By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com To the FBI, the White House, the CIA and the American people, FBI agent Robert Hanssen was nothing more than a traitor, a Russian spy who did some serious damage to national security in exchange for diamonds and cash worth $600,000. But in the real estate world, his name means little….
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Rep. Peter King is busting the chops of the Justice Department, claiming the department overruled fed prosecutors and FBI agents who wanted to file charges against unindicted co-conspirators in a prosecution of a Texas-based Muslim charity — the Holy Land Foundation — which had ties to Hamas in Gaza, the Washington…
By Jim Popkin WIRED The clatter of helicopter blades echoed across the jungles of northwestern Ecuador. Antinarcotics commandos in three choppers peered at the mangroves below, scanning for any sign of activity. The police had received a tip that a gang of Colombian drug smugglers had set up a clandestine work site here, in a…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com With just days to go before his retrial, ex-Ill. Gov Rod Blagojevich is still speaking his mind. No surprise. The chatty ex-Gov. told the Associated Press Saturday he never considered a plea deal with federal prosecutors. The retrial is set to begin Wednesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Chicago. “There…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The dedication won’t right the tragedy, but it’s still pretty nice. Friends and family gathered Saturday to dedicate a 1.3 acre park in the Queen Anne section of Seattle to assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Wales, who was murdered while he worked in his basement in Seattle 10 years ago, according to…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Threatening to kill Col. Sanders of KFC fame is almost as bad as threatening Santa Claus — at least for those of us who grew up on the 11 herbs and spices. We last reported that the FBI opened a file on the legend after he asked for an autograph from…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Some conservative politicians — mostly Republicans but some Dems — are beating their chest over pornography. The politicians including Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) signed a letter earlier this month that was sent to Attorney Gen. Eric Holder Jr. complaining about the Justice Department shuttering its Obscenity Prosecution Task Force. The unit…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The radical Jewish Defense League plotted to extort money from rappers including Tupac Shakur by threatening them, then offering them protection for a fee, recently released FBI records reveal. Others who were targets of the plot included Eric Wright aka “EAZY-E” of Ruthless Records, who who died of AIDS, the FBI…
