By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A federal appeals court is expected to decide soon whether the FBI’s “national security letters” are constitutional, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The letters are a demand for customer information in terrorism-related cases, allowing the FBI to obtain information without a warrant. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A TSA officer is under fire after being accused of secretly videotaping a female coworker in an employee restroom at the Nashville International Airport, WJRN reports. Daniel Boykin, 33, of Murfreesboro also is accused of entering the victim’s Nashville home several times to take information from her computers and electronic devices….
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI has prohibited local and state police from discussing the capabilities of surveillance technology that enables law enforcement to eavesdrop on cell phone calls, the Washington Post reports. A letter obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the FBI requires police departments to sign a “non-disclosure agreement” before…
By Kathleen Kingsbury Boston Globe Last Friday, a man with a knife was able to jump the White House fence on Pennsylvania Avenue and make his way into the president’s residence. The intruder allegedly had more than 800 rounds of ammunition in his car, a federal prosecutor said on Monday. In response, the Secret Service…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Border Patrol agents are finding success with surveillance balloons that hover high above the Rio Grande and can zoom in on a license plate from miles away, the Valley Morning Star reports. Border Patrol officials said more balloons are possible to keep more eyes in the sky. The balloons are stationed…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The militarization of local law enforcement has become a hot button topic since police in Ferguson employed their weapons during the recent protests, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. What’s not getting as much attention is surveillance equipment that some police forces are getting from federal law enforcement. In Tacoma, Wash., police were using…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The federal government has been spying on law-abiding Muslim Americans, according to the latest documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The Intercept reports that new documents show the targets of the surveillance included lawyers, academics, civil rights activists, and a political candidate who “have all led highly public, outwardly exemplary…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Beloved folk singer Pete Seeger was subject to secret FBI and CIA surveillance since the 1940s and was even blacklisted for his political beliefs in the McCarthy era. Since Seeger’s death in January at the age of 94, the National Archives and Records Administration has been preparing to release thousands of investigative…
