Steve Neavling

A division of the Department of Homeland Security spied and kept records on the Occupy Wall Street protests, even when they were peaceful the Huffington Post reports.

More than 250 records obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund show the federal government was keeping close tabs on protesters.

“Taken together, the two sets of documents paint a disturbing picture of federal law enforcement agencies using their vast power in a systematic effort to surveil and disrupt peaceful demonstrations,” Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, said in a statement. “The federal agencies’ actions were not because Occupy represented a ‘terrorist threat’ or a ‘criminal threat,’ but rather because it posed a significant grassroots political challenge to the status quo.”

The department was watching demonstrations in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Denver, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis and Tampa, Fla.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Washington Man Indicted on Federal Hate Crime Charge for Allegedly Assaulting Sikh
• Feds End Taser Investigation in Orange County After 6-Year Investigation
• Man Accused of Killing ATF Agent Is Charged with Capital Murder
• Immigration Bill Could Be Held Hostage by Border Security Quandary
• ICE Raid Results in 16 Arrests at Phoenix Apartment Building

Steve Neavling

A month before Sami Samir Hassoun placed what he thought was a bomb near Wrigley Field in Chicago in 2010, the FBI worried the undercover informant had entrapped the suspect and warned the informant to back off, the Associated Press reports.

The AP wrote that Hassoun’s defense attorney disclosed the information in hopes of convincing a judge to order prosecutors to hand over more details on the informant, including how much he was paid.  

The informant was a key witness in the prosecution of Hassoun, who is scheduled to be sentenced on April 12.

FBI notes from March 2012 indicate that agents were worried the informant “is or is close to committing entrapment with Sami.” The informant was taken aside “and it was emphasized not to encourage Sami to get involved in illegal activity,” the AP reported.

The case is under review.

Steve  Neavling

 A brazen jail escapee was arrested in Chicago Thursday without incident but a fellow inmate remains at large, the Huffington Post reports.

Joseph “Jose” Banks, 37, and Kenneth Conley made a daring escape from a high-rise jail in Chicago and hopped a taxi shortly before 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Local police and agents from the Chicago FBI’s Violent Task Force tracked down Banks at 11:30 p.m. but are still on the hunt for Conley, 38, the Huffington Post reports.

Both are serving time for bank robberies.

Steve Neavling

The former head of the FBI office in San Antonio has been named special agent in charge of the Chicago office, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The FBI is expected to announce the appointment of Cory B. Nelson this week.

Nelson will replace retiring Robert Grant, who headed the Chicago office for 7 years.

A 21-year veteran of the FBI, Nelson was in charge of the San Antonio office for two years before taking a post at FBI headquarters in Washington earlier this year, the Tribune wrote.

Nelson’s career began in New York, where he investigated organized crime. He also helped probe the Oklahoma City bombing, the Tribune reported.

Nelson earned a master’s degree in business administration from Baruch College in New York; he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Albany.

Steve Neavling

Federal prosecutors dismissed claims from the attorney of an Illinois teen Thursday that undercover FBI agents entrapped his client, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Although Ahmed Daoud pulled the trigger on what he thought was a car bomb outside a Chicago bar, he only did so because he was manipulated by undercover FBI agents, the attorney argued.

“He talked about how many people he wanted killed in this attack,” Assistant U.S. Attorney William Ridgway said during a detention hearing Thursday. “With every step, the defendant was pushing this operation forward. The defendant stood firm.”

Prosecutors said the FBI didn’t become involved until after Daoud, who turned 19 today, continually expressed an interest in waging violent jihad against Americans, according to the Tribune.

The investigation began with an email message about jihad and ended with a man pressing the trigger on what he believed to be a car bomb outside of a Chicago bar, the Associated Press reports.

On Friday, after months of investigating the 18-year-old U.S. citizen from a Chicago suburb, Adel Daoud was arrested for trying to detonate a phony car bomb, according to the FBI.

Daoud is expected to be charged this afternoon on charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to damage and destroy a building with an explosive, the AP reported.

It’s not uncommon for undercover FBI agents to befriend would-be terrorists and provide them with fake explosives.

Using the same strategy in 2010, a Lebanese immigrant dropped what he thought was a bomb into a trash bin near Chicago’s Wrigley Field, the AP reported.

STORIES OF OTHER INTEREST

• Maine Man Gets Nearly 5 Years in Prison in ATF Case
• Got Drugs? DEA Sets Up Drug Take Back Program
• Border Patrol: Pair of Decomposed Bodies Believed to be Illegal Immigrants
• Local Leaders Urge for More Access to Customs Agents

Steve Neavling

 Most guns recovered in Chicago were originally purchased in Illinois, not states with less-restrictive gun laws, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Citing a groundbreaking study at the University of Chicago Crime Lab, authorities said 58% of the 1,375 guns recovered in crimes in Chicago were bought in Illinois.

About 45% came from Cook County.

The study was requested by the Chicago Police Department because of an unusually violent 2012 when homicides spiked 28% compared to this time last year, according to the Sun-Times.

Since more than half of the guns come originate from within Illinois, authorities plan to target local gun stores that are selling the firearms.