Editors Note: In a story ticklethewire.com published on March 31, ex-ATF official Bernie La Forest said it was a mistake for the head of ATF, Ken Melson, to remain silent and not cooperate with Congressional inquiries into gun walking programs that encouraged straw purchasers to buy guns — all with the hopes of ATF tracing…
By John Solomon and Aaron Mehta Center for Public Integrity WASHINGTON — A once-classified FBI memo reveals that the bureau treated a senior ABC News journalist as a potential confidential informant in the 1990s, pumping the reporter to ascertain the source of a sensational but uncorroborated tip that the network had obtained during its early…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Michelle Ann Jupina, the deputy assistant director for operations support in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, has been named assistant director of the agency’s Records Management Division at headquarters. Prior to her stint at headquarters, Jupina served for two years as special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office’s…
By Allan Lengel For AOL News WASHINGTON — In the film “Take the Money and Run,” Woody Allen played a bumbling, publicity-starved petty criminal named Virgil Starkwell. “You know he never made the Ten Most Wanted list,” Starkwell’s wife, Louise, lamented in the 1969 comedy. “It’s very unfair voting. It’s who you know.” As Allen’s…
By The New York Times Editorial Page Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. described a federal court trial for the self-professed mastermind of Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, as ”the defining event of my time as attorney general.” On Monday, Mr. Holder’s dream for demonstrating the power of the American court system crumbled…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Ex-FBI agent Thomas R. Stutler, a newly minted author, says he likes fiction readers to get a sense authors know what they’re talking about. “My goal when writing fiction is always to make sure the reader can tell the book was written by somebody who was in the game… Every sentence,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Signs of concern about a backlash from the U.S. actions in Libya are surfacing. Devlin Barrett of the Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI has started questioning Libyans in the U.S. to look “Libyan-backed spies or terrorists, and collect any information that might help allied military operations.” The…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — An FBI employee at headquarters is being accused by two Voice of America journalists in Washington of road rage that included intentionally striking them with her car and carrying one a short distance on her hood, the Washington Examiner reports. The paper reports that a lawsuit filed Monday by…
