ATF Serial Perjury Follies Once Again: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

New ATF Meritorious Service Medal, approved by the Chief Counsel's Office.

My thanks to CPT R.A. Bear's associate in counterintelligence, CPT Jonathan Tuttle of the Beltway Commandos, for fowarding this story from the NAGR blog. My comments follow the second story.

BATFE agent commits perjury

An agent for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) has revealed that agents have committed perjury in order to persecute gun owners.

From the Modesto Bee:

An agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to tell the court that investigators lied in order to get permission to put a wiretap on Holloway’s phones. Defense lawyers say the agent’s claims cast doubt on the case against Holloway.

“You don’t usually see this in a case, where you have a government officer himself challenging the conduct leading up to something as important as a wiretap,” said Bill Osterhoudt, one of Holloway’s attorneys. “I think the judge will be interested in hearing it out.”

The agent, 50-year-old Vince Cefalu, said Thursday he couldn’t discuss his testimony. Cefalu said he was the lead investigator on the Road Dog case in 2005 and 2006, before the FBI became involved. He still is employed by ATF, working in the agency’s Dublin office.

Web post talks of ’shortcuts’

In a posting on the whistle- blower Web site CleanUpATF.org, Cefalu said investigators took “illegal shortcuts” to get the Holloway wiretap. “The officers committed perjury in their application affidavit for the tap,” Cefalu wrote in the posting.

When Cefalu spoke up about the “unethical and illegal” actions, he was removed from the case, he wrote in the Internet posting.

Prosecutors say Cefalu is a disgruntled employee with an ax to grind. Cefalu has filed several complaints about misconduct at ATF. He’s asked for federal authorities to investigate his claims.

Defense attorney Carl Faller, who represents Road Dog defendant Steven Johnson, said he expects prosecutors to paint Cefalu as an unreliable source, but he believes Cefalu is credible.

“This isn’t somebody with unknown qualifications who was sitting in their basement wearing an aluminum foil hat waiting for spaceships to land,” Faller said. “This is someone who was then and is currently employed as a federal law enforcement agent.”

It should come as no surprise to gun owners that the BATFE would be caught red handed twisting the law to persecute gun owners. Indeed, the BATFE has a long history of shading the truth and outright perjury in cases against gun owners.

Websites like CleanUpTheATF.org have attempted to documented the abuses and excess of the BATFE, though I believe we are long past “fixing” the BATFE.

Federal Raid on Road Dog Cycles.

Here is the original story from the Modesto Bee:

Friday, Jul. 24, 2009

Defense gets turn in Road Dog case

ATF agent expected to say that investigators got wiretaps illegally

By Leslie Albrecht

The way prosecutors tell it, the story of Robert C. Holloway and Road Dog Cycle reads like a crime movie screenplay: a one-time Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy who built a criminal empire out of his Denair motorcycle shop, maintaining power through fear and violence — and with help from Hells Angels and crooked lawmen.

Holloway, 61, was arrested a year ago along with 11 other men. He's charged with racketeering, running a chop shop, trafficking in stolen motorcycle parts and using violence to collect debts. Three defendants have pleaded guilty. Holloway is in a Fresno halfway house awaiting trial.

Today in a federal courtroom in Fresno, the story is expected to take another dramatic turn — only this time defense attorneys are writing the script.

An agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to tell the court that investigators lied in order to get permission to put a wiretap on Holloway's phones. Defense lawyers say the agent's claims cast doubt on the case against Holloway.

"You don't usually see this in a case, where you have a government officer himself challenging the conduct leading up to something as important as a wiretap," said Bill Osterhoudt, one of Holloway's attorneys. "I think the judge will be interested in hearing it out."

The agent, 50-year-old Vince Cefalu, said Thursday he couldn't discuss his testimony. Cefalu said he was the lead investigator on the Road Dog case in 2005 and 2006, before the FBI became involved. He still is employed by ATF, working in the agency's Dublin office.

Web post talks of 'shortcuts'

In a posting on the whistle- blower Web site CleanUpATF.org, Cefalu said investigators took "illegal shortcuts" to get the Holloway wiretap. "The officers committed perjury in their application affidavit for the tap," Cefalu wrote in the posting.

