By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda and its associates may not be known as benevolent organizations, but they do give gifts. The failed “Underwear Bomber”. The failed “Times Square Bomber”. The failed “Shoe Bomber”. And now the failed attempt to deliver explosives on planes. All gifts. The U.S. should be grateful for these…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — President Obama is a busy guy with a lot of worries. So he might be excused when he commits a little Washington faux pas as he did last week during a town hall meeting with young people. While discussing “federal drug enforcement”, he mentioned the Justice Department and FBI,…
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com “Say it ain’t so, Rocket.” (“Say it ain’t so, Joe.” Reported words of a young fan to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the Black Sox gambling scandal.) Roger Clemens may have lied under oath in front of a Congressional committee regarding the use of steroids during his baseball career, but so what?…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The FBI may be the nation’s premiere law enforcement agency — with a worldwide reputation — but in the end it’s made up of humans. And yes, humans do screw up. Over the years, we saw a drunk agent shoot up a freezer at a Las Vegas hotel. We…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Every young lawyer remembers the guy who gave him his first real job. For me and some others, it was a mark of distinction that that guy was Jim Robinson. His death last Friday from cancer evokes a painful loss but also many happy memories about a man who was one…
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com It was February, 1980 in Detroit. I was assigned to the FBI surveillance squad (with apologies to Jack Webb and his introductions to “Dragnet”). It was very cold in the back of the van. We hadn’t yet installed a heater that would work when the van wasn’t running. I had been…
“The Secrets of Abu Ghraib Revealed—American Soldiers on Trial” by Christopher Graveline and Michael Clemens. The book is available at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and Borders books. By Ross Parker An acquaintance from another country recently posed a question to me: How is it that such an idealistic country as America, whose people are willing to sacrifice…
I joined the Detroit FBI surveillance squad in 1977. Two years later, on June 11, 1979 , we witnessed an event- its historical significance and ramifications would not be clear until many years later. But before I get to that, a little history. In the early 1970s, the FBI’s Detroit Field Office established the FBI’s…
