"Dobyns attempted to warn them that something bad was about to happen under the ATF Phoenix mismanagement. . . They destroyed him for it."

Jay Dobyns

CovertOne writes at CleanUpATF.org:

Some of the best postings in the two-year history of CleanUpATF have made it to this topic page recently.

Cool Hand’s was the most telling. This situation is not about Gunrunner anymore. The topic is now about the corruption in ATF at the highest levels of management. Jay Dobyns' comments today have inspired my research and response here.

I pulled up the report he mentioned to make sure I was accurate it what I was about to write. The OIG report is a public and open source document (OIG/OSC File Number D1-07-0367).

“The OIG concluded that ATF failed to adequately investigate and needlessly and inappropriately delayed its response to threats made against SA Dobyns and his family”; that, “ATF should have taken the threats more seriously”; that, “ATF reached conclusions without gathering necessary information”; that, “ATF failed to respond to threats against Dobyns in an appropriate or timely manner”; and that, “ATF’s response to threats was inadequate, incomplete and needlessly delayed.”

What the OIG reported when referencing “ATF” was Bill Newell and George Gillette, the Gunrunner masterminds. This report was published in 2008, before there was an Operation Fast and Furious.

This is what got me. The Office of Special Counsel reported:

“I note with concern the absence of any corrective measures, the failure to conduct timely and thorough investigations into the death threats made against Special Agent Dobyns. ATF has not held anyone accountable in this regard.”

On June 18, 2009, Mr. William E. Reukauff, Associate Special Counsel, wrote in a letter to President Obama:

"Notably absent from the report, however, is any statement from ATF regarding action taken to adequately investigate the threats made against Special Agent Dobyns. If ATF is to fully address this issue, threats against agents must be pursued aggressively and officials at all levels must cooperate in any investigation. The protection of its own agents is critical to the success of ATF’s mission to protect the nation from violent crime and enforce federal criminal laws regulated the firearms and explosives industries.

As required by law, 5 U.S.C. Section 1213(e)(3), I have sent a copy of this report and the whistleblowers comments to the Chairmen of the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary. I have also sent copied to the ranking Member of each Committee.”"

I have posted a .pdf copy of this letter below for all to view. (MBV Note: Go to link and click on pdf.)

Obama and Holder did know that bad apples were in control in Phoenix and, right along with the ATF executives, they ignored it. Obama and Holder are lying to us in their public statements every day. Senator Grassley is right on the money in demanding that the OIG not be allowed to conduct the Gunrunner investigation. Obama and Holder aren’t going to listen to the OIG anyway, at least anymore than they have in the past and their track record proves it.

It is my understanding that Newell was never disciplined or even counseled for how tragically he managed the Dobyns threats. Again, it is my understanding because I have not seen the transcripts which the Government has placed under seal, Newell testified under oath during his deposition on the Dobyns matters that he had never even seen the OIG report until it was placed in front of him during that proceeding.

How does Billy Hoover, now the #2 man at ATF and then Newell’s first-line supervisor not discuss the OIG conclusions with Newell?

If ATF management is lacking this much concern for one of its own agents who is/was facing death threats how much credibility do they have to investigate the murders of Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata and moreso the hundreds of murders of the citizens of Mexico?

Cool Hand was right; this is now much bigger than guns going into Mexico. The President and Attorney General did know that ATF was being mismanaged in Phoenix to catastrophic levels. They took no action.

Dobyns attempted to warn them that something bad was about to happen under the ATF Phoenix mismanagement. He had no way of predicting that "something" would be Project Gunrunner or Operation Fast and Furious, but he knew it was breaking bad. They destroyed him for it.

A short period of time after all this came out Dobyns’s house was burned to the ground in an arson with his family inside and narrowly escaping. ATF did nothing.

The cycle repeats.