When Cefalu spoke up about the "unethical and illegal" actions, he was removed from the case, he wrote in the Internet posting.

Prosecutors say Cefalu is a disgruntled employee with an ax to grind. Cefalu has filed several complaints about misconduct at ATF. He's asked for federal authorities to investigate his claims.

Defense attorney Carl Faller, who represents Road Dog defendant Steven Johnson, said he expects prosecutors to paint Cefalu as an unreliable source, but he believes Cefalu is credible.

"This isn't somebody with unknown qualifications who was sitting in their basement wearing an aluminum foil hat waiting for spaceships to land," Faller said. "This is someone who was then and is currently employed as a federal law enforcement agent."

Phone calls to be argued

In addition to Cefalu's testimony, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger will hear arguments on whether to throw out wiretap evidence against Holloway. Defense attorneys have filed a motion to suppress the evidence.

Thousands of taped calls from Holloway's cell, business and home phones make up the heart of the government's case. Tossing out that evidence would "put a tremendous hole in the middle of the prosecution's case," Faller said.

It was Wanger who gave investigators permission to tap Holloway's phones in the fall of 2007. Wiretaps are considered an extraordinary step because they intrude on a citizen's privacy. To use one, investigators must convince a judge that traditional surveillance methods aren't working. They also must show that there's probable cause to believe that the wiretap target has, is or will commit certain crimes.

Defense attorneys say the FBI failed to do both. In court filings, defense lawyers charge that the FBI relied on hearsay and emotionally charged innuendo — not hard facts — to make a case that Holloway was engaged in criminal activities. Prosecutors say agents proved there was "substantial basis" for probable cause.

Motions filed concerning the wiretaps reveal the extent of the government's digging into Holloway — and, more interestingly, what they thought they would uncover.

When the FBI first applied for a wiretap in September 2007, agents told Wanger they expected to catch Holloway involved in money laundering, firearms violations, and manufacturing, importing and selling meth and marijuana. Holloway isn't charged with any of those crimes.

Documents give money clues

Prosecutors have yet to say how vast and profitable Holloway's suspected racketeering operation was. Court documents provide some clues. One search warrant turned up $13,000 in cash, several stolen motorcycle parts, a loaded 9 mm pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun. In a guilty plea, Hells Angel Ray Heffington admitted to trafficking in stolen motorcycle parts worth $10,000 to $30,000. Holloway's estranged son told the court in May that Holloway has money and connections stashed across the globe.

Court filings show that government agents were tracking Holloway as far back as 1999. As the probe grew, it included undercover agents and at least three informants, one of whom worked at Road Dog. Agents followed Holloway to San Diego. They trailed a truck carrying motorcycle parts from Denair to Bakersfield and then to Los Angeles.

Defense attorneys say those surveillance methods worked, but agents intentionally downplayed their success to justify the wiretap application.

Prosecutors say that's not true. They say investigators couldn't use traditional methods because Holloway had too many connections with law enforcement and outlaw biker gangs. Holloway, who was once a sheriff's deputy, would be wise to law enforcement techniques, they say. Using informants and undercover agents was risky, prosecutors say, because Hells Angels have a history of retaliating against people who give information to the government.

MBV: Here's the thing that is going to continue to eat away at the street agents who are tasked with "making the case" by higher ups regardless of the law. If you do what they ask and testify falsely under oath, do you think that THEY will suffer the consequences of the perjury, or will it be the street agents?

Sooner or later, especially in those cases with the fingerprints of the Chief Counsel's Office on them, someone is going to refuse to open themselves up to a stint in federal prison just to forward an agenda under the color of law rather than enforce the law itself.

There is already a long-standing grievance in the minds of the street agents over enforcing "chickenshit" paperwork violations and shaking down law-abiding gun stores like Red's just because the Chief Counsel's Office (who, as we have explained before, actually runs the day-to-day operations of the ATF) is eager to lick the boots of the anti-gun Congressmen and Senators who provide the money for the agency budget and political cover in case of misadventure. The best of the street agents would rather be going after MS-13 and other gangs. (Actually, anti-gang stuff is something the ATF has historically done very well on.)

