FBI Agent Alleges Moussaoui Roadblocks

WASHINGTON (AP) - An FBI agent has accused Washington headquarters of mounting a ``roadblock'' to the pre-Sept. 11 investigation of terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. The rare letter immediately prompted an internal investigation.

Agent Coleen Rowley, a lawyer in the Minnesota office that arrested Moussaoui last August, divulged in her letter that local agents became so frustrated with FBI headquarters that they sought to break from their chain of command and notify the CIA.

The local agents were reprimanded for trying, she alleged.

``When, in a desperate 11th-hour measure to bypass the FBI HQ roadblock, the Minneapolis division undertook to directly notify the CIA's counterterrorist center, FBI HQ personnel chastised the Minneapolis agents for making the direct notification without their approval,'' she wrote in the 13-page letter, excerpts of which were obtained by The Associated Press.

Government officials familiar with her letter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agent alleged FBI headquarters did not fully appreciate the terrorist threat Moussaoui posed and hindered local agent's efforts to get warrants to gather more evidence.