Amazing developments at CleanUpATF and elsewhere.

We are apparently approaching critical mass in the implosion of the Chief Counsel's Office power-behind-the-throne regime at ATF. Here are some relevant posts over at the dissident ATF agent site, CleanUpATF.org:

First, an agent posting under the significant pseudonym of "Valkyrie" discusses the current situation and even mentions Sipsey Street without rancor:

Hey Noreaster, I don't know about all of what you wrote, but our division sent the Chait memo around so lots of people have it. In all my years, I have never seen the budget in such a sorry state. I don't know what we are going to be able to spend money on this year, but we are on a tuna fish diet for sure. If you ask me, HQ seems to be running scared, and I bet with good reason.

Did anyone see the message from ATF's CFO the other day about not talking about ATF budget documents? My guess is these are the ones from OMB which basically are where an agency gets a day or two to respond to a cut proposal and that OMB recommended cutting our nuts off on explosives, NIBIN, PCS and alot of the other stuff you mentioned and that other posters are talking about. It is never a good sign when the Crystal Palace spends more time trying to stop leaked doomsday budget reports then fighting for our jurisdiction, manning up, and making some damn decisions. Of course it is easier to blame the agents and inspectors instead of Melson, Hoover, Chait, Martin and Boxler holding themselves accountable for doing their job, and not through some BS course on professionalism so I know what ties to wear, if my heels are too high, or to preach about having sex in Las Vegas with some bar hottie. Maybe we can distract people with a TV show about an ATF "Lassie" or do a special about facial sketching to solve Jack the Ripper? Yeah, I bet that would get people thinking happy thoughts instead of wondering if we are going to get cut up like a skinny turkey.

The word from CES in the field and some in HQ is that NCETR Alabama is dead and the poor guys down there know it. Who knows what Boxler and Martin have been doing running off to private executive meetings with the FBI about explosives, NCETR, TEDAC and the USBDC. Don't forget Super Chief Joe Riehl takes a tour down to Alabama to smile and lie every once and a while, and he does a good job at that. He and his school mates from CI (Boxler and Martin) are protecting him big time. Please Joe, act very suprised when they hand you the TEDAC job in a few weeks or months. It won't make any difference ATF is violating OPM rules with more preselection, who applies or anything else, because it is all about Billy taking care of his hatchet man, even though he is a huge player in our explosives mission slipping away to the FBI and DHS. And didn't Joe look really good on the ATF website with SAC Stoop, Chait and the NRT touring a fire scene? Why were you there Joe? You aren't the acting SAC anymore, your division was chopped up and people wondering what the hell they are doing. Aren't you supposed to be the NCETR Chief of our new and expensive facility? This is all about image and trying hard to make Joe look like a senior executive, although Potter screwed him pretty good by not leaving Philly.

The time is close where the whole mess may come apart. Check out the website Sipsey Street Irregulars - don't care much for their politics but it's scary how much stuff is already out there on ATF, our internal politics, and if I were to place a bet I think that Senator Shelby, OIG or the press is going to light us up soon, and a bunch of people on the 5th floor are going to scramble like roaches from the lights. The only hope I have is that working agents and people with some integrity will be fine wherever we end up in a few years (or months).

Second, in a discussion about ATF management waste, fraud and abuse, "Rogue" had this to say on 29 December:

Word from Los Angeles is Paul Vanderplow from HQ will be coming out to the Rose Bowl. He came last year (paid by ATF) so I guess he is needed again this year (marked for sarcasm). I guess JT has a friend in the big building after all.

"Apostate" replied:

All I can say is wow! We have no money for basic required training, ammunition, investigative travel, car repairs and ATF is paying upper Mgt types to party in California and Las Vegas ( SHOT show) and God knows where else!!!

But it was what happened next that was so incredible to me.

Vanderplow himself responded!

