Theresa Foley/family photo

My name is Theresa Foley and many months ago you printed a letter my Mother wrote regarding the extension of FBI Director Mueller and her thoughts as to what occurred to me on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It was a sad letter for me to read and several weeks after that I underwent a difficult surgery, thus never wrote. In the past week Mr. Ross Parker commented on the Penn State scandal, mentioning FBI Special Agent Jane Turner and all she had been through.

Mr. Michael Mason responded to this, affronted that the FBI was likened to the Penn State situation due to the reference from Ms. Turner that “It takes enormous strength to put one’s moral integrity over your personal inclination to protect fellow colleagues who have committed malfeasance, or criminal activity…It simply boils down to the fact that those in power have a stronger desire to preserve the reputation of their institution, than taking the road of truth or justice. Entities like Penn State, the Catholic Church and the FBI all share something in common; they operate in an insular world where rules or laws that apply to everyone else, do not apply to them.”

As my Mother noted, I was an FBI Agent assigned to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I was assigned out of the Washington Field Office, when Mr. Mason was ADIC (Assistant Director in Charge).

Frankly, I was disappointed in his column, but not surprised in his defense of the FBI, praising Jane Turner at the end, but disagreeing with her statement. A jury agreed with Ms. Turner, yet to this day, no individuals have ever been held accountable for what occurred with her.

Due to legal issues, I will not comment on those in leadership at the WFO who could have stepped in and obtained some justice.

Their answer, in the few meetings reportedly held regarding what occurred with me, was to tell those who spoke up for me to “back off” and to transfer me. I found the chain of command to be broken, from Guantanamo to WFO, to FBIHQ, Boston and back.

I hope they are at peace exiting those meetings with their lack of truth seeking. One does not become a leader in the FBI speaking out about bad behavior, malfeasance and criminal conduct. Once you speak out, your career is over. Quite a few can attest to this, and the trial of Jane Turner is just a small indication of what goes on once you report “bad behavior”.

I arrived on Guantanamo in the fall of 2003 full of life and whole. I left almost ten months later, never to return, ill, broken and beat down. I arrived idealistically with the idea that it was the most important assignment in the FBI due to the war on terror.

It’s understandable in such an isolated environment people do things to keep their spirits up. But it sounds like this female FBI agent feels things went too far.

By TIM HULL
Courthouse News Service
BOSTON – The first full-time female FBI agent to be stationed at Guantanamo says she was made to bunk with vermin that gave her a tropical disease and was ostracized because she refused to join in a “spring break” atmosphere in which agents were encouraged to drink, date, and frolic when not interrogating alleged terrorists.

She says FBI agents attended parties dressed in “mocking imitation of Arab or Afghan attire” and in orange detainee jumpsuits. And she says she has photos to prove it.

Theresa A. Foley, 43, requested a transfer to Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay in 2003, and says that from the moment she arrived she found a “generally sexist, discriminatory and ‘boys club’ atmosphere” at the island prison.

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