It is only a matter of time before somebody within the agency decides that it is in his or her enlighted self-interest to bring the whole rotten structure down, tumbling the professional liars of the Chief Counsel's Office into the dirt and shining the antiseptic treatment of sunlight on a bureaucratic bunch of morally diseased scum -- the same kind of scum who put David Olofson in prison for a malfunctioning semi-auto rifle and who attack innocent gun owners, dealers and manufacturers with "economic Wacos" as an example to the rest of us of the dangers of disrespecting and resisting the diktats of the Regime's apparatchiks.

Mike
III

NOTE: Once again, Jody Keeku and Little Jimmy Vann have my thanks for getting me off the sidelines and back into the fight against this monstrous criminal conspiracy against the law, the Constitution and the people of the United States, all in service of a vile agenda that the Founders would spit upon.

Tucson Tea Party Town Hall on Gunwalker packs 'em in. Vince Cefalu wows the crowd. Nobody died at the Watergate Hotel.

Tea Party looking for answers in ATF gun mistake

Now that it's over the people said they hope they can sustain the energy from the meeting to reach the ultimate goal of accountability and transparency.

Folks, we need more of these. Tea Partiers, if you want a scandal that highlights your critique of how large and dangerous really big government is, Gunwalker is it. We need MANY more of these.

LATER: Katie Pavlich reports Vince Cefalu wows the crowd.

Now, Katie gets some important things wrong in this story. To my knowledge, Vince Cefalu was never "heavily involved in Operation Fast and Furious." He WAS instrumental in many ways by seeing that the Phoenix whistleblowers were able to get their story out to the Congresscritters, the press and the wider world. Vince was himself victimized by ATF management for insisting that the right thing be done in another case he was involved in. This was some time before John Dodson's revelations in early 2011.

However, she reports:

“To think that they could do this sort of operation knowing there could be a dead ATF agent at the ends of those guns made me nauseous,” he said.

Despite threats from his superiors, Cefalu blew the whistle about Operation Fast and Furious anyway, which has landed him under review for what he describes as “a proposal for removal for telling the truth.“

“Unchecked power corrupts,” he said, adding that there are no longer checks and balances within ATF.

In his speech, Cefalu made the larger argument that this is a major government corruption problem, not only surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, but about a runaway government that doesn't answer to the people, saying ATF agents and the Department of Justice shouldn’t be able to say no to Congress when asked for documentation surrounding operations within the Bureau. The Obama Justice Department has been stonewalling the House Oversight Committee in its investigation into Operation Fast and Furious since day one.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who is fighting on the ground in Arizona against the very cartels the federal government has been arming, was appalled at the operation, saying this scandal will “totally eclipse Watergate,” and made the case that Operation Fast and Furious was used as program to restrict Second Amendment rights for law abiding citizens. He brought up the lie that 90 percent of guns in Mexico come from the United States, told over and over again by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. The 90 percent figure has been proven false by multiple fact checking organizations, intelligence sources and even ATF agents yet, Obama and Holder have tried to make the case that all the violence in Mexico comes from the United States.

“He’s [Obama] saying that to build the argument to restrict our gun rights in America,” Babeu said, and internal ATF emails prove it.

Babeu was also disgusted at the idea that the government has never apologized to the family of Brian Terry, despite guns from Operation Fast and Furious being used by a cartel member to kill him.

“He was a cop, he was a marine and was murdered on American soil,” Babeu said.

“I want nothing out of this bit for justice to be served and for Brian Terry’s mama to know that somebody cared,” Cefalu said. “You’ve sent that message tonight, that you cared.”

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar described Operation Fast and Furious as “A Few Good Men being played out in real life,” adding that humans were used as collateral damage while the federal government armed Mexican cartel members with .50 caliber sniper rifles, a weapon strong enough to take down a helicopter, and AK-47s.

“I want to remind you, we had a couple of guys break into a hotel take down an administration, nobody died,” Gosar said. “When are we going to hold agencies and bureaucrats to task?”

