No Backup: A Female Agent’s Life in the FBI

Rosemary Dew, who earned the title of Special Agent of the FBI, was recipient of eight commendations from FBI directors, and was the seventh woman to be named supervisor at FBI headquarters, has opened up the files on the agency and reveals a broken organization rife with discriminatory practices. Dew worked undercover against criminals, spies, and terrorists. She supervised the bureau’s international response to the Achille Lauro hijacking and signed the arrest warrant for Abu Abbas. Yet for all her accomplishments, Rosemary Dew remained a “female” agent first and “special” agent second, treated with disdain, sexually harassed, and denied the opportunities and privileges of male agents. In her memoir, Dew relives her FBI life from the training academy to the most sensitive missions of national security. As her tale unfolds, so do the FBI’s many problems, one of them being the bureau’s persistent lack of cooperation with other investigative agencies — an attitude instilled from its inception by J. Edgar Hoover. Special Agent Dew views the FBI as a dysfunctional family where those who don’t fit the Hoover mold are not welcome. In No Backup, Dew makes a powerful call for change and lays out a blueprint for FBI reform.