Janet Napolitano, former head of Homeland Security.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Janet Napolitano, the former head of Homeland Security, criticized the department’s role in policing protests in Oregon, calling it “an abuse of authority.”

“This is not why DHS was created, it is not what it is supposed to do, and I’m confident that most DHS officers who have been directed to run patrols against U.S. citizens are troubled by this operation,” Napolitano says in a Washington Post op-ed. “DHS has a broad and important public safety mission, but nowhere in its foundational documents, in law or in policy, is the department authorized to target the American people who have assembled to protest the actions of their government.”

Napolitano says the “egregious misuse” of DHS has prompted renewed calls to dismantle the department, which she says would be a mistake because its task is “to protect our nation against any number of hazards and threats.”

“It defends against terrorism, cyberattacks, threats to U.S. borders, waterways, public infrastructure and aviation systems, and helps the country prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters while providing support, capacity, capability and intelligence to state and local officials,” Napolitano writes. “Since 9/11, zero planes have been weaponized as instruments of terrorism.”

DHS is now in the news “not because of the harm it is preventing but because of the harm it is doing,” citing border policies of placing “children in cages.”

Napolitano says DHS must return to its original mission.

“We were there solely for the purpose of protecting the American people. Not to attack them.”

Hoover receives the National Security Medal from President Dwight Eisenhower on May 27, 1955, as then-Vice President Richard Nixon and others look on. (FBI photo)

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Democrats in the U.S. House are trying to remove J. Edgar Hoover’s name from the FBI headquarters building, calling the bureau’s former director a bigot who violated the civil rights of black leaders and political rivals.

Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-VA, Steve Cohen, D-TN, Dina Titus D-NV, and Karen Bass, D-CA, introduced legislation last week to remove any reference to Hoover from the building in Washington D.C.

“It’s long past time to rename the FBI Headquarters. J. Edgar Hoover was a racist, a bigot, and a homophobe,” Rep. Connolly says in a news release. “He abused his power and trampled the civil liberties of Dr. King, anti-war protesters, his political rivals, and too many others. He is no role model for any time, and certainly not this one. Congress must right this wrong and rename this building.”

The National Commission on Renaming the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters Building ACT of 2020 would create a nine-member commission to recommend a new name that reflects diversity, as well as the values of the FBI and U.S. Constitution. The members would be appointed by the president, the Senate majority and minority leaders, the speaker of the House and the House minority leader.

“As our nation faces a historical reckoning, we have an opportunity to right our wrongs and honor Americans who represent the democratic principles on which our union was founded,” Bass says. “J. Edgar Hoover used COINTELPRO to thwart the efforts of Black activists calling for equality in America. The program was ultimately designed to surveil, defame, and silence civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X. Much worse, Hoover’s own racist views impacted FBI operations and countless racially-motivated hate crimes were left unchecked under his leadership. Identifying a namesake that reflects the true values of the FBI is worth supporting now more than ever.”

A similar bill was introduced in the U.S. House in 2015 but languished.

Cohen says it is past time to remove his name from this place of honor.”

“The civil rights we enjoy today are in spite of J. Edgar Hoover, not because of him,” Cohen says. “Yet, his name adorns one of the most prominent buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue in our nation’s capital and one that houses an agency of government responsible for assuring justice.”

The Comey Rule

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Showtime released its trailer for its upcoming docudrama, The Comey Rule, a two-day TV series about former FBI Director James Comey and President Trump.

Jeff Daniels will star as Comey, while Brendan Gleeson portrays Trump.

The star-studded miniseries is based on Comey’s memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership and will air on Sept. 27 and Sept. 28.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testifies before Congress.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Worried that President Trump would interfere with the FBI investigation into Russia, former FBI Director Andrew McCabe took steps to preserve documents related to the case in case he was ousted, CNN first reported.

McCabe instructed agents to make three copies of key documents and place them in remote locations around the FBI, according to an excerpt from CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin’s book, “True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump.”

Former FBI Director James Comey’s memos about his conversations with Trump were placed in SENTINEL, the bureau’s case management system.

“McCabe knew that once documents were inside the system, they were virtually impossible to remove,” CNN reported. “With Comey’s memos in the system, the investigators were certain to have access to them – even if McCabe himself would eventually be gone.”

The documents were eventually turned over to Robert Mueller, who was appointed special counsel to oversee the investigation. Those documents proved to be critical to the investigation.

The writer, a journalist who has investigated the Jimmy Hoffa murder for decades, is the author of “The Hoffa Wars,” “Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer” and eight other books.

