How a former FBI whistleblower connects U.S. “forever wars” to rising violence at home — and why Dearborn should be part of this conversation.
For many Americans, Coleen Rowley is a name from a different political era: the post-9/11 years, when a quiet FBI lawyer from Minneapolis broke ranks to expose how the Bureau mishandled key intelligence before the attacks. That courage made her a whistleblower, a truth-teller in the middle of the security state — and one of TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2002.[1]Wikipedia+1
Two decades later, Rowley is still sounding alarms. But now her warning is not just about what the U.S. does “over there.” It’s about what those wars have done — and are doing — to us here at home.
In a series of powerful essays, including “US Wars Come Home to Roost,” “Mass Killings Migrate Home,” and “Dad Went to War Last Night,” Rowley argues that the United States’ militarized foreign policy is directly linked to the rise of domestic extremism, mass shootings, and political violence on our own streets.[2][3][4]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive+2Wings of Change+2
Dearborn, a community that knows the costs of war and surveillance more intimately than most, has every reason to listen.
And soon, we will. Dearborn Blog will be hosting an upcoming webinar with Coleen Rowley to dig into these questions directly — from the perspective of a former FBI insider who now stands firmly with antiwar, pro-civil liberties, and pro-human rights movements. Details will be announced shortly on Dearborn Blog and our social media channels.
Who is Coleen Rowley?
Coleen Rowley spent 24 years as a special agent with the FBI, serving in multiple field offices before becoming the Minneapolis Division’s chief legal counsel.[1][5]Wikipedia+1 She taught constitutional law to agents and oversaw key programs on victims’ rights, forfeiture, and community outreach.
After 9/11, she wrote a 13-page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller explaining how FBI headquarters had blocked and mishandled the Minneapolis office’s urgent concerns about Zacarias Moussaoui — concerns that could have helped disrupt the 9/11 plot.[1][6]Wikipedia+1
That memo led to congressional investigations, internal reviews, and eventually her public testimony. For exposing the truth about institutional failure inside one of the most powerful agencies in the country, Rowley was named one of TIME’s three “Persons of the Year” in 2002, alongside Enron and WorldCom whistleblowers Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper.[1][7]Wikipedia+1
Instead of retiring quietly, Rowley turned that experience into a broader critique of U.S. militarism and secrecy. She opposed the Iraq War early and publicly, warning in a 2003 letter — later published by The New York Times — that launching an illegal invasion would not make Americans safer.[3][8]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive+1
Today, she is an attorney, peace activist, member of Women Against Military Madness, and part of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a network of former intelligence and national security officials who challenge official narratives and endless war.[3][9]Wings of Change+1
In other words: this is someone who knows the security state from the inside and chose conscience over career.
“US Wars Come Home to Roost”: Blowback in Real Time
In her 2021 piece “US Wars Come Home to Roost,” originally published in Consortium News and archived by the United National Antiwar Coalition, Rowley lays out the case that America’s “forever wars” are not just morally catastrophic abroad — they are boomeranging back into our own neighborhoods.[2]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive
She starts in the shadow of January 6 and the toxic polarization around the 2020 election, noting the predictable mix of civil unrest, unprecedented gun sales, and spikes in deadly violence.[2]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive
Then she hits the central point:
Our “perpetual wars” abroad have “finally and fully boomeranged back home.”[2]
Rowley highlights research showing that military veterans are dramatically over-represented among the perpetrators of the worst mass killings in the United States. In one study she cites, veterans made up about 13% of the adult population but more than a third of the perpetrators of 43 major mass killings since 1984.[2][3]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive+1
She connects this pattern to specific cases:
- Timothy McVeigh, decorated Gulf War veteran and Oklahoma City bomber.
- John Muhammad, the “D.C. Sniper,” also a decorated Army sergeant.
- Multiple recent cases in which veterans or active-duty personnel carried out mass shootings or plots to spark civil conflict.[2]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive
Rowley’s argument is not that all veterans are dangerous. In fact, she’s careful to note the psychological and moral injury inflicted on people trained and ordered to kill — and then tossed back into a society that thanks them with slogans but rarely offers real support.[2]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive
Her deeper claim is about systems:
- A foreign policy built on illegal wars of choice.