Good Afternoon,

This is Paul Vanderplow. If anyone has any questions regarding this event or the circumstances around it, please look me up in Outlook and give me a call. By the way, to interject some fact/reality to this "discussion" (marked for sarcasm) I cancelled (sic) this trip about two months ago when the other reason I had to travel to the LAFD was cancelled (sic). I stand by my ethics, judgement (sic) and prudent use of Government funds. By the way, the last time I worked an event in California, I worked a 20 hour day with NO overtime, night differential, Holiday or Sunday Pay. Boy that sounds like a party to me (again marked for sarcasm).

The PTB at ATF and Main Justice have been desperately trying to ignore the existence of CUATF.org. Yet here we have one of the anointed responding to CUATF allegations. When this happens, the dam is breaking, folks.

Finally, I received a copy of the following letter to some United States Senators over the electronic transom. I cannot say by what means I got it, but the fact that it was forwarded to me at all is amazing to me. It was accompanied with the short note:

Based on your clear interest and attention to ATF matters I thought you might be interested in examining this correspondence. Thank you for paying attention.

The author of the letter, ATF Special Agent Jay Dobyns, has been the subject of Sipsey Street posts before. Read the letter and I will have some final comments on the other side.

I have redacted the addresses in the interest of space.

December 10, 2010

The Honorable Senator John McCain (Senator, State of Arizona)

The Honorable Senator Jon Kyl (Senator, State of Arizona)

The Honorable Senator Daniel Inouye (Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations)

The Honorable Senator Thad Cochran (Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations)

The Honorable Senator Joseph Lieberman (Chairman, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs)

The Honorable Senator Susan Collins (Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs)

The Honorable Senator Daniel Akaka (Member, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the Federal Workforce)141 Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Senator George Voinovich (Member, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the Federal Workforce)

The Honorable Senator Carl Levin (Member, Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Chairman, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations)

The Honorable Senator Tom Coburn (Member, Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Ranking Member, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations)

The Honorable Senator Chuck Grassley (Senator, State of Iowa [author of the No Fear Act])

The Honorable Congressman James Lightfoot (Congressman, State of Iowa [retired])

Dear Senators:

I hope this letter finds you each productive, in good health and preparing to enjoy your holidays.

Please also allow me to thank you for your service.

I am a resident of Arizona and a current United States Government Employee. I have been a Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the past 24 years. I am a constituent to each of you by residency or employment based on your committee memberships.

I acknowledge that you are busy with pressing military and economic concerns. However, my dispute has risen to a new level of importance regarding federal agency endangerment of law enforcement officers and is now something of a flagship for federal agents to assert safety rights and employment protections. Our federal law enforcement agents serve with commitment and courage, and therefore I humbly ask that you take a moment to review this letter and determine if you can further assist me.

I have an ongoing, long-term dispute with ATF. My dispute reached litigation and has been transferred to the control of the Department of Justice. I understand that you have limitations in your ability to assist with pending legal matters. I will not ask you to participate to any level beyond the constraints of federal law and ethics.

Over the past 6 months I have received thousands of documents on this case through FOIA and government disclosure. I have also taken eight witness depositions. Seven of the eight depositions have been of government witnesses viewed as “hostile” to my complaints. Six of the witnesses are Senior Executive Service managers, two are ex-ATF Deputy Directors, one is a current ATF Assistant Director, one an ex-Assistant Director, and two are current Special Agents in Charge. These witnesses are at the highest levels of ATF management, and although they were at first thought to support the government’s position, their collective testimonies have been overwhelming in confirming my allegations. Those allegations are essentially that, in retaliation for a settlement with the government, ATF recalled covert identification documents from me and my wife, and as a Significant Investigative Report, obtained only through discovery, demonstrates, the Hells Angels became the lead suspects in discovering the location of my home and burning it down with my wife and children inside. In the process, ATF scuttled the investigation and let the suspects go, never even questioning them. ATF has taken the process of retaliation to a new level, letting go of suspects of attempted murder against an agent’s family.

