By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI played the long game to end the Oregon standoff.

Law enforcement finally surrounded the remaining four occupants 41 days after armed militants took over the Malheur National Wildlife Reserve near Burns. The FBI and state police arrested several leaders of the occupation after 25 days.

The Atlantic reports:

But all of these pale in comparison with the time it took to apprehend Cliven Bundy. The father of Ammon and Ryan Bundy, two leaders of the Oregon occupation, he was arrested Wednesday night at the Portland airport when he arrived from Nevada. He had flown in to support the remaining group of four, three of whom surrendered shortly after he was taken into custody. For the FBI, the wait to arrest Bundy was longer: almost two years, since Bureau of Land Management agents who tried to remove his cattle from federal land where they were grazing without permits or fees were met by a huge group of armed men who turned them away.

Bundy had been illegally grazing his cattle on federal land for more than 20 years, and since 1998 was ordered by a court to remove his animals.

The FBI hasn’t said much about why it waited long.

“As we have said since day one, our goal has been to end this illegal occupation peacefully, and we are grateful that we were able to do so today,” FBI Special Agent Greg Bretzing said in a news release. “I want to make it very clear that we will continue to enforce the law with respect to the refuge and other federal properties. Anyone who chooses to travel to Oregon with the intent of engaging in illegal activity will be arrested. Saying that, I want to reassure those Harney County residents who simply visited the refuge or provided food to the occupiers—we are not looking into those events. We are concerned about those who have criminal, violent intent.”

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A two-year undercover FBI investigation, called “Operation Ghost Guard,” led to the arrests of 46 officers at nine Georgia prisons for allegedly accepting bribes to smuggle contraband into jails, the Washington Post reports. 

The correctional officers were indicted on charges of accepting payments to smuggle tobacco, cellphones and drugs into prisons. Some also are accused of protecting drug dealers outside of prisons.

Among those arrested were five members of the elite tactical COBRA unit, whose responsibility is prevent drug deals in prison.

John Horn, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said the inducements show “staggering corruption.”

“It is truly troubling that so many corrections officers from across the state of Georgia could be so willing to sell their oaths, to sell their badges, for personal profit — to benefit and protect purported drug transactions,” he said, adding that the alleged acts put the public in danger.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Some federal agencies have not taken adequate steps to prevent another botched gun-smuggling investigation like the one known as “Operation Fast and Furious,” according to a report from the Department of Justice’s inspector general.

The New York Times reports  ATF has made “significant progress” to address problems related to the operation.

But that’s not the case for some other federal law enforcement agencies. The FBI and DEA, for example, have failed to adequately minimize risks connected with gun investigations, the report stated.

Under the botched ATF investigation that was exposed five years ago, federal law enforcement tried to build a criminal case against Mexican drug cartels by allowing American gun traffickers with links to the cartels to smuggle the firearms across the southern border.

The inspection general report praised the Justice Department for instituting recommended changes, such as better training and more oversight for ATF.

Other federal agencies have “not taken sufficient steps to institute policies to avoid repetition of the errors we identified in our report,” the inspector general said.

CIA Director John Brennan

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

ISIS has used chemical weapons and has the ability to continue making chlorine and mustard gas, according to CIA Director John Brennan.

“We have a number of instances where ISIL has used chemical munitions on the battlefield,” he said in an interview that is scheduled for CBS News’ 60 Minutes program on Sunday.

Although ISIS has been hammered by military forces across the world, the terrorist group still has the capability to develop deadly munitions, Brennan said, Newsweek reports. 

“There are reports that ISIS has access to chemical precursors and munitions that they can use,” he said.

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