Federal Bureau Of Investigation

Before the wins and losses are tallied up and the war on terror goes down in the books as either wisdom or folly, it might be recalled what took place this spring on the 13th floor of the federal courthouse in Sacramento. There, in a perfectly dignified room, in front of prosecutors, defense attorneys and judge, a tall, gaunt man named James Wedick Jr.

The FBI and Justice Department on Friday officially closed their investigation into the 2001 mailings of anthrax-contaminated letters to Capitol Hill and journalists in New York and Florida, concluding that U.S. Army medical researcher Bruce E. Ivins was solely responsible for the five deaths that resulted. Had Ivins not died in an apparent suicide in July 2008 as investigators were closing in on him, he would probably have been charged with the use of a weapon of mass destruction, authorities said in their report.

Like so many other multi-tasking Californians, James Joseph Lizotte bides his time in line at the bank by chatting on his cell phone. What makes Lizotte unusual, FBI officials alleged Tuesday, is that he robs the bank once he gets to the front of the line. Sometimes, authorities said, Lizotte hits up more than one teller at once, slamming his gun on the counter to show he means business.

An Irvine man who says he worked as an undercover informant for the FBI, most notably as a Muslim convert in an anti-terrorism case, filed a lawsuit Friday accusing his law enforcement handlers of violating his civil rights and endangering his life. Craig Monteilh, 47, says he worked as an informant for the FBI from 2004 through 2008, providing information and assistance in narcotics, bank robbery and murder for hire investigations before being asked to go undercover as part of an anti-terrorist effort in Orange County, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

A federal judge on Monday approved a sweeping settlement in a 10-year-old lawsuit between the FBI and some 500 current and former agents who contend they were systematically discriminated against because they are black. The agreement requires the FBI to overhaul its promotion, evaluation and disciplinary procedures by 2004 to address the concerns of African American agents.

A former Mexican Mafia member who admitted carrying out a number of crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles federal court to 30 years in prison. John Turscak, 30, expressed bitter disappointment with his sentence. He told U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, "I didn't commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, 'Do what you have to do.'

Investigators recovered nearly 200 shells and casings, including 41 live rounds, after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, according to FBI documents released Thursday. The federal report pointed to a large amount of gunfire traced to weapons used by the two gunmen and police officers, FBI Special Agent Carle Schlaff wrote in a report. "Basically, the entire campus was a crime scene except for the gym," Schlaff wrote.

ABOUT THIS SERIES This is the second in a series of occasional articles that will examine how DNA evidence is transforming criminal justice. -- State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona's DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles. The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.

First Amendment activists and a member of Congress said this week that the FBI may have stepped out of line with a letter accusing a Compton rap group of encouraging "violence against and disrespect" for law enforcement officers. "The FBI should stay out of the business of censorship," said Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, when informed of an Aug.

The FBI moved to seize records from a second company that does business with Ditech.com, widening the criminal investigation into an alleged extortion scheme involving former top managers of the Costa Mesa mortgage lender. Records were subpoenaed this week from Ditech vendor Southland Title Inc., Harold Grossman, Southland's corporate counsel, said Friday. The Burbank real estate services company also has launched an internal investigation into possible wrongdoing, he said.

The FBI will join Mexican investigators in their search for the killers of El Monte school board member Bobby Salcedo and five other men in the central Mexico city of Gomez Palacio. Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, said the Mexican government asked for the agency's help in the investigation into last week's slayings, though she declined to elaborate on what that assistance would specifically involve. "Mexican law enforcement is leading the investigation and has jurisdiction in the crime, but we're providing them whatever assistance they need," she said.

When the FBI announced last week that it planned to make public its previously secret file on Michael Jackson, the bombshells seemed guaranteed. How could hundreds of pages of inside government information about the world's most famous and famously unconventional man be anything other than riveting? But the materials released Tuesday turned out to be more somnolent than sensational, their 333 pages a collection of photocopied tabloid articles and heavily redacted reports from investigations that were old news years ago. The file, opened to the public as the result of Freedom of Information Act requests by news outlets, contained no information at all about Jackson's June death or the subsequent criminal probe of his personal physician.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday tapped former CIA and FBI chief William H. Webster to lead an independent review of the bureau's "policies, practices and actions" before last month's shooting rampage at Ft. Hood, Texas. Webster, who also was a federal judge, "is uniquely qualified to undertake this task and look at the procedures and actions involved in this matter," Mueller said. "It is essential to determine whether there are improvements to our current practices or other authorities that could make us all safer in the future."

The chief of the Burbank Police Department announced Monday that he is stepping down, a month after the FBI revealed it was investigating several current and former officers at the agency. Tim Stehr, 51, who became chief in 2007, made his announcement in a statement released by the city. He did not give a reason for his resignation. "It has been my absolute privilege to serve as chief in the city of Burbank," Stehr said in the statement. "Our department is facing challenging times.

A decorated Burbank Police Department sergeant who was named in an FBI probe shot and killed himself on a residential street corner Thursday, authorities said. Burbank police responding to a "shots fired" call about 11:40 a.m. near North Sunset Canyon Drive at East Harvard Road found Neil Thomas Gunn, 50, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police officials called the death of the 22-year veteran "a devastating tragedy" and said the investigation into what led to the suicide would be handled by the neighboring Glendale Police Department.

Congressman Ken Calvert said Monday that published reports indicating that he is under investigation by the FBI for his involvement in a disputed land deal were untrue. "I have never been contacted by the FBI, and they have not contacted any of our partners," said Calvert, a Republican from Carona. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the agency was investigating Calvert. The Associated Press, which had reported that Calvert was under investigation, said Monday that its published story was erroneous.

As he drives through South Los Angeles on an overcast afternoon, Special Agent John Pi of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is having trouble--as usual--making up his mind. Pi, who in sunglasses looks far younger than 36, has an organized-crime case to work. But the call over a bureau radio is clear: The SWAT team is about to enter a house where it believes kidnappers are keeping a 3-year-old taken from a San Marino family two weeks earlier. The address is only five minutes away.

The FBI is investigating Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) for a series of land transactions in which he avoided paying capital gains taxes after saying he had been forced to sell under eminent domain in Monrovia and Fontana. The federal investigation was initiated after The Times reported in August that officials in both cities denied that they had acquired Miller's property using eminent domain, which enables governments to buy land for certain purposes even if owners do not want to sell.

FBI officials confirmed Wednesday that they are investigating possible civil rights violations alleged by officers at the Burbank Police Department. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller would not comment on specifics of the probe by the agency's civil rights division or how long the probe would last. At least seven lawsuits alleging a pattern of racial discrimination and retaliation, as well as unlawful demotions or firings, have been filed by officers against the department. Burbank Mayor Gary Bric said he was confident that the investigations into the department, which also includes an independent probe by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, would be thorough and complete.

A Lebanese citizen being held in a detention center here was hooded, stripped naked for photographs and bundled onto an executive jet by FBI agents in Afghanistan in April, making him the first known target of a rendition during the Obama administration. Unlike terrorism suspects who were secretly snatched by the CIA and harshly interrogated and imprisoned overseas during the George W. Bush administration, Raymond Azar was flown to this Washington suburb for a case involving inflated invoices.