Depositions taken last week verify and confirm alarming facts related to the endemic mismanagement of ATF and include corruption, obstruction of justice, perjury, retaliation and reprisal.

In an effort to respect your time I will thumbnail the situation.

 Beginning in 2004 with the closing my undercover infiltration of the Hells Angels in Arizona, my family and I began to receive death and violence threats from Hells Angels members and associates, including members of the Aryan Brotherhood and the MS-13 recruited by the Hells Angels to carry out violence against us on their behalf.

 The threats were validated and include but are not limited to threats to kill me (one proposed to inject me with HIV); locate and torture my children; and for the Hells Angels to gang rape my wife and film it in order to show me the video.

 ATF management, due to its apathetic and retaliatory management, ignored and dismissed these threats. Amazingly, to this day, ATF never interviewed or confronted any of the threat suspects.

 ATF reviewed the circumstances of the threats attempting to whitewash the facts and further internally avoiding any responsibility.

 Fortunately, the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of the Inspector General investigated the same allegations and concluded in my favor, informing the President of their findings.

 The OSC/OIG Report stated:

“The OIG substantiated SA Dobyns’s allegations regarding the inadequate response to threats against him, finding that ATF failed to adequately investigate and ‘needlessly and inappropriately’ delayed its response to additional threats made against him“; “ATF failed to respond to threats against Dobyns in an appropriate or timely manner”; and “ATF’s response to threats was inadequate, incomplete and needlessly delayed.”

 Deposition testimony confirms that ATF never addressed or corrected its failures to protect agents in general or me in particular, and did not implement any of the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report. This lack of attention and concern by ATF emboldened those at fault and has empowered them to continue and increase retaliations against me by failing to investigate the new and current death and violence threats being issued.

 Despite a finding by OSC/OIG found that an ATF manager responded to an official federal inquiry with “less than candor” (in response to OIG investigators), that ATF manager was promoted to increasingly more prestigious positions within ATF after the OIG findings were released.

 Deposition testimony also confirms that response letters sent in reply to inquiries from Senator McCain and Senator Kyl from ATF Senior Executives, with those comments attempting to reassure you that the this situation was controlled, resolved, and of no further interest to you, were not accurate.

 I reached a settlement with ATF on September 20, 2007 that waived and released ATF of past failures with respect to me and my family’s safety during the first wave of threatened violence (2004 to 2007).

 Beginning in late 2007 and continuing through mid-2008, without cause or justifiable reason, ATF recalled alias, covert identification documents that ATF had issued to me and to my wife. We had been using those documents to protect our vehicles, our driver’s licenses and the title to our home from public databases.
ATF’s recall of the covert documents, which ATF did over my objection and with no consideration for my safety or that of my family, forced us to place much of the previously protected information in my true name and in the open public domain, publicly disclosed and capable of search and review by any members of the general public.

 In August 2008, one or more people committed the violent crime of arson of my home in Tucson, destroying my family’s residence by fire with my family inside.

 ATF failed miserably in response to the fire, delaying and then inexcusably mishandling the investigation of the fire. A repeat of ATF’s past failures was underway.

 Besides myself, several other ATF employees called and emailed ATF senior management to avoid another neglected response, pleading with Senior Executives to act quickly, professionally and thoroughly by undertaking the most conclusive investigation possible and try to find and arrest the arsonists.

 I asked ATF Senior Executives on several occasions to put a final end to the mismanagement of the threats against me and did so seeking nothing from the government beyond a personal meeting with ATF management to assist them in identifying the agency failures and help develop real solutions.

 The deposition testimony of directly involved Senior Executives revealed that ATF attorneys advised the Executives not to react or respond to the requests for assistance, whether from ATF special agents on the scene trying to assist in the preservation of evidence and in the investigation, or from me.

 After once again being “shut out” from communication with ATF management and with no other resource, I filed a legal complaint.

