Now here’s what I call strategic workforce planning. The Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to hire up to nine contract linguists who are fluent in Ebonics, according to a request for proposal posted on the Smoking Gun this morning. The RFP, which was originally released in May, said it needs people in Atlanta to “listen to oral intercepts in English and foreign languages and provide a verbal summary, immediately followed by a typed summary” and then transcribe pertinent calls. Ebonics is just one of more than 100 languages requested in the RFP. It’s not surprising that the DEA is looking…
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The U.S. Marshals Service has stored more than 35,000 full-body scans of people who entered a Florida courthouse, according to the watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center, which obtained a sample of images through the Freedom of Information Act. CNN reports that the Marshals Service images are “more ghost-like and far less detailed” than the backscatter images used by the Transportation Security Administration at airports. But EPIC says the Marshals Service images shows so-called “digital strip search” images can be stored, despite government officials’ insistence that they do not keep them.
In what would be the stupidest potential lawsuit in almost a month, the FBI is threatening to sue Wikipedia for posting its official seal online. The FBI appears to be concerned that no-goodniks could pull the seal from Wikipedia to make phony badges and documents. But seriously, FBI, the cat’s already out of the bag on this one. Heck, even the FBI’s own site has decent JPGs of the seal that can be found by anyone with rudimentary Google skills. Wikipedia’s response letter leans heavily on the snark, and refers to the FBI’s “creative editing” and “strategic redaction of important…
FBI employees now scattered in four locations in the Phoenix area will move into a new 200,000-square-foot office building about two years from now. The General Services Administration announced Wednesday it has selected the Phoenix office of construction firm Ryan Companies to build the $62 million facility. The building will be owned by Ryan and leased to GSA for use by the FBI under a 20-year lease. Many companies apparently competed for the build-to-suit lease project, indicating the high level of interest in government projects in a time of economic uncertainty in the construction industry. John Strittmatter, president of Ryan’s…
The FBI today said it has formally closed its investigation into the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people — including U.S. Postal Service workers Joseph Curseen and Thomas Morris — and sickened 17 others. The 96-page investigative summary posted here concludes that Army anthrax researcher Bruce Ivins, who committed suicide in 2008, acted alone: Investigators learned that Dr. Ivins was alone late at night and on the weekend in the lab where RMR-1029 [the batch of anthrax spores used in the attacks] was stored in the days immediately preceding the dates on which the anthrax could have been mailed.…
A Pennsylvania college student sued the federal government Wednesday, saying that TSA and FBI officials detained him at an airport because he was carrying a set of English-Arabic flashcards, reports The Washington Post. Nicholas George, 22, of Montgomery County, Pa., is a senior majoring in physics and Middle Eastern studies at California’s Pomona College. In his lawsuit, he argues that he was detained for five hours in August at the Philadelphia airport because three Transportation Security Administration officers, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and two Philadelphia police officers were suspicious of his flashcards and semester studying abroad in the…
The folks over at WeLoveDC.com asked readers today to name a building they’d like to see erased from the DC skyline, and the results could spark a federal investigation. Most readers called for the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building to be torn down. The headquarters building, built between 1967 and 1974, is made of poured concrete in the Brutalist architectural style that was popular at the time but has since gone out of fashion. Other readers suggested that what the building really needs is an overhaul, not a demolition, pointing out that restoring outdated buildings is not only environmentally preferable but…
And now, the rest of the story, courtesy of The Washington Post. The Post has obtained previously confidential FBI files showing a close friendship between the late broadcaster Paul Harvey and the late former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The two exchanged frequent letters throughout the 1950s and 1960s, according to the Post. The Post says Harvey frequently sent Hoover “advance copies of his radio script for comment and approval. Harvey wrote Hoover and his deputies regularly. Hoover, in turn, helped Harvey with research, suggested changes in scripts and showered the broadcaster with effusive praise.” The two bondered over a…
A gunman killed a federal security officer and wounded a deputy U.S. marshal when he opened fire at a federal courthouse in Las Vegas this morning. Law enforcement officers then shot and killed the gunman. The U.S. Marshals Service said he appears to have acted alone. The wounded marshal was hospitalized.
Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced today that he will leave the Justice Department on Feb. 5 to return to private practice. Odgen joined the department in March, having previously chaired the Obama Administration’s transition team for the department. In a statement issued by the department, Odgen said he always intended to return to private practice after helping to get the department on the right footing to carry out its law enforcement duties. Odgen said senior leaders have bolstered the department’s efforts with new resources and initiatives, including task forces and working groups to fight financial crime, combat health care…