FBI
Pot Laws Just Become More and More Confusing
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The controversy over the legality of medical marijuana only seems to be getting more and more confusing. The Associated Press reports that James Cole, the number two person at the Justice Department, has written a memo saying state medical marijuana laws do not provide immunity from federal prosecution, and refused to…
Communication Companies Less Compliant to FBI Requests
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The FBI has not been getting the response it is used to. The Washington Post reports that, increasingly, many communications companies have not been disclosing the kind of information previously offered from FBI requests. Investigators have routinely used national security letters to get information about who sent and received e-mails and…
Devices from Minnesota Found in Iraq IEDs, Five Charged
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Radio frequency modules from a Minnesota manufacturer, after being smuggled into Iran, ended up in improvised explosive devices used against U.S. soldiers on the battlefields of Iraq, federal authorities alleged this week. Authorities in Singapore arrested Wong Yuh Lan (Wong), Lim Yong Nam (Nam), Lim Kow Seng (Seng), and Hia Soo…
Column: How the Patriot Act Stripped Me of My Free-Speech Rights
By Nicholas Merrill Washington Post Sometime in 2012, I will begin the ninth year of my life under an FBI gag order, which began when I received what is known as a national security letter at the small Internet service provider I owned. On that day in 2004 (the exact date is redacted from court…
The Ok Bombing it Ain’t; Ex-FBI Director Asked to Investigate SAT Test Security
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com As FBI Director Louie Freeh oversaw some of the biggest investigations in the nation including the Oklahoma bombing and the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Africa. Now as a private lawyer and consultant, he’s being asked to tackle a task with a little less world import. The New York Times…
Fed Law Enforcement Infiltrating Cartels in Mexico
By GINGER THOMPSON New York Times WASHINGTON — American law enforcement agencies have significantly built up networks of Mexican informants that have allowed them to secretly infiltrate some of that country’s most powerful and dangerous criminal organizations, according to security officials on both sides of the border. As the United States has opened new law…
Andrew Weissmann Named FBI’s General Counsel
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Andrew Weissmann, a private lawyer who once served as the former director of the federal government’s Enron task force, and who also previously served as FBI Director Robert S. Mueller’s special counsel, will become the FBI’s new general counsel, according to the Am Law Daily reported. The publication reports that Weissman…
Affleck and Matt Damon to Make Movie About Mobster “Whitey” Bulger
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com It was just a matter of time. Four months after the FBI captured Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in California, word has surfaced that a movie will be made based on his life. The website Deadline New York reports that actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon “are reuniting in their first…