By The Portland Tribune Editorial PORTLAND, Ore. — In 2005 the Portland City Council voted to pull out of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force – leaving not only Portland, but also the region, with a void of local engagement in investigating and preventing acts of terrorism. That absence should end this week as the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The FBI wasn’t saying much last week about the suicide of an FBI agent, who shot himself in the Portland, Maine area over the weekend of April 24, according to sources. The agent was in his early 50s, one source said. FBI agent Greg Comcowich, a spokesman for the Boston FBI…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The mayor of Portland, Ore., wants his police officers to rejoin the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force — sort of. He’s offering up conditions some like. Others see them as being far too restrictive. As you recall, the city pulled its cops out of the JTTF in 2005, citing concerns about…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The FBI knows about good public relations. Portland, Ore., is a case in point. The TV station FOX 12 in Portland reports that FBI agents showed up to a Portland Trailblazer basketball practice in suburban Portland this week to reach out to player Gerald Wallace, 28, as a potential recruit and…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Despite all the advances, human error can still trump modern technology. The Portland Oregonian reports that the FBI’s efforts last July to record Mohamed Mohamud first talking about taking part in a terrorist bombing plot in Portland failed because the tape recorder went dead. “Put simply,” the government wrote in court…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The Justice Department is fighting back attempts by defense attorneys to muzzle Attorney Gen. Eric Holder Jr. and other government workers when it comes to pre-trial comments in the terrorism case involving a teen who tried to detonate a bomb in Portland during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in December. It…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com In response to a string of FBI stings around the country involving terrorist suspects, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III on Wednesday defended the tactic, calling it “absolutely essential” to public safety, according to the Associated Press. “We have been tremendously successful in thwarting attacks,” Mueller said at a news conference…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The year 2010 was full of almost-disastrous terrorist acts from the Times Square Bomber to the the Portland teen who tried to detonate a car bomb during a Christmas-lighting ceremony in Oregon, only to find out it was an FBI sting. Not everyone agreed with the FBI tactics when…