Gosar, Babeu and Cefalu all called for accountability from the Obama Administration multiple times throughout the evening and questions from the audience were centered around who ultimately would be held responsible for not only the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, but also for the deaths of thousands of innocent Mexicans.

“These people are now being killed wholesale,” Cefalu said.

In the past 18 months, 22,000 Mexicans have been killed.

“President Obama is not above the law and he and this administration will have to account for this,” Babeu said.

The Evil Empire Strikes Back. So much for DOJ assurances of non-retaliation. Vince Cefalu served with termination papers today.

“The Department of Justice will not, would never, retaliate against whistleblowers.” -- Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich, testifying under oath, 15 June 2011.

Mugshot of a lying (under oath) sack of shit.

Posted by Vince's friend Jay Dobyns on CleanUpATF.org.

David Codrea's take.

ATF served Special Agent Vince Cefalu with termination paperwork today.

What they have done is disguised reprisal and retaliation as something else to fire him.

What some of you may not know about Vince is that he was a United States Marine, a local police officer and U.S. Customs Agent before he came to ATF. In spite of his sometimes callous methods of expressing himself he has never failed to speak the truth, represent for what is right, fight for justice, and; doing all in the face of those who have the power to take his job of 25 years.


Vince Cefalu.

ATF has done everything within their power to break this agent. They have been proactive in the destruction of his reputation, killed his career, ruined his personal finances and have had immense negative influence on his personal relationships and family members. Why? Because he didn't go along to get along. He didn't shut his mouth when ordered to. He didn't sit back like a coward when he saw things being done wrong, unethically and illegally. Now they are proposing to take the last thing they still have control over but, have yet to act on, his job.

I will say this from personal experience; Vince will stand in the path of a bullet for any good person and do so knowing the personal consequence could be grave but, at the same time being true to his character which is to stand up for people who can't or won't stand up for themselves. I have seen him do it on more than one occasion. And, when I say "bullet" I mean a projectile, AND, all the other various means and methods of attack that could be characterized as a bullet.

I would simply ask that anyone who believes in those traits and/or those who have personally witnessed the risks he has gladly accepted to help them and help reform ATF to weigh in on his behalf.

Vince does not deserve this in any way. It is an open demonstration of the corrupt arrogance of ATF management to ignore and defend those who have committed crimes as members of the agency but in turn, to attack Cefalu. No better example of ATF's double-standards exists than what took place today.

Ken Melson, you own this one as well as your Office of Chief Counsel. Shame on you and you attorneys for engaging in the retaliation you swore to America would not take place on your watch.

Ultimately why is Vince being fired. Because he exposed corruption, blew the whistle and helped launch CleanUpATF. This is ATF's payback.

God bless Vince Cefalu in his time of trouble.

-- Jay Dobyns.

David Codrea observes: "Perhaps this will be the catalyst that will prompt Chairman Issa to begin issuing contempt citations, if not to begin the process for demanding a special prosecutor."

The ATF will say that this firing has nothing to do with the Gunwalker Scandal. That, too, I know personally, would be a lie. Folks, let your Congresscritter know that the ATF is unlawfully hammering on the agents who helped bring the Gunwalker scandal to light. DEMAND that they demand that ATF and DOJ cease and desist.

"Follow the money." Meet ATF's favorite "whitewash crew." 15 pages of FOIA redactions, but there is more than one way to skin a skunk.

"Just follow the money."

Robert Redford as Bob Woodward: "Supposedly he's got a lawyer with $25,000 in a brown paper bag."

Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat, a.k.a. Mark Felt: "Follow the money."

Redford: "...What do you mean?... Where?"

Holbrook: "Oh, I can't tell you that."

Redford: "But you could tell me that."

Holbrook: "No, I have to do this my way. You tell me what you know, and I'll confirm. I'll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that's all... Just follow the money." -- All the President's Men.

Ever since there has been an ATF, there were always EEOC complaints. The Good O' Boys Roundup scandal was the just tip of the iceberg. Over the years, though, the scope of EEOC mechanisms broadened out from strictly racial issues. In time, federal government managers looked to outside law firms to help defend against an ever-widening number and type of complaints. In theory this "contracting out" was to allow the complaints to be investigated dispassionately, without prejudice to either side. In practice, the legal contractors began to identify more and more with the hand that fed them. They also developed investigative arms that grew larger than the legal staff, since in all cases, knowledge is power and credibility is the coin of the realm.

