fbi

These Shocking 'Guantanamo' Photos of Kidnapped FBI Agent Robert Levinson Were Probably Taken in an Iranian Secret Prison

Max Read · 01/08/13 05:51PM

Nearly six years after the disappearance in Iran of private investigator Robert Levinson, and two years after his family received an anonymous email confirming that the former FBI agent was still alive, five photographs taken by Levinson's captors have been released. "I am here in Guantanamo," reads a sign Levinson is holding in one photo. "Do you know where it is?"

Merry Christmas From the Feds, Who Can Still Read Your Emails Without a Warrant

Jordan Sargent · 12/25/12 04:29PM

It's no secret that the CIA and FBI can read your emails for any old reason they choose without having to clear it with anyone first (because you're a terrorist). That was on track to change with an amendment attached to an upcoming bill... before said amendment was quietly dropped from said bill.

The Tutu Has Been Donned. Your Move, Anonymous.

Adrian Chen · 09/06/12 11:45AM

For 24 hours, the internet was subjected to, or blessed with, if that's what you're into, the image of me in a tutu with a shoe on my head. (We're still waiting for the Smithsonian to request the tutu for inclusion in its special collections.) Now it's time for Anonymous to hold up their side of the deal.

Columnist: If James Holmes Was a Muslim, The Shooting Might Not Have Happened

Hamilton Nolan · 07/23/12 11:30AM

By contrasting the ease with which Aurora shooter James Holmes ordered guns and ammunition online with the rapid FBI response when a Muslim would-be terrorist in Aurora sent a single suspicious email a few years ago, Denver Post columnist Chuck Murphy states the obvious in his column today: this mass shooting might have turned out very differently if James Holmes had been named Ibrahim or Mohammed.

How the FBI Monitored Crusty Punks, 'Anarchist Hangouts,' and an Organic Farmers' Market Under the Guise of Combating Terrorism

John Cook · 03/13/12 03:19PM

The FBI conducted a three-year investigation, dubbed "Seizing Thunder," into a animal-rights and environmental "terrorists" in the Pacific Northwest that devolved into widespread—and seemingly pointless—surveillance of activists for no apparent reason aside from the fact that they were anarchists, or protested the war in Iraq, or were "militant feminists." Here's the file.

The FBI Monitored a Young Christopher Hitchens

John Cook · 03/08/12 01:33PM

The FBI has released some of its files on the late Christopher Hitchens, including records indicating that he was the subject of a counterintelligence investigation in the 1980s.

Revered Anonymous Mastermind Rats Out His Pals to the FBI

Adrian Chen · 03/06/12 10:01AM

The most prominent and revered member of Anonymous, Sabu, has reportedly been an FBI informant for months. And thanks to his help, authorities today rounded up the last members of LulzSec, the notorious defunct hacking group he once led.

Steve Jobs' FBI File Released

John Cook · 02/09/12 09:50AM

The FBI has released, and posted on its web site, Steve Jobs' 191-page FBI file. Read it here. The file consists of a 1991 background investigation conducted when Jobs was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council in the Bush I White House, and records of a 1985 bomb threat against him.

The Year in Dumb, Convoluted, and Non-Terrifying Terror Plots

Hamilton Nolan · 01/10/12 02:00PM

Once again this week, the FBI has foiled an incredibly unconvincing terror plot replete with plans that fail to strike fear in the heart of any American. Sami Osmakac, a 25 year-old in Tampa, Florida, has been arrested for allegedly plotting to destroy bridges and bomb nightclubs in the name of Islam. Anyone who's been to Florida knows that destroying nightclubs in Tampa would be a great public service, to the United States of America.

Men Can Be Raped Now, Too

Hamilton Nolan · 01/06/12 09:12AM

For 85 years, the FBI has defined rape as the "carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will." In all that time, no men have been raped. Now, thanks to rap music, homosexual marriage, and Jerry Sandusky, the FBI has gone and changed the definition—placing millions of American men in danger of rape.