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The FBI agent who faced dismissal for going public with charges that the agency did not do enough to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is going back to work, his legal defense team announced this week.

The Justice Department has ordered the FBI to reinstate Robert G. Wright Jr., who is an agent in the Chicago anti-terrorism unit, said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, the Washington-based advocacy group that represented Wright.

Fitton said that the FBI was intent on firing Wright, who has been with the bureau for about 15 years, on the basis that his public criticisms of the agency were harming investigations. He had been suspended without pay since June, according to an Associated Press report.

"Certainly anything he said was not designed to thwart an investigation or to gain profit for himself," Fitton said. "His motives were pure. In the end, he is going to get his job back ... and [he] is just glad to be working with the FBI."

According to Fitton, Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis on Oct. 12 rejected the FBI's proposal to terminate Wright.

The FBI declined to comment on the case.

Wright in May 2002 criticized the FBI's lack of modern computer technology.

Alleging that FBI management "intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed" his attempts to single out terrorists and their financial backers, Wright said that the agency was not able to protect the country from terrorist attacks.

"Knowing what I know, I can confidently say that until the investigative responsibilities for terrorism are transferred from the FBI, I will not feel safe," he said at the time.

He held a press conference in 2003 that led to an investigation, the AP reported. The FBI filed disciplinary charges against him alleging unprofessional conduct, insubordination and speaking to the media without agency approval, according to the wire service report.

Fast Lane

A Customs and Border Protection inspector earlier this month pleaded guilty to charges of drug trafficking and money laundering after he allowed thousands of pounds of marijuana across the southern border, federal prosecutors announced.

Lizandro Martinez, 44, will forfeit three properties and 15 vehicles he purchased with the drug money he received between March 2002 and October 2004 at the Progresso, Texas, entry port, according to prosecutors. An Internal Revenue Service investigation turned up more than $525,000 in unexplained cash expenditures by Martinez in 2003 and almost $225,000 in 2004, the prosecutors said.

In his scheme to allow multiple vehicles through his inspection lane in exchange for a fee, Martinez would temporarily disable the license plate reader, blocking any record of a vehicle's entry into the country, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas said.

Martinez will resign from his position with CBP. He also faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years for his trafficking conviction, and could be fined as much as $4 million for the drug smuggling. In addition, Martinez could receive up to 20 years in prison and substantial fines for the money laundering conviction.

Also pleading guilty in the scheme was Roberto Dominguez, 44, who admitted that he paid Martinez for allowing the smuggling. He also confessed to driving his vehicle through Martinez's inspection lane at least six times between October 2003 and October 2004.

Dominguez would drive the lead vehicle and would give Martinez a signal to allow the vehicles containing the drugs to pass through without an inspection, the attorney's office said. The drugs would then be driven to a staging area where they would be transferred to other vehicles and stashed in houses throughout the upper Rio Grande Valley.

About 4,300 kilograms of marijuana were seized in connection with the investigation.

Dominquez faces the same sentencing guidelines as Martinez when they are sentenced on Jan. 5, 2006.

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