By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A hacker posted a database featuring details of nearly 100,00 Homeland Security employees online Sunday and pledged to post similar information today of 20,000 FBI employees, International Business Times reports.

The database includes the names, titles, phone numbers and email address of 9,355 DHS employees, the hacker announced on Twitter.

The information “appeared to be genuine and matches other online records,” IBT reported.

The hacker, who often uses the hashtag “FreePalestine,” said access was possible through an internal Justice Department network.

Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI has commented yet.

Tomorrow we shall release 20,000 FBI employees data, including ones outside US. 🙂#FreePalestine

— penis (@DotGovs) February 8, 2016

Harold Shaw

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Harold Shaw, the new head of the FBI in Boston, pledged to partner with local authorities and other federal agencies to tackle gun crimes, drug dealing and terrorism.

“There’s virtually nothing we can do in the FBI that’s not done in a task-force concept,” Harold H. Shaw said in an interview with the Boston Globe. “The critical element is partnerships.”

Shaw took over the Boston office in October and said his experience in counter-terrorism will help crack down on extremists.

“The tricks of the trade I learned were from the task-force partners who were doing it a lot longer than I was,” he said.

Shaw replaced Vincent Lisi, who retired to join the private sector in August.

Other Stories of Interest

• FBI Combs Social Media in Pursuit of Terror Threats
• FBI Helping Somalia Investigating Inflight Explosion As Terrorist Attack
• U.S. Customs Seizes $38M Worth of Fake Sport Items Ahead of Super Bowl
• ATF: Killer Armed Himself to Avenge Slain Cancer Patient
• DEA Seizes Enormous Supply of Heroin in New York Area

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Jesse Morton was considered a terrorist who supported violence in the name of Islam and even advocated attacks against the writers of “South Park” after they made fun of the prophet Muhammed.

Morton was sentenced to 11.5 years in prison in 2012, but now the 37-year-old is out of prison and being paid by the FBI, the Washington Post reports, citing government records.

Morton, who prosecutors said, “endangered the lives of innocent people,” is a paid FBI informant to help agents investigates a case against another person trying to join ISIS.

“We may never know all of those who were inspired to engage in terrorism because of Revolution Muslim, but the string of recent terrorism cases with ties to Morton’s organization demonstrates the threat it posed to our national security,” then-U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement at the time Morton was sentenced.

An official who spoke to the Washington Post said the FBI believed Morton had been reformed and could help build a case against an ISIS supporter.

The Post reported:

Muslim leaders have long criticized the FBI’s use of informants and its sometimes aggressive approach to keeping tabs on Islamic communities. Four U.S. Muslims alleged in a recent lawsuit that their names were put on the no-fly list as part of a heavy-handed effort to coerce them to work on the FBI’s behalf. (That suit was dismissed late last year, but the men were taken off the no-fly list). The New York City Police Department agreed this year to settle lawsuits that alleged that Muslims were investigated and targeted for surveillance without good reason – agreeing to pay $2 million in attorney fees while admitting no wrongdoing.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

As more than one billion fans tuned into Sunday’s Super Bowl, the FBI is investigating former NFL stars off the field in search of links to an international drug and gambling ring, the New York Post reports. 

Prosecutors charged accused ringleader Owen Hanson, a former tight end at USC, and 21 others with operating a multimillion-dollar operation.

Among those charged was Derek Loville, a former NFL running back.

The Post wrote that Hanson associated with dozens of pro athletes from the NFL, NBA and MLN.

The investigating appears to be growing in scope, the Post reported.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI swooped into Crystal City, Texas, and arrested nearly all of the top city officials.

The Washington Post reports that five officials were arrested Thursday and accused of taking bribes and helping an illegal gambling operation.

The indictment led to the arrests of the city’s mayor, mayor pro tempore, a current and former city council member and the city manager.

Also arrested the the alleged gambling operator, Ngoc Tri Nguyen, also known as “MR. T.”

And that’s not it for the embattled city. Another council member was arrested on human smuggling charges last month.

There’s only one city official left – Councilman Joel Barajas, who suspected something criminal was going on.

“I knew some things were not being correctly taken care of,” he said.

The indictment alleges town leadership  “used their official positions to enrich themselves by soliciting and accepting payments and other things of value” from Nguyen and others.