 Following aggressive attempts by DOJ to avoid the Court of Federal Claims hearing my dispute in Washington DC, Judge Francis Allegra denied the DOJ’s motion to dismiss my lawsuit against the United States on behalf of ATF and accepted my case.

 Rather than address and correct vital issues of agent safety as prescribed by OSC/OIG, ATF and DOJ filed a lawsuit against me in the form of a counterclaim alleging that by writing the book “No Angel,” I somehow damaged the United States Government with an improper use of my job title found on the book cover - which simply places “ATF Special Agent” under my name as the author.

 I received disclosure documents from The Department of Justice that evidence that ATF officials ignored real-time criminal intelligence regarding credible and plausible arson suspects, persons who had motive and means to destroy my home after ATF withdrew my covert alias identification documents; and, ignored or destroyed investigative leads received in October, 2008, two months after the fire.

 Each Senior Executive deposed has testified that they did not take any action, or order any actions to be taken, to investigate the information or interview the suspects. Each testified that they “assumed” someone else above or below them had handled the matter. None of those deposed conducted any personal due diligence or follow-up to determine if anything proactive or reactive to the information was undertaken.

 This is not an all-inclusive example but, it clearly serves as a transparent example of the pattern and practice by ATF Senior Executives and managers of ignoring threats against me and is reinforcement to the prior findings of the OIG/OSC that a dangerous lack of concern for threats against me remains ongoing and continuous at ATF.

 During the court proceedings the lead ATF ethics attorney who owns a long-standing resentment for me was recused from participation my case by Federal Judge Allegra thus placing her in a position as a material witness in both my lawsuit and the counter-claim against me. ATF has in essence ignored this ruling allowing the recused attorney to supervise both ATF attorneys who are now representing the government in defending my lawsuit and prosecuting me under their own counterclaim.

 This creates an enormous ethical compromise to the government which has been ignored by DOJ. The air of inappropriate conduct facing the legal teams at ATF and DOJ is impossible to overlook and an insult to the justice system. The ATF attorneys who are defending ATF and self-defending their own allegations of misconduct in my lawsuit are the same attorneys who are also counter-suing me as an act of retaliation and reprisal.

 An email entered into court records clearly displays that managers supervising the arson investigation intentionally, knowingly and willfully withheld “critical information” on the arson investigation from ATF Senior Executives (the email specifically cites those being denied information as, “the Director (of ATF), Deputy Director and Assistant Directors) obstructing a proper response and negatively affecting the decision making process of Senior Executives.

 On December 1, 2010 ATF’s former Deputy Director gave his sworn, expert testimony that this email is “very concerning” and that those involved had no authority to withhold information from him.

 On Friday, December 3, 2010 ATF’s former Chief of the Arson and Explosive Division and an ex-Assistant Director gave his sworn, expert opinion that, if emails accurately reflect the conduct and motivations of ATF managers investigating the arson, ATF personnel may have engaged in criminal obstruction of justice by intentionally concealing critical arson investigation information from senior ATF officials.

 Amazingly and in a demonstration of ATF management’s ongoing poor judgment in all matters under this topic, the guilty party/author of the email/obstructionist has been repeatedly placed in elevated positions of supervision by ATF upon the absences of his superior after ATF has become aware of his potentially criminal actions.

 During sworn depositions, I have learned that:

 ATF Senior Executives have called each other “liars” and “unethical” in accusations of how they have handled elements of my complaint and ATF business in general;

 ATF managers in Phoenix and Tucson conspired to attempt to blame me as the arsonist while failing to preserve evidence or follow-up on real-time leads, suspects who two years later have now vanished;

 ATF managers in Phoenix and Tucson conspired to obstruct the investigation of the arson by limiting critical information needed by ATF superiors up the chain of command to make proper investigative and tactical decisions;

 Some deposed witnesses have committed known perjury during their testimony;

 An overwhelming air of lack of concern for agent safety, lack of accountability and absence of responsibility is present among ATF’s Senior Executives involved in the suspicious events;

 Of the eight depositions not a single Senior Executive could give an answer to the question of who or where the responsibility for lies for these grievous and continually repeated mistakes.

