FBI
Two Guyanese Men Guilty in Plot to Blow Up JFK Airport
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Two Guyanese men were convicted Monday in Brooklyn federal court of plotting to blow up JFK Airport by exploding fuel tanks and fuel pipelines underneath the airport, authorities said. Following a six-week trial, the federal jury convicted Russell Defreitas, a naturalized citizen from Guyana, and Abdul Kadir. Authorities had been watching…
Will Failed D.C. Porn Case Dampen Fed Prosecutors’ Zeal?
By Allan Lengel For AOL News WASHINGTON — In courtroom 18 in the sterile D.C. federal courthouse, Justice Department prosecutors earlier this month tried nailing a major producer of adult pornography on obscenity charges. The lawyers, part of the department’s Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, spent four days presenting their case against California porn producer John…
Column: Kidnapping For Ransom — Bad Business Model
Greg Stejskal served as an FBI agent for 31 years and retired as resident agent in charge of the Ann Arbor office. By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com It was February, 1980 in Detroit. I was assigned to the FBI surveillance squad (with apologies to Jack Webb and his introductions to “Dragnet”). It was very cold in…
Kidnapping For Ransom: Bad Business Model
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com It was February, 1980 in Detroit. I was assigned to the FBI surveillance squad (with apologies to Jack Webb and his introductions to “Dragnet”). It was very cold in the back of the van. We hadn’t yet installed a heater that would work when the van wasn’t running. I had been…
Mobster Who Was FBI Informant For 18 Years Acquitted in Murder Plot
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Who says wiseguys aren’t sensitive? The New York Daily News reports that Genovese mobster Joseph “JB” Barone, 49, who was an FBI informant for 18 years, cried late last week after he was acquitted by a federal jury in Manhattan of in a $1 million murder-for-hire plot. But it may not…
America’s Love Affair With Some Serial Bank Robbers
By Matt Castello ticklethewire.com On the ever-popular Facebook, words of support, encouragement and disbelief plaster a wall with 2,700-plus followers dedicated to the elderly, ever-elusive San Diego bank robber dubbed the “Geezer Bandit”. “This is the first time I’ve heard of this guy,” wrote one Facebook fan. “And he just became my personal hero.” “Financial…
Obama Admin. Wants to Give FBI More Access to Email Data
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The FBI could be getting more powers when it comes to getting data on Internet activity. Reporter Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post reports that the Obama administration wants to change a law so that it would allow the FBI to compel companies over individual’s records of their Internet activity without…
Column: Ex-FBI Official Mike Mason Says Investigating Cheating Would Be Waste of Time and Money; Better to Re-Administer Test
Mike Mason/fbi photo Michael Mason, a former assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, retired as the executive assistant director at FBI headquarters in 2007. His column is in response to the Justice Department investigation into whether potentially hundreds of FBI agents cheated on an open book test on a computer they…