Meet Delany, Seigel, Zorn & Associates. DSZ is a private business management consultant with offices in Boston and Arlington, Virginia. It is thought that by some DC folks I asked that the estimates found on the web of an annual revenue of up to $5 million and an employee base of 20 is understated. EEOC consulting is growth industry for DSZ, at least in part thanks to the ATF.

As a long-time observer of DC told me the other day, "They are a monster. (DSZ is) the government whitewash crew for EEOC complaints. So now we know where some of the 1.1 billion dollars is going."

As for DSZ, this is what they have to say about their products and services:

DSZ's services are designed to help you identify and solve employment problems in the workplace before they become troublesome. . .

DSZ's 18 years of investigation experience will provide you with cost effective, accurate, reliable and timely investigations in response to employment discrimination complaints. DSZ conducts over 800 investigations annually. We have more than 60 experienced, independent investigators available, nationwide, in whose technical excellence, judgment and professionalism you can be confident.

DSZ has investigated a wide range of employment issues, including those involving individual, consolidated and class complaints. You can trust DSZ's experience and expertise to help your organization or company effectively investigate its employment discrimination complaints. You can rely on DSZ whether the issue is sexual harassment, reasonable accommodation under the Rehabilitation Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act, Family Medical Leave Act issues, or allegations under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, or the Equal Pay Act.

For federal agencies, DSZ's experienced legal staff also provides written case analyses, including draft and final agency decisions. DSZ's investigative files have successfully guided employers through administrative hearings and litigation. Our final agency decisions have withstood EEOC and Court reviews and analyses.

Here is the GSA contract ordering information and here is the DSZ price table. They ain't cheap and ATF provides them with substantial billable hours.

How much of your tax dollars goes to DSZ by way of ATF?

Well, ATF agent Vince Cefalu at CleanUpATF.org tried to find out by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. Here is what they got back:



Fifteen pages just like this. Cefalu comments:

Well now that we are on a continuing resolution and we apparently have NO money, maybe the ACTING Director can explain the attached documents. We have no money for travel, training, SRT, NRT, or any other significant Bureau program, BUT? Attached is ONE of 15 pages of redacted FOIA information, representing how much the Bureau has paid out to the contract agency used to investigate EEOC allegations. Apparently the Director and Mr. Hoover have ignored or are not aware of President Obama's and the Attorney Generals direction regarding transparency. Do the math, how much would the following disbursements pay for in the way of mission related expenses? Would it have paid for more investigative expenses? Is it National security information? Simple question, HOW MUCH HAVE WE PAID to cover up gross mismanagement? There is line after line of TAXPAYER money which they(ATF)feel is somehow protected. You decide. How much do you think 15 pages amounts to?

DSZ's corporate logo?

Well, as Grandpa Vanderboegh used to say, there's more than one way to skin a skunk. I consulted the DSZ staff directory and decided to ask the other end of this Faustian pact what they were willing to disclose.

-----Original Message-----
From: georgemason1776
To: swilliams
Cc: stephen_miller ; sarah_haley ; Stephen.R.Rubenstein
Sent: Sat, Jan 1, 2011 10:55 am
Subject: re: BATFE billing.

Sonya Williams, President
DSZ & Associates
1501 Lee Highway, Suite 205
Arlington, VA 22209
Sent to: swilliams@dsz.com

Dear Ms. Williams,

A FOIA request recently filed by ATF Special Agent Vincent Cefalu regarding BATFE expenditures, in his words, "representing how much the Bureau has paid out to the contract agency used to investigate EEOC allegations," came back with fifteen pages so heavily redacted that the only thing readable on them is your firm's name. No doubt this is in keeping with the Obama administration's diktat on "transparency."

However, as my Grandpa Vanderboegh used to say, "There's more than one way to skin a skunk." Therefore, I thought I would write you and ask you the same question that SA Cefalu is asking his agency.