Additionally,

 The counterclaims filed against me also falsely allege that I compromised investigative tradecraft. The former five-year Assistant Director of the ATF Office of Public and Governmental Affairs testified that I have not damaged ATF or undermined the ATF mission with “No Angel” and that any tradecraft discussed in the book was previously released to open source venues by ATF themselves in their efforts to promote the Hells Angels investigation to the agencies benefit (ATF released all relevant tradecraft in the case to the television program “America’s Most Wanted” and to author Julian Sher in his book, “Angels of Death”).

 To the contrary, all of the witnesses said they liked the book and that it portrayed ATF agents heroically. One witness said that the only media event that received as much publicity for ATF as my book was the Waco incident – with publicity that, compared to “No Angel,” was obviously negative. Another witness, an ex-Deputy Director testified that he “didn’t even notice” the use of my job title on the book jacket. (Random House Publishing’s use of my job title is a key point in DOJ’s countersuit against me citing my alleged misuse of office.) Senior ATF Executives have testified that No Angel portrayed ATF Agents as, “heroic” and that the book was, “interesting”, “fascinating”, “factual” and “entertaining”.

 During this same time period, an ATF Special Agent in Charge gave a newspaper interview specifically describing how ATF agents can gain admission into undercover gangs by defeating polygraphs (including describing one of the methods); another ATF SAC gave a interview to a Mexican newspaper in which he disclosed the existence of ATF operations in Mexico leading to the subsequent apprehension and torture of an ATF informant and the eventual emergency evacuation of his ATF Agent/Handler; and, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson publicly disclosed at a press conference the pre-operational locations, staffing and timeframes for gun trafficking taskforces on the Mexican border.

 While ATF sued me for describing the heroism of ATF field agents in a fully adjudicated investigation two ATF SAC’s and Mr. Melson upended investigations and endangered the safety of agents and informants, all without a single negative word from ATF or its Office of Public and Governmental Affairs or from the Department of Justice.
Further,

 Federal law exists under the No Fear Act and other statutes that state it is a federal offense for agencies to fail to notify victims of their rights after suffer as the victim(s) of violent crimes under the agency’s investigation. No person with ATF, DOJ or any other part of the government has EVER notified me or my family members of our rights as victims after ANY of the threats or actions we have suffered related to past or present threat situations.

 ATF witnesses have given sworn testimony at their depositions in this lawsuit that ATF senior officials have knowingly and willfully ignored the conduct of ATF employees who misused their positions to assign ATF agents to guard Angela Bassett during a book signing at an Atlanta shopping mall, to give a presentation to an ATF agent’s condominium homeowner’s association while they were on active surveillance, and who lied under oath to the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Inspector General – with one of the ATF employees lying to OIG twice. None of those ATF employees received any discipline, and the pattern remains the same – cozy up to senior ATF leadership after findings of bad conduct are made, and receive a retirement party with full pension benefits. None of those ATF employees portrayed ATF to the public as an agency of heroic agents, and yet none of them were sued as DOJ has sued me.

 Sworn testimony has been taken that several ATF Senior Executives knowingly and willfully conspired to interfere and obstruct federal RICO/murder prosecutions of the Hells Angels in Peoria, Illinois and Seattle, Washington, by taking actions “above and beyond” to prevent my testimony, ordered under federal subpoena and sought by the respective Offices of the United States Attorney. Testimony confirms that the role’s of these Senior Executives was a treacherous, malicious and retaliatory attempt to destroy my reputation. In Seattle, where I eventually overcame my leadership’s efforts to replace my testimony by characterizing it as unqualified, I testified in related hearings. The U.S. Attorney’s Office obtained three convictions under RICO, the first time the Justice Department obtained a RICO conviction against the Hells Angels. The prosecutors further praised my assistance and testimony as the standard by which all federal agents should be held to when called as witnesses. In a letter to the Senior Executive at ATF who spearheaded the attack against my credibility, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington and three Assistant United States Attorneys wrote:

“The combined undersigned counsel has fifty years of prosecution experience. Special Agent Dobyns is one of the best law enforcement officers we have ever seen testify. Our court ruled that Special Agent Dobyns was essentially too good of a witness for the prosecution and too prejudicial to the defense. It was a privilege to put him on the stand in our case. He is a credit to ATF and to law enforcement.”

