By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III visited Pakistan Wednesday, the country where Osama bin Laden took refuge and was killed by the American military in May, the Associated Press reported. The visit comes as tension mounts over the U.S. demands that Pakistan crack down on Afghan militants hiding out in Pakistan,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Terracotta plaques and other ancient artifacts stolen in Iraq by defense contractors in 2004 were returned Thursday by the FBI to the Iraqi government in a ceremony at the Iraqi Cultural Center in Washington. The FBI said it seized the invaluable items during a 2006 investigation. The items included two pottery…
By Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writer WASHINGTON — On Sept. 11, 2001, the core of al-Qaeda was concentrated in a single city: Karachi, Pakistan. At a hospital, the accused mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole was recovering from a tonsillectomy. Nearby, the alleged organizer of the 2002 bombing in Bali, Indonesia, was…
OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST Napolitano Applauds Review of Air Traffic Safety (AP) Police Look at How Houston Kindergartner Got Gun (AP) Blago Trial to Begin Wednesday With Jury Questions (AP) CIA Declassifies World War II Documents (AP) New Kidnap Fear (The Daily) Justice Dept.’s Breuer Trumpets $2.9 Billion Fraud Conviction (Main Justice) Las Vegas Man…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Two former Blackwater employees have been convicted in federal court in of involuntary manslaughter while working Afghanistan in 2009. Justin Cannon, 27, of Corpus Christi, Tex. and Christopher Drotleff, 29, of Virginia Beach, Va., were convicted Friday in Norfolk U.S. District Court. Both were working for Blackwater as contractors for the…
By Mark Mazzetti New York Times WASHINGTON — Not long after the Pentagon severed its relationship with a private spy network operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the F.B.I. quietly began tapping the same group to help investigate the killing of 10 medical aid workers in northern Afghanistan, according to American officials and private contractors. The…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced over the weekend that her agency plans to add up to 54 agents in the coming year to Afghanistan to compliment the current lot of 25, the Washington Post reported. The announcement came during Napolitano’s two-day visit to Afghanistan. The added agents will help…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Controversial and seldom-at-a-loss-for-words filmmaker Michael Moore is stepping into the fray and defending WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — and putting up money too. In a statement posted on his website Tuesday morning, Moore wrote: “Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to…
