Steve Neavling

The Justice Department tracked a journalist suspected of receiving secret material related to possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, The Washington Post reports.

In addition to obtaining telephone records from James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News,, investigators used security badge access records to track the reporter’s traffic in and out of the State Department, the Post wrote.

Justice Department investigators also obtained a search warrant for Rosen’s e-mails.

This follows the discovery that the Justice Department also seized telephone records from the AP.

 OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• FBI Searches Apartment in Washington State for Ricin Evidence
• FBI: No Foul Play in Connecticut Commuter Train Crash
• AP CEO: Seizure of Reporter’s Phone Records Is Unconstitutional 
• DEA Agent Shoots, injures Suspect in Houstonian Hotel in Houston
• Homeland Security Between U.S., India on Agenda Today 

It appears some FBI agents are having a little bit too much fun on the job, internal disciplinary reports obtained by CNN show.

The reports indicate agents bugged a boss’ office, sent naked photos to co-workers, sexted on the job and paid for sex at a message parlor, CNN reported.

The FBI, whose motto is fidelity, bravery, integrity, has been dealing with “a rash of sexting cases” in which agents are using government-issued phones to send lurid pictures and suggestive texts.

“We’re hoping (that) getting the message out in the quarterlies is going to teach people, as well as their supervisors … you can’t do this stuff,” FBI assistant director Candice Will told CNN this week. “When you are given an FBI BlackBerry, it’s for official use. It’s not to text the woman in another office who you found attractive or to send a picture of yourself in a state of undress. That is not why we provide you an FBI BlackBerry.”

By Allan Lengel

U.S. campuses aren’t just for educating our youth.

Bloomberg news reports that the FBI is concerned about countries using universities to gather intelligence.

“We have intelligence and cases indicating that U.S. universities are indeed a target of foreign intelligence services,” Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s assistant director for counterintelligence told Bloomberg.

Bloomberg reports that authorities are seeing growing signs of spying on U.S. campuses.

To read the full story click here.

Kessler is the author of “The Secrets of the FBI.”

fbi photo

Because of the terrorist threat, the FBI and CIA have become as important as the military in preserving our freedom. Yet while thanking our military is standard practice in American life, no one thinks of thanking the FBI, the CIA, or the rest of the intelligence community for keeping us safe since 9/11.

Instead, the media and many on the extreme left and extreme right demonize the men and women of those agencies for allegedly “spying on innocent Americans.”

Last year, two Washington Post reporters took two years to uncover this story: The intelligence community is big and secret and uses a lot of contractors. Presented as an exposé, the series, “Top Secret America,” found no abuse. Instead, it presented the conclusion that the intelligence community is a “hidden world” that is “growing beyond control.”

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• FBI Team Finds Canadian Link to Famous 60s Hijacking (National Post)
• FBI Says Hackers Not Responsible for Illinois Water Pump Failure (Techspot)
• FBI Arrests 7 Amish on Hate Crimes (KKTV)
• DNA Leaders to Suspected Robber (Detroit News)
• FBI Offers Tips to Avoid Mortgage Fraud (Miami Herald)
• Is Former DEA Agent in Prison for Exposing ATF Arms Trafficking? (Narcosphere)
• Man Bites off Part of LA Deputy’s Ear (MyFox)

In the suburbs of D.C., resident Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid was more than just a suburban dweller, at least according to the FBI.

Authorities announced this week charges against the 47-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen, who lived in Leesburg, Va., and allegedly collected video and audio recordings and other information about people in the U.S. and Syria who were protesting the government of Syria.

Authorities alleged the he turned over materails to Syrian intelligence agencies “in order to silence, intimidate, and potentially harm the protestors.” He was arrested on Tuesday.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., charged him with conspiring to act as an agent of the Syrian government in the United States without notifying the Attorney General as required by law; two counts of providing false statements on a firearms purchase form; and two counts of providing false statements to federal law enforcement.

“The ability to assemble and protest is a cherished right in the United States, and it’s troubling that a U.S. citizen from Leesburg is accused of working with the Syrian government to identify and intimidate those who exercise that right,” U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of Alexandria said in a statement. “Spying for another country is a serious threat to our national security, especially when it threatens the ability of U.S. citizens to engage in political speech within our own borders.”

Stewart Nozette/nasa photo

A Maryland scientist busted in an FBI sting in 2009 for attempting to spy for Israel, pleaded guilty Wednesday in D.C. federal court to one count of attempted espionage, the Associated Press reported.

Stewart D. Nozette, 54, was charged in 2009 with giving sensitive government information to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer with the Mossad.  In exchange, the agent paid him $11,000.

Nozette plea calls for a 13 year sentence, with two years credit for time served, AP reported.

In 2009, in a hotel room in Northwest Washington, Nozette told the undercover agent posing as a Mossad agent:

Nozette: I don’t get recruited by Mossad every day. I knew this day would come by the way.

 Agent: How’s that.

Nozette: (laughs) I just had a feeling one of these days.

Agent: Really?

 Nozette: I knew you guys would show up.

Nozette over the years worked for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• South Dakota Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Eagle Parts (AP) 
• 2 Friends, 8 Bombs, One FBI Informant (Huffington Post) 
• Sentencing Set for Last of 4 Convicted in FBI Sting/Synagogue Bomb Plot (AP)
• 11 Killed and 80 Wounded in India Bombing (India Today)
• Judiciary Panel to Consider Controversial Texas U.S. Atty Nominees (Main Justice)

The Associated Press has obtained confidential documents that show the New York cops collected intelligence on more than 250 mosques and Muslim student groups in and around New York.

AP reported that the department used undercover officers and informants to canvas the Islamic population of New York.

AP wrote that the secret documents “highlight how the past decade’s hunt for terrorists also put huge numbers of innocent people under scrutiny as they went about their daily lives in mosques, businesses and social groups.”

To read more click here.