 Sworn testimony has been taken that ATF officials knew that one of the senior executives involved in the obstruction of my testimony at trial against the Hells Angels had been proven guilty of discrimination, requiring job termination under ATF’s Disciplinary Matrix. Instead, as ATF officials do with all friends of the senior leadership, ATF knowingly and willfully ignored the employment disability discrimination finding and left the senior ATF official in place to discriminate against me.

 Witnesses supportive of my lawsuit but not yet deposed have received retaliations against them from ATF management based on their anticipated positions of being helpful to me. Other witnesses have advised that they have become fearful to provide testimony on my behalf in anticipation of retaliations that will be taken against them if they are subpoenaed to testify.

 I have also been subjected to personal retaliations by DOJ, above and beyond the governments countersuit against me, with DOJ has implementing unethical tactics of “strong arming” me for my personal tax returns and personal financial information without following the laws, orders, rules and procedures implemented by the court.
 ATF and DOJ have employed the tactics of doing anything and everything within and outside their powers of their authority to “burn me down” as that is somehow a defense or excuse for the outrageous and continually repeated bad acts of ATF Senior Executives and managers.

 I have a current offer to mediate my disputes with ATF. My offer is being “slow played” by ATF for the mere effort of extending my litigation, depleting my resources, and attempting to destroy my resolve to finish the fight. DOJ and ATF are together unnecessarily extending a legal battle merely for the sake of a fight and doing so at great expense and a waste of resources to the government.

 ATF and DOJ have employed and resourced a team of attorneys to unjustly prosecute me. I have repeatedly asked ATF for the accommodation of nothing more than the time needed to prepare my defenses from their countersuit. Each request has been denied and references statements that “ATF’s Chief Counsels Office” will not approve my request. ATF and DOJ are “stacking the deck” in an attempt to insure their victory with no concern for fairness.

 The actions of ATF, ATF’s legal team and the DOJ, in totality, are not only immoral and unethical but are proving to be criminal in nature as illegal acts are being attributed to government witnesses with no reporting or actions taken on such acts. ATF and DOJ attorneys continue to ignore facts, evidence and the sworn testimony damaging to the governments defense and thus is extending this litigation unnecessarily.

My allegations that ATF intentionally neglected agent safety are being proven true and accurate to an alarming degree. The countersuit against me is also being proven to be just a retaliatory measure used by DOJ to chill my pursuit of justice.

Just as in my initial threat complaints (2004-2007), ATF ignored my claims until OSC/OIG oversight was instituted. Now in a repeat of the past and as a demonstration of ATF’s inability to improve or abide by the OSC recommendations, my allegations of corruption, criminal activity, reprisal and retaliation are again being proven true.

I respectfully submit my request asking you to look into this matter. The Justice Department has lost all objectivity, due in part to the fact that my employer, the Justice Department, is defending my lawsuit and suing me at the same time and under the same proceedings. This clear conflict of interest is stunning to me that it is being allowed and supported by the highest department in our government tasked with applying justice in our country. Please feel free to use this letter as a part of your inquiry.

I respectfully request that you ask the Office of Special Counsel, the Office of the Inspector General, ATF and DOJ to perform a case review of the governments defense of my lawsuit and the counterclaims filed against me - independent of the assigned defense/prosecution attorneys - to examine the merits of my lawsuit and the absence of merits of theirs, against me. Currently assigned DOJ counsel appears simply set on not doing so.

