rossini to associates of Pellicano and was subsequently used in a court filing by Pellicano's attorneys, leading to the discovery of Rossini's involvement. Rossini resigned from the FBI and was sentenced to probation, community service, and a fine by U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola on May 14, 2009.

Puerto Rico bribery allegations

In September 2022, Rossini was charged with conspiracy, federal programs bribery, and honest services

wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical (e.g., the U.S. Postal Service) or electronic (e.g., a phone, a telegram, a fax, or the Internet) mail system to defraud another, and are U.S. fede ...

for allegedly having promised Puerto Rico's then-governor,

Wanda Vázquez Garced Wanda Emilia Vázquez Garced (born July 9, 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician and attorney who served as the 188th Governor of Puerto Rico from 2019 to 2021. Prior to her tenure as governor, she served as the 19th Secretary of Justice from 2 ...

, $300,000 for her re-election campaign in 2020 on the condition that the head of the Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions be removed and replaced with someone chosen by international banker Julio Herrera Velutini. On August 9, 2022, Rossini turned himself into U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico and declared himself not guilty.

References

External links

* Chapter Five of this report, pages 223–362, covers information about the Malaysia al-Qaeda meeting and al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar's travel to the US in January 2000. Rossini is called "Malcolm" in the report and his performance is evaluated on pages 356–7. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rossini, Mark Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Federal Bureau of Investigation agents convicted of crimes Federal Bureau of Investigation misconduct Year of birth missing (living people) Living people