By Dan Moldea

Phil “Brother” Moscato Sr., a soldier in New York’s Genovese crime family, co-owned a dump in Jersey City, N.J. where Hoffa is allegedly buried. (Photo: Courtesy of Dan E. Moldea)

Today is the 45th anniversary of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance.

With regard to pinpointing the exact location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave at the PJP Landfill in Jersey City, NJ., here is an inventory of the evidence I can give the FBI. . . .

1) A FBI-302 report (Nov. 6, 1975) about convicted killer Ralph Picardo, who received a prison visit Aug. 4, 1975, from Steve Andretta, an alleged co-conspirator in the Hoffa murder who allegedly told Picardo that a) Hoffa was murdered in Detroit; b) stuffed into a 55-gallon drum; c) loaded onto a Gateway Transportation truck; and d) shipped to New Jersey;

2) A FBI-302 report (Dec. 16, 1975) in which Picardo suggested that Hoffa might have been buried at the 53-acre PJP Landfill, aka “Brother Moscato’s Dump” in Jersey City.  In its report, the FBI noted that PJP was owned by “Phil Moscato . . . and Paul Cappola;”

3) A FBI-302 report (Dec. 23, 1975) about the cursory search of PJP in December 1975 by federal agents, who did not have a specific location to excavate;

4) My interviews with Salvatore and Gabriel Briguglio, as well as Steve and Thomas Andretta (Oct. 25, 1976), alleged Hoffa-murder co-conspirators, in which we discussed Steve Andretta’s prison visit with Picardo and Sal Briguglio’s connection to the PJP Landfill via his close friend, Phillip Moscato, a soldier in the Vito Genovese crime family and the co-owner of PJP;

5) My in interviews from 2007-14 with Moscato, who admitted that Hoffa was buried at PJP and confirmed that Sal Briguglio, another soldier in the Genovese crime family, had killed Hoffa;

According to Frank Cappola, his father, Paul Cappola, buried Jimmy Hoffa in an unmarked grave—shown in this never-before-published photograph—at the PJP Landfill, aka “Brother Moscato’s Dump,” under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City.  If true, it would confirm one of the FBI’s earliest theories as to the location of Hoffa’s remains.  (Photo credit:  Dan E. Moldea)

6) My videotaped tour of the PJP Landfill with Frank Cappola (Sept. 29, 2019)—the oldest son of Paul Cappola, Moscato’s partner at the PJP Landfill—culminating with the exact location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave;

7) A video of my interview with Frank Cappola (Sept. 30, 2019), who explained how and why his father, who gave his son a deathbed confession, buried Hoffa at PJP;

8) A declaration I asked Frank Cappola to execute Oct, 7, 2019, detailing what his father told him;

9) Frank Cappola’s pledge, also in October 2019, to both cooperate fully with the law-enforcement community and to take an FBI-administered polygraph test, which would indicate no deception in his affidavit; and

10) Photos and videos of the PJP, including a map of the EPA cleanup of PJP, which shows that the Superfund site didn’t get close to the location of Hoffa’s unmarked grave.

Sadly, Frank Cappola died last March 16.

Chris Clem, acting chief patrol agent of the Big Bend Sector.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Chris T. Clem, a 25-year veteran of the Border Patrol, has been named acting chief patrol agent of the Big Bend Sector, CBP announced Wednesday.

Clem most recently served as deputy chief patrol agent of the El Paso Sector.

He’s held various other leadership positions, including deputy chief patrol agent of the New Orleans Sector and associate chief at Border Patrol Headquarters in Washington D.C.

Clem’s career with Border Patrol began in 1995. He served as patrol agent in charge of four stations – the Casa Grande in Arizona; the Ysleta in Texas, the Truth or Consequences in New Mexico, and Albuquerque in New Mexico.

A native of New Orleans, Clem primarily grew up in Houston. He received a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice and a Master of science in leadership and management from Sam Houston State University.

The Big Bend Sector covers 517 miles of the southwest border, from Sierra Blanca, Texas, to Sanderson, Texas.

File photo of guns, via ATF

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Nearly 100 federal agents are headed to Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee as part of “Operation Legend,” a violent crime-busting initiative, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Those cities will join Kansas City, Chicago and Albuquerque, where ATF, DEA and FBI agents and analysts were deployed last week.

“This is a flood of resources we haven’t seen before,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said at a news conference in Detroit on Wednesday.

The agents and analysts will help local and state police investigate violent crimes, especial those involving guns. They will not be monitoring protests, authorities emphasized.

Violent crime is on the rise across the U.S.

The initiative is named after LeGend Taliferro, a 4-year-old boy who was shot and killed in his sleep in Kansas City in June.