I am willing to discuss this matter with you in person at any time or location convenient to you. I will do so at my own expense.

I understand that you cannot involve yourselves beyond the limited level of inquiry I am requesting but oversight in this matter is critical. President Obama has demanded transparency in government.

As a career federal lawman and one intimately familiar and involved in the judicial process, justice is absolutely not being served by the Department of Justice in this matter. I am prepared, resourced and confident in my ability to take my lawsuit to trial and to defeat the DOJ’s lawsuit against me. Notwithstanding my commitment and willingness to fight this matter to the end, I have offered to find a common ground settlement with the government. DOJ’s continued desire to go forward with an unethical defense and prosecution is not what our government stands for or is based upon.

Deposition testimony has been taken that the ATF managers whom I have accused of wrongdoing have a pattern and practice of attempting to scuttle settlement negotiations with me, fearing that settlement is an admission of guilt and will damage their careers and reputations. To date, the determination of the ATF Office of Chief Counsel and other ATF officials to “out-resource” and “break me” prior to trial me while admitting no wrong - no matter the evidence - has wasted two years of ATF’s time and my time, with trial and resolution probably still two years away. Meanwhile, ATF agent safety remains compromised, especially for undercover agents, with no positive changes in sight. It is shameful and needs the intervention and leadership of the United States Senate.

I have communicated these situations to the White House and Eric Holder and have received no acknowledgement, response or feedback.

I need a stronger voice than just my own to speak for me. I therefore respectfully request your interest, attention and advocacy on my behalf in this matter.

As an addendum I have included weblink addresses to a select number of media stories that have previously reported on the matters I have asked for your assistance with.
Respectfully,

Jay A. Dobyns
ATF Special Agent
Tucson, AZ

Addendum to Senate Letter from Jay Dobyns

CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/05/atf.agent/index.html
Federal agent penetrated Hells Angels, fears for his life

WASHINGTON POST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/18/AR2009061804434.html
Undercover No More, Jay Dobyns Revs Up For a Different Fight

NEWSWEEK
http://www.newsweek.com/id/188155
A Very Hellish Journey. Jay Dobyns convinced the Hells Angels he was one of them. And that may have been the easy part. After going undercover, he's been a man on the run.

WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123611461950722501.html?mod=article-outset-box#articleTabs%3Darticle
Undercover With Hells Angels. In his new book, "No Angel," ATF agent Jay Dobyns writes about his undercover mission with the Hells Angels -- and the subsequent fallout

FOX NEWS
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=6487559&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/studiob/index.html
Hell Hath No Fury. Former undercover agent says ATF failed to protect his family

AOL NEWS
http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/agent-sues-atf-for-his-trouble-with-hells-angels/19355185
Agent Sues ATF for Trouble With Hells Angels

TUCSON WEEKLY
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=121675
THE GOOD GUY. Death threats be damned, Undercover Cop Jay Dobyns isn’t running anymore.

Anyone who has read any of my stuff over the years will know that I do not believe federal police agencies like the ATF have a constitutional leg to stand on and should be abolished. That said, I have also had my share of run-ins with dishonest or over-aggressive street agents. But the principal danger of another Waco comes from the agenda-driven Chief Counsel's Office and their minions throughout the agency, the same people who apparently sold out Jay Dobyns.

I do not expect that the CUATF agents will have a come-to-Jesus moment anytime soon and agree with my interpretation of their mandate. Even so, I find myself in the position of Winston Churchill, the staunch, life-long anti-communist who was twitted by opposition MPs for his favorable comments on the Russian resistance to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June, 1941: "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."

The Dobyns case is just one more example of the dishonest and dangerous rule of the Chief Counsel's Office, and it raises basic issues of honesty, fairness and transparency in government. I have no doubt that oversight hearings for any one issue of ATF corruption will be expanded to deal with ALL issues, CUATF's and ours.

This, as John Ringo says, is a "goodness thing."

Mike
III