Interview: Cynthia Cooper, Sherron Watkins, Coleen Rowley

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WATKINS: I think the ultimate distraction is a darling 3-year-old. You come home, and you almost have to put that away because they're wanting books read, games played.

COOPER: Just to get home and hug my girls and my husband. We have strong support systems at home with our families.

WATKINS: When Congress leaked my memos and it was all over the news, we would be watching, and Marion [her 3-year-old daughter] was getting so bored with it. My husband said we wanted to watch the news, and she piped up, "Well, how about some Elmo news?"

TIME: Were you aware of one another, reading about one another?

ROWLEY: I'm not usually focused on business, but when their news broke, I read that and saw some encouragement. The same reason I wrote the letter was the reason for WorldCom and Enron. I thought, Oh, gosh, there's someone doing the right thing.

WATKINS: I think it's uncanny what similar stories we have.

ROWLEY: [Addressing Watkins] Whenever you talk, I think, Oh, my gosh, great. She's saying what I think. [Rowley stands up and pounds her fist into her palm as she says this.]

WATKINS: It's disheartening to see that the FBI has as many problems as corporate America. In this country, we have a vacuum in leadership. We value the wrong people. Warren Buffett is boring, and he doesn't give too many interviews, but he didn't invest in tech stocks because he didn't understand how they made money. He was right. But we value splashy leaders.

COOPER: People who move to the top are typically racehorses, not workhorses. And they're very charismatic.

WATKINS: And the dark side of charisma is narcissism.

TIME: Let's talk about the word whistle-blower. Why don't any of you like it?

ROWLEY: I hate the term whistle-blower.

COOPER: In elementary school, kids are called tattletales. It has a negative connotation.

TIME: What was the reaction to you in the workplace and on the street?

ROWLEY: Even in my [Minneapolis field] office, with quite a bit of support, still a lot of people are looking at me like, What the heck?

COOPER: You're going to have people who are supportive, and you're going to have people who take shots. All that is part of it.

WATKINS: In January and February there were hundreds of e-mails, voice-mails, letters from the Enron rank-and-file employees. There was a sense of overwhelming relief because they had thought the top executives would get away with it. People were high-fiving; they were pumped. Now no one recognizes me.

ROWLEY: In Minnesota, people get over these things really fast. It's over. This fame thing is greatly overrated.