- A military culture that has spent decades perfecting “killology” — training to overcome our natural reluctance to kill.[2]
- A media and entertainment machine that glorifies war, snipers, and “regenerative violence.”[2][3]
That combination, she argues, doesn’t stay contained to far-away battlefields. It shapes policing at home, fuels paramilitary fantasies, feeds extremist groups, and helps create the conditions in which some people — often already struggling with despair or alienation — turn their own communities into war zones.[2][3]Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive+1
“Mass Killings Migrate Home”: Militarism in the Air We Breathe
In her 2025 article “Mass Killings Migrate Home,” published via the Wings of Change platform, Rowley goes even further.[3]Wings of Change
She starts with a blunt question: How long can we pretend the epidemic of mass shootings is unrelated to the culture of permanent war the United States has built since 9/11?
Rowley cites the work of anthropologist Hugh Gusterson, who noted years ago that military veterans are disproportionately represented among mass killers — and that U.S. society has largely refused to talk about why.[3]
She also highlights research by peace activist David Swanson, who reviewed public data and found that roughly 31% to 36% of U.S. mass shooters had been trained by the U.S. military, a share likely understated by incomplete reporting.[3]Wings of Change <div style=”border-left:4px solid #999; padding:0.75em 1em; margin:1.5em 0; font-style:italic;”> In estimates Rowley cites, roughly one-third of U.S. mass shooters appear to have been trained by the U.S. military — far above veterans’ share of the general population.[3] </div>
But the problem, she insists, is not just who pulls the trigger. It’s the culture:
- Video games and entertainment that normalize killing as sport and recruitment tool.
- Hollywood films that glorify “American snipers” and covert warriors.
- Media rituals — stadium flyovers, constant “thank you for your service” messaging — that sacralize war while rarely grappling with the human cost on any side.
- Police departments adopting “warrior training,” buying armored vehicles, and in some cases even training with the Israeli military, importing occupation logic into U.S. streets.[3]Wings of Change+1
Rowley calls this sprawling complex the “Military Industrial Congressional Intelligence Media Academia Think Tank” system — MICIMATT for short. It’s not just the classic “military-industrial complex” Eisenhower warned about; it’s an ecosystem that runs through politics, universities, media, and tech.[3]
In that environment, she argues, it’s not surprising that more people — veterans and civilians alike — internalize the idea that “war” is a legitimate personal solution: to feelings of humiliation, loss, rage, or political grievance.[3]
The result is the grim pattern we now see: mass shootings at schools, churches, concerts, workplaces, and shopping centers; extremist plots; and a political culture increasingly comfortable with the language of annihilating enemies rather than living with neighbors.
“Dad Went to War Last Night”: When the Front Line is Your Front Door
In her July 2025 Substack essay “Dad Went to War Last Night,” Rowley brings the issue painfully close to home — literally.[4]coleenrowley871729.substack.com
She describes a chilling case in Minnesota: a 57-year-old man, disguised as a police officer, allegedly attempted to assassinate top Democratic state legislators Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman (and their families) at their homes in the middle of the night. The suspect reportedly had a longer list of officials he intended to target.[4]
For Minnesotans who pride themselves on “Minnesota Nice,” these attacks were quickly labeled “unthinkable.” Rowley’s response: Not if you’ve been paying attention.
She traces how:
- Decades of war propaganda — from Iraq to Afghanistan to the U.S.-backed assault on Palestinians — have normalized mass killing so thoroughly that many Americans barely flinch.[4]
- Pop culture moments like audiences cheering an “American Sniper” scene where a mother and child are shot in Iraq reveal how far this desensitization has gone.[4]
- Social psychology research (Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo) has long shown how ordinary people can be pushed into extreme cruelty through conformity, authority, and dehumanization.[4]
At one point, Rowley writes that Americans have been “indoctrinated to believe in ‘regenerative violence’” — the idea that violence can purify, cleanse, or solve deep problems.[3][4]Wings of Change+1
The Minnesota shooter, she notes, had long been obsessed with “military stuff,” play-acting war roles and fantasizing about security work. In a culture saturated with “war fever,” she argues, that kind of fantasy has plenty of fuel.[4]
Her conclusion echoes the warning she gave Mueller before the Iraq War: when a society embraces killing millions of foreign civilians as a legitimate policy tool, it becomes dangerously easy for some of its own citizens to see domestic murder as an acceptable answer to their personal or political frustrations.[3][4]
The line between “over there” and “right here” dissolves.
Why This Matters in Dearborn
Dearborn is not some neutral observer to these dynamics.