How much business has DSZ done with the BATFE over the past five years? Obviously I'm not asking for names or any other information that might be confidential. Inquiring minds would just like to know how much business you've done with BATFE in gross dollars. Surely that is not classified information.

You will note that I have copied this email to members of Senator Sessions' staff and will also forward it later to members of the House of Representatives various oversight committees. One way or another, now or later, this fact will surely become public.

So, to avoid all sorts of sturm und drang acrimony, can't you help us all out by disclosing what SA Cefalu has asked his agency -- information which surely ought to be released under the Freedom of Information Act?

I await your reply with great interest.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters
PO Box 926
Pinson, AL 35126

Looks like the ATF will end up as roadkill in the Road Dog case.

"I learned from an insider that other ATF Special Agents (not SA Cefalu) came forward and testified last week, called ATF bosses liars, and that the next hearing is February 9th." -- Confidential intelligence report from CPT Jonathan Tuttle.

In a related development, ATF Acting Director Melson decides to adopt Wile E. Coyote as the agency mascot.

CPT Jonathan Tuttle of the Beltway Commandos reports in on the Road Dog case (see "Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire"). It seems that CPT Tuttle is now in a sort of friendly competition with CPT R.A. Bear of the Dogtown Rangers to see who can dig up the most embarrassing dirt on the ATF. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one end up on a network.

His report reads, in part:

Dear Mr. Vanderboegh,

This case is going on as we speak. I learned from an insider that other ATF Special Agents (not SA Cefalu) came forward and testified last week, called ATF bosses liars, and that the next hearing is February 9th. I also learned this is an ongoing RICO trial involving an illegal wiretap.

The story below, published last November, states that trial is set for July 10, 2010.

http://thehive.modbee.com/node/16791

Bee staff writer Leslie Albrecht can be reached at lalbrecht@modbee.com or 578-2378. Follow her at Twitter.com/BeeReporter.

I find she is reporting the case on her Twitter: http://twitter.com/roaddogcase

The most recent article, published January 10, 2010, is at:

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/1016365.html

nota bene:

"The courtroom was cleared of onlookers — except attorneys and defendants — when the agents testified because they still work undercover, Faller said.

The two undercover agents talked about the progress of the investigation into Holloway and Road Dog in 2005 and 2006. They backed up what another Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent, Vincent Cefalu, told the court previously: that investigators were making headway in their probe into Holloway's activities, Faller said.

That's important because it strengthens the assertion that the government lied on its wiretap application. Wiretaps are considered an extraordinary invasion of privacy, so the government is only allowed to use one if other investigative methods have failed. That's what the FBI claimed when it asked Wanger for permission to tap Holloway's phones."

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/local/story/1016365.html#ixzz0e7JdPMbz

. . . I'm sure court documents are available through the PACER system, to which I don't have access, and I don't know the name of the case.

Best regards,

CPT Jonathan Tuttle
Beltway Commandos, S-2

So, is there a lame stream media outlet that is willing to follow this story through to the inevitable Congressional hearing? Inquiring minds want to know.

They are now talking plea agreement with the principal defendant. This is what they always do when their case comes apart. Just ask Doug Friesen.

But what about the street agents? Chief Counsel's Office's initial impulse will be to come down on Agent Cefalu and his fellow agents who told the truth. But can DC afford to take that risk? Now? With every other case falling out of the sky thanks to their own incompetence or unlawful and corrupt vindictiveness?

By now, Melson has to be feeling like Wile E. Coyote. Every time they try for the roadrunner, either gravity or their own Acme explosive device gets them instead.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.

To Dan III and the anonymous posters and emailers who are telling me what a thug Jay Dobyns is.

Of Jay Dobyns and his fight with the ATF, Dan III writes:

Never forget Dobyns was one of the ATF thugs who attacked the Constitution in the course of his ATF "duties". He's just another badged thug, now former, who compromised his principles and his oath to defend the Constitution. May he rot in hell with all the other badged, tyrannical, .gov scum.

Another anonymous commenter writes:

There are no "good guys" in the ATF. All of them are domestic enemies of the Constitution. Internal spats like this may be a source of amusement, but under no circumstances should anyone who has ever arrested someone for a "federal firearms violation" be considered an ally of the freedom movement.

