FBI Director James Comey

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

FBI Director James Comey met with about 40 local law enforcement leaders over lunch Tuesday before participating in a ribbon-cutting to announce the opening of a new headquarters for the FBI’s Boston field office in Chelsea.

The office, which covers Massachusetts, Main, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, sits on 5.1 acres and will be 220,000 square feet, eight stories and cost $100,000 to build.

Although Comey didn’t field questions from reporters, Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Boston, said the director talked about drug trafficking, terrorism and gang violence. Comey sought to build a working relationship with other law enforcement agencies, the Boston Globe reports. 

“They were very insightful, the discussions about what’s concerning them most,” said Shaw.

Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes, who is head of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police Association, said he’s encouraged by the enhanced level of partnership between the FBI and local police.

“The FBI has been incredibly supportive of local police in terms of these issues as they pertain to gang violence, drugs, bank robberies, white collar crime and certainly terrorism,” Kyes said.

CIA headquarters

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI is poised to take a major role in determining the identity of the person who gave a trove of CIA documents to WikiLeaks.

The latest leak raises questions about the intelligence community’s ability to keep digital records from getting released to the public.

Army private Chelsea Manning and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were among the latest to leak secret documents.

“Anybody who thinks that the Manning and Snowden problems were one-offs is just dead wrong,’’ Joel Brenner, former head of U.S. counterintelligence at the office of the Director of National Intelligence, told the Washington Post. “Ben Franklin said three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. If secrets are shared on systems in which thousands of people have access to them, that may really not be a secret anymore. This problem is not going away, and it’s a condition of our existence.’’

The FBI and CIA have declined to comment.

If the documents’ are verified, authorities must then determine who had access to the documents.

WikiLeaks suggested the source was a former government employee or contractor.

“This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA,’’ WikiLeaks said in announcing the first release of documents. “The archive appears to have been circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.’’

Donald Trump, via Wikipedia

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

President Trump made several unsubstantiated claims that then-President Obama ordered surveillance at Trump Tower in New York during the election.

Turns out, Trump has not spoken with FBI Director James Comey to back up the claims.

Comey has already rejected the allegation and wanted the Justice Department to reveal that no such surveillance occurred under his watch.

At a media briefing Tuesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the president wants Congress to investigate the allegations.

“The House and Senate intelligence committee have the staff and the capabilities and the processes in place to look at this in a way that’s objective, and that’s where it should be done,” Spicer said.

Why not talk to the FBI director?

Spicer responded, “It’s a no-win situation” because it could be perceived as the president interfering with the investigation.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

As the House Intelligence Committee prepares for it first public hearing on the investigation into alleged ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign team, lawmakers have asked FBI Director James Comey to testify.

Also invited to attend the March 20 hearing were National Security Agency chief Mike Rogers, former director of national intelligence James Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, former acting attorney general Sally Yates and two executives from CrowdStrike Inc., a cybersecurity company, the Boston Globe reports. 

The Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting a separate investigation into the Russia allegations. 

Santiago Contreras, police photo

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A former Border Patrol agent accused of trying to arrange sexual encounters with two girls pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Salvador Contreras faces up to life in prison on charges of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, the Associated Press reports. 

The 50-year-old resigned from his position as a senior Border Patrol agent in Del Rio following his arrest in December.

Authorities said Contreras was busted in an online sting in which an undercover officer posed as a woman who had two daughters, ages 8 and 14, available for sex.

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