Our community is home to one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the United States. We have family in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and beyond. Many of us have spent decades watching U.S. wars and sanctions devastate the places we come from — while also living under surveillance, racial profiling, and national-security rhetoric here at home.
We know what it means when militarism abroad and repression at home feed off each other. We’ve seen:
- Federal agencies tie “security” to spying on mosques and Arab-American organizations.
- Media narratives that paint entire communities as potential threats.
- Local and state law enforcement turning protest, especially for Palestine, into something to be monitored and contained instead of heard and respected.
From a Green-aligned, justice-oriented perspective, Rowley’s work lines up with what many in Dearborn have been saying for years:
- You can’t separate climate justice, economic justice, and antiwar politics. The same system that funds endless wars instead of green jobs also arms police instead of investing in housing, healthcare, and schools.
- You can’t pretend U.S. policy in Gaza, Iraq, or Afghanistan is disconnected from white supremacist and authoritarian violence at home. It’s the same pipeline of dehumanization.
- You can’t build real safety on top of occupation, drone strikes, and proxy wars. Real safety requires demilitarization, diplomacy, and solidarity across borders — including solidarity with Palestine.
Rowley’s perspective is especially powerful because it comes from inside the system most people are taught never to question: the FBI, the intelligence world, and the culture of “national security.”
When someone who once lived in that world now stands with whistleblowers, antiwar veterans, Palestinian rights advocates, and grassroots movements, it cracks open space for deeper conversation — the kind we urgently need in places like Dearborn.
An Upcoming Conversation: Webinar with Coleen Rowley
Dearborn Blog is honored to be organizing an upcoming webinar with Coleen Rowley.
The event will explore themes including:
- How U.S. wars and occupations create “blowback” in the form of domestic extremism, mass shootings, and political violence.
- The role of the FBI and other agencies in both fueling and responding to this dynamic.
- How communities like Dearborn — heavily targeted by national-security policies yet deeply committed to peace and justice — can organize for demilitarization, from Gaza to our own neighborhoods.
- What a truly peaceful, Green, and human-centered security vision might look like, beyond the endless-war model defended in Washington.
Details on date, time, and registration will be posted on Dearborn Blog and our social media channels soon. We encourage students, organizers, faith leaders, veterans, and anyone concerned about violence — here and abroad — to join.
Dearborn has always been a city where global issues feel local. Listening to voices like Coleen Rowley’s helps us connect the dots — and strengthens our ability to build a future where our safety does not depend on anyone else’s subjugation.
Sources
[1] “Coleen Rowley,” Wikipedia (biographical overview, FBI career, Time Person of the Year, whistleblowing role).Wikipedia
[2] Coleen Rowley, “US Wars Come Home to Roost,” originally published in Consortium News, July 8, 2021; full text archived by United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC).Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad Archive
[3] Coleen Rowley, “Mass Killings Migrate Home,” Women Against Military Madness Newsletter / Wings of Change, Vol. 43, No. 1, Winter 2025.Wings of Change
[4] Coleen Rowley, “Dad Went to War Last Night — Exponential Increase in Domestic Terrorism Reaches ‘Minnesota Nice’,” Substack, July 1, 2025.coleenrowley871729.substack.com
[5] “Major Danny Sjursen & Coleen Rowley,” University of Iowa lecture bio (education, FBI service, legal counsel role, whistleblowing after 9/11).University Lecture Committee
[6] U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, “A Review of the FBI’s Handling of Intelligence Information Prior to the September 11 Attacks” (discussion of Rowley’s May 2002 letter to Director Mueller).DOJ Inspector General
[7] Amanda Ripley & Maggie Sieger, “Coleen Rowley: The Special Agent,” TIME Person of the Year coverage, December 2002.TIME
[8] ExposeFacts Advisory Board bio for Coleen Rowley (summary of 2002 memo, 2003 letter opposing Iraq War, whistleblowing context).ExposeFacts
[9] “Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity,” Wikipedia (membership list including Coleen Rowley as of 2024).Wikipedia
Disclaimer
This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed here reflect the analysis of the author and the cited sources and do not necessarily represent the official position of Dearborn Blog, its staff, or its partners. All efforts have been made to use reliable, publicly available sources, but information may change over time, and readers are encouraged to review the original materials and think critically for themselves.
Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice, security advice, or a call for any form of violence. Dearborn Blog rejects hatred, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of bigotry, and supports peaceful, democratic organizing for justice and human rights for all, including Palestinians and all communities affected by war.
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