I have had emails in a similar vein, many of them more vehement and obscene than these. To that I would respond with this inconvenient fact: The Fast and Furious scandal would not have been uncovered without the assistance of Jay Dobyns, Vince Cefalu and the agents of CleanUpATF.org. Go that? Would. NOT. Jay Dobyns is hardly a perfect person. Nor is Vince Cefalu. Nor am I. Nor, I daresay, are any of you readers. Philosophically we disagree on many things, Dobyns, Cefalu and I. If you are looking for perfect people to restore liberty in this country you will come up short of the required number.

Another observation: People change and what seems to be right to them, even to their own understanding of how the universe works, can be changed -- in an instant or over time -- in the face of newly-demonstrated realities. I offer myself and my Benedict Arnold-period embrace of communism as a perfect example of that. Yet God chooses many imperfect instruments to carry out His will. The longer I live, the more convinced I am of that. As I said Cefalu and Dobyns would still disagree with me on many things and I with them, but what we discovered in the crucible of working on Fast and Furious and other ATF scandals was that men and women who disagree about many things can still find common cause in certain other, bigger, things. Among these are truth, fairness, and resistance to arbitrary power and the secrecy that it covets.

Try also to remember that if Michael Collins had adopted the attitude that there were "no good guys" in the Royal Irish Constabulary, all of Ireland would still be British.

LA Times: "Gillett had received death threats before making the decision to cooperate."

Key figure in ATF's Gunrunner operation cooperating in congressional inquiry.

George Gillett Jr. is expected to reveal crucial information about how a federal operation allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of Mexican drug gangs.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

April 9, 2011

A key leader in the federal law enforcement operation suspected of allowing high-powered assault weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels is now cooperating with congressional investigators, providing a crucial new window into the controversial operation known as Project Gunrunner.

George Gillett Jr., assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' field office in Phoenix, has met with congressional investigators and is expected to provide crucial information about how dozens of U.S. guns may have been transported with the ATF's knowledge into Mexico. Agents say Gillett provided much of the day-to-day oversight of the Gunrunner operation.

Two guns involved in the operation were found at the scene of a shootout in southern Arizona in December in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Brian Terry was killed, prompting at least three inquiries on Capitol Hill.

ATF officials have acknowledged that at least 195 weapons sold under the investigation have been recovered in Mexico, traced as a matter of routine via serial numbers after their recovery from crime scenes, arrests and searches.

Several ATF agents who objected to the gun transfers but were rebuffed by their supervisors already have provided extensive information to Congress and in interviews with The Times.

Gillett, who supervised the group running the Arizona component of Project Gunrunner, known as "Fast and Furious," initially dismissed those concerns and previously ordered ATF agents to avoid all communications with whistle-blowers who were cooperating with the congressional inquiries, several agents said in interviews.

Now, though, Gillett is talking. In a letter Friday to ATF management, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, disclosed that Gillett was cooperating with a congressional inquiry and had participated in two preliminary meetings with investigators.

Gillett, who was named to the Phoenix field office's No. 2 post in June 2008, previously served as an ATF field supervisor in Los Angeles.

After repeated refusals by the ATF and the Justice Department to provide detailed information about the conduct of the Gunrunner investigation and how the guns found at the scene of Terry's death got into criminal hands, Gillett's decision to come forward is crucial, agency sources said.

Vince Cefalu, an ATF agent in California who says he has suffered retaliation for criticizing ATF management in another case, said Gillett would be able to provide crucial information on who approved the operation. He will also be able to say to what degree ATF supervisors deliberately allowed guns bought by known "straw purchasers," acting on behalf of Mexican drug cartels, to be "walked" into Mexico under the eyes of ATF agents in an attempt to arrest higher-level suspects, Cefalu said.

ATF officials acknowledge they were monitoring the sale of guns to suspect buyers but say they did not deliberately allow any guns into Mexico — an assertion contradicted by several ATF agents and the agency's policy document.

Gillett "has the key to all the skeletons in the closet. You can rest assured he's going to be pointing the finger at everybody but himself," Cefalu said. "I should also add that I'm disgusted by the fact that only to protect himself is he coming forward. We came forward when we didn't have to, and we've taken a beating for it. He's coming forward with a lawyer, and he's going to glide through it with some kind of immunity."

