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 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 Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Sept. 19th marked the second anniversary of the website ticklethewire.com. It’s been one interesting ride, starting up a new enterprise, trying to cover a subject I’ve had a fascination with since I started journalism. In the past two years, we’ve seen the good, the bad and very ugly. We…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — One Friday, two days after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, I was sitting at my desk at the Detroit News in downtown Detroit when I got a tip that the FBI was raiding a farmhouse in Michigan, and it had something to do with the bombing of the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON – I always marveled at the voter loyalty Rep. William J. Jefferson generated. Long after the FBI found $90,000 in marked FBI bills in his freezer in August 2005, many many people in the “Big Easy” still loved him. Apparently, Saturday there wasn’t enough of that kind of special love…
