Tashfeen Malik

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI has discovered that Tashfeen Malik, one of the two shooters involved in the San Bernardino massacre, pledged support for Islamic jihad in at least two Facebook messages to a small group of Pakistani friends in 2012 and 2014, UPI reports. 

Investigators made the discovery while trying to determine whether they received help from anyone.

The first message was sent out before Malik received a K-1 fiancee visa in 2014 to come to the U.S.

Immigration officials don’t typically review social media posts as part of the background check.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI suspects that a Washington state man who is in federal custody for allegedly threatening to kill law enforcement officers has links to domestic terrorism, Q13 Fox reports. 

A judge on Monday refused to release Schuyler Barbeau from federal custody after he was charged with possessing an unregistered firearm.

The FBI believes he may have links to domestic terrorism because he threatened to kill police.

Barbeau has boasted on social media that he loves guns and dislikes the government.

According to a prosecutor, the former Marine told a woman, “I have guns and body armor and I am going to shoot and kill.”

The FBI also said there’s evidence that he hid explosives in the woods.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A Border Patrol supervisor who secretly videotaped his female co-workers in the bathroom was sentenced to 21 months in prison, NBC San Diego reports. 

Armando Gonzalez, 46, admitted to recording seven women in the bathroom at the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station and then lying to cover up his actions.

U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez said Gonzalez’s actions were “egregious” and “a violation of trust.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alessandra Serano urged the judge to show no mercy.

“When Armando Gonzalez put a video camera down the drain of a women’s restroom, he also put his career, his honor and his freedom down that drain,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in a statement. “This is a fitting sentence for a man who sullied his badge with such despicable behavior.”

Chief Patrol Agent Richard A. Barlow issued this statement: “The U.S. Border Patrol has cooperated fully with this investigation from the onset and we are satisfied to see the criminal justice system move swiftly to bring this case to a close. Mr. Gonzalez has tarnished the image of every Border Patrol agent who works tirelessly protecting America night and day. Border Patrol agents are held to the highest standards and we remain committed to rooting out unacceptable behavior to ensure that those who commit such acts are held accountable.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson decided in early 2014 to continue barring immigration officials from reviewing social media posts of people trying to enter the U.S. on a visa, The Hill reports. 

Johnson’s reasoning was that proponents of civil liberties would denounce checking social media and that the practice would cause “bad public relations.”

“During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process,” John Cohen, a former acting undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis, told ABC News.

But beginning in the fall of 2014, Homeland Security began vetting social media for some foreigners applying for a visa as part of a pilot program.

The news comes after the discovery that one of the San Bernardino shooters pledged allegiance to Islamic jihad on Facebook.

“Had they checked out Tashfeen Malik … maybe those people in San Bernardino would be alive,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, who supports a program for reviewing social media sites of foreigners applying for a visa.

Mescalero Apache Reservation, via Wikipedia.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The DEA and tribal officials cracked down on methamphetamine trafficking on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southern New Mexico following an 18-month investigation, filing drug charges against 34 suspects, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports. 

The sting dismantled there drug trafficking organizations and led to the seizure of more than 22 pounds of methamphetamine.

The investigation began after an increase in drug-related violent crime on the reservation of 4,000 people.

“Given the disproportionate negative impact that methamphetamine has on our tribal communities, the significance of the results of this investigation cannot be overstated,” U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez said. “More than 75 percent of law enforcement agencies that work in Indian Country identify methamphetamine as the greatest drug threat faced by tribal communities.”

A whopping 40% of the violent crimes committed on the reservation involved meth, Martinez said.

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