Gillett could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Peter Noone, said he could not discuss the case. In response to questions, he confirmed that Gillett had received death threats before making the decision to cooperate.

kim.murphy@latimes.com

Counterpunching against the Empire: Vince Cefalu to be on FOX News tonight, 6:05PM Eastern / 3:05 Pacific

Just received this by email.

From CleanUpATF:

OK people here we go with the first concrete wave. You gotta understand that these ATF undercover agents are a different breed of cat. They don't roll over and lay down like the sissy's that run the join. They get up, rally together and fight back.

Who: ATF Special Agent Vince Cefalu

What: Appearing on Fox's National Cable Television Program America's Nightly Scoreboard

When: TODAY! 6:05 eastern / 3:05 pacific

Where: Nationwide on your televsion. Here is a link to find the station on your local cable

Why: Because ATF retaliated against Cefalu for blowing the whistle in the face of Congressional warnings and DOJ representatives stating that this never happens

How: Because ATF management does not care what anyone says, tells them to do or the law states.

The Gunwalker Scandal connection to the Vince Cefalu whistleblower retaliation firing.

From CleanUpATF.org we have several reactions to the retaliatory firing notice served on Vince Cefalu.

ATF agent Microscope, reacting to the news that Melson does not wish to leave the agency and become a scapegoat:

Oh that's just super Ken. Now that your ass is on the line your testicles drop and you all of sudden form a backbone to stand tall?

With everything going on how did you find the time to fire Agent Cefalu? When we find out what attorneys on your staff orchestrated the whitewash frame job you did on him they are going to be looking for the door too.

ATF agent Simple Man explains the Gunwalker connection:

DAD Bill McMahon and SAC Andy Anderson were the two agents on the disciplinary panel who voted to fire Vince. There were a couple other twits and the Bureau Deciding Official G. Elaine Smith.

Don't care about the twits. Don't care about Smith. She may have final say but she is just a puppet for Chief Counsels Office.

Andy Anderson voting to kill off an agent based on one-sided IA report? No surprises there. He wears the right cuff links and has his shirts monogrammed so he can do whatever he wants in the world of ATF executives (except ever have the respect of another hard working ATF Agent again). All you have ever done is say 'no' to agents that is until it comes time to fire one and they you say 'yes'. You are one of the ones who has to be buried in the reorganization.

Bill McMahon voted to get rid of Vince. OK. Let's review. Bill McMahon is Bill Newell's first level supervisor. Bill McMahon is in the chain of command for Fast and Furious. Bill McMahon has supervised for years, John Torres, Bill Newell, Kelvin Crenshaw. Bill McMahon could have fired any of the three, done ATF a service and been completely justified and supported. . .

Bill McMahon. What happened to you? Do you remember the day your balls fell off or did they just slowly dissolve once you started drinking the headquarters KoolAid and you never really noticed they were gone?

Vince is going to shock the House with the details of his railroading. As the truth comes out the embarrassment to ATF will grow larger. He'll have his gun and badge back with back pay soon enough.

McMahon, you'll hopefully be sitting in a jail cell, broke after the Terry's take your money in a civil suit, and you can think about what a coward you turned out to be by supporting Fast and Furious.

Hey Bill. We were going to let this one go but since you turned into a total douche, get ready to explain all your cool trips on ATF's dime where you dragged your girlfriend around. Some to Europe too, huh. You better have this covered and buttoned down tight because a whole lotta people know what you been up to, watched you do it, heard you talk about it, watched you cheat the G for your personal pleasure.

Game on bitches!

Serial perjurer "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh sounds off on the appointment process of an ATF Director. Vince Cefalu for Director?

Serial perjurer "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh -- who has been serving as the ATF's unofficial criticism deflection spokesman ever since he retired (no point in subpoenaing him since he's no longer in the chain of command so the SOB can say anything he wants without factual challenge) -- tells us that the Director position of the ATF should be made "non-political." Cavanaugh wants to put the appointment process out of the reach of those blue meