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Secret Service Agents to Return to Columbia After Agency Rocked by Prostitution Scandal in 2012
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Secret Service agents are expected to be on their best behavior this time. Two years after the infamous prostitution scandal rocked the Secret Service, agents are returning to Columbia where Vice President Biden is expected to travel during the week of June 16, the Daily Caller reports. “In Colombia, the Vice President…
House Votes To Stop DEA from Targeting Medical Marijuana Operations in States
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The DEA’s crackdown on state-licensed medical marijuana operations may finally come to an end under a measure passed late Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives, Huffington Post reports. The bipartisan amendment, approved 219-189, would prevent the DEA from using federal funds to go after medical cannabis in states where it is legal….
Court Overturns Murder Conviction of Former FBI Agent John Connolly Jr. Linked to Mobster Whitey Bulger
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A Florida state court panel on Wednesday ruled that former FBI Agent John J. Connolly Jr. was wrongfully convicted of participating in a plot to kill a Florida businessman in 1982 at the urging of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger. The Los Angeles Times reports that the three-judge appellate panel tossed out…
FBI Spied on Nelson Mandela During His First Visit to U.S. in June 1990
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com When Nelson Mandela visited the U.S. for the first time in June 1990, he was under the watch of the FBI. Al Jazeera America reports that the FBI used a confidential source to spy on Mandela, who had been recently released after spending 27 years in prison. The newly released documents are…
Columnist: Another Kafkaesque Moment in Saga of FBI’s Embrace of Whitey Bulger
By Kevin Cullen Boston Globe Pat Donahue was on the phone, incredulous not for the first time in this sordid, relentless mess. “So what you’re telling me,” she said, “is that John Connolly is getting off on a technicality, that he is probably going to get out of prison because of the statute of limitations?”…
One Border Agent Killed, Another Injured in On-Duty Crash in Arizona
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Two Border Patrol agents were on duty when their vehicle rolled over in Arizona, killing one of them and injuring another. The Arizona Daily Star reports that tread separation contributed to the accident at 7:40 a.m. Wednesday on Interstate 10 about eight miles east of Benson. The agents were rushed to the…
FBI Agent: LA County Jail Deputies Forced Inmates to Fight While Being Filmed
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The federal investigation of the Los Angeles County jails involved “dozens, if not hundreds” of allegations of violence at the hands of deputies, an FBI agent testified Wednesday. The Los Angeles Times reports that inmates claimed they were assaulted by guards and were forced to fight, sometimes while being filmed. FBI Special…
Feds Prepare Release of Thousands of Investigative Files on Folk Singer Peter Seeger
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Beloved folk singer Pete Seeger was subject to secret FBI and CIA surveillance since the 1940s and was even blacklisted for his political beliefs in the McCarthy era. Since Seeger’s death in January at the age of 94, the National Archives and Records Administration has been preparing to release thousands of investigative…