IG Report Highly Critical of FBI’s Sentinel Computer Project; FBI Calls Report Unfair

By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — A Justice Department’s Inspector General report released Wednesday sharply criticized the FBI for its handling of a yet to be completed case management system  that will convert the agency’s criminal records from paper to computers, saying it is still fraught with problems including cost overruns.  The report also expressed…

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The FBI Cheating Scandal Probe Began at the Washington Field Office With an “Anonymous Complaint”

By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — A probe into the nationwide FBI test cheating scandal cited in an Inspector General report released Monday began at the Washington field office, just blocks from the Capitol. The report, which cited widespread cheating on an open book exam nationwide, said the FBI Inspection Division in September 2009 received…

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IG Says FBI Misled Public and Congress About Surveilling Anti-War Rally in 2002

By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The FBI including the director gave inaccurate and misleading statements to Congress and the public about reasons why an agent conducted surveillance at an anti-war rally in 2002 at the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, according a report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General. The report concluded that the…

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Of 1,997 Civil Rights Complaints Against Justice Dept., Only One Investigated

By Matt Castello ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — A report released Tuesday showed that 1,997 civil rights complaints were filed against Justice Department employees during the first six months of 2010, but only one was investigated by the Inspector General’s Office. The report issued by the Justice Department’s Inspector General said 1,815 of the complaints “did not…

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FBI Backlog of DNA Cases Mounting

By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The FBI has a backlog of 3,211 forensic DNA cases, which would take two years to eliminate if there was no new staff or new cases, according to a report by the Justice Department’s Inspector General. “The forensic DNA case backlog at the FBI Laboratory can have significant effects,”…

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Inspector Gen. Reports Says Justice Dept. and Its Other Agencies (Except for FBI) Not Prepared for Weapons of Mass Destruction Attack

By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The good news is that the FBI “has taken appropriate steps to prepare to respond to a potential” weapons of mass destruction (WMD) attack, according to a just released Justice Department’s Inspector General report. Now the bad news: “We concluded that the Department of Justice as a whole and…

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FBI Has Doubled Number of Agents Assigned to Counterterrorism since 2001; Numbers Down for Criminal Matters

By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — In what really comes as no surprise, the FBI has doubled the number of agents assigned to counterterrorism since 2001. Jeff Stein of Spy Talk, a blog for the Washington Post, reports that Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine reported in fiscal 2009 “the FBI used 26 percent…

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