Bassem Youssef, a Supervisory Special Agent with the FBI, will be speaking at the American Library Association (ALA) conference in Philadelphia on Saturday, January 12th. Mr. Youssef (pictured at right with former FBI director Louis Freeh) is a whistleblower who exposed major shortcomings in the Bureau’s conterterrorism efforts, including the fact that top counterterrorism officials have no knowledge of even the most elementary details regarding the Muslim religion or terrorist ideology (See Jon Stewart’s hilarious "Daily Show" segment, featuring information from Mr. Youssef’s case).
Mr. Youssef is slated to address the ALA about the FBI’s use of "National Security Letters" to obtain phone records of Americans without a warrant. The NSL debacle was reported in the Washington Post earlier this year. Mr. Youssef will also speak about his experiences as a whistleblower.
The ALA has long been a champion for civil liberties, privacy and intellectual freedom.
- The presentation will be videorecorded, and we will post the video as soon as it becomes available.
- See more detailed information about Mr. Youssef’s case at the National Whistleblower Center’s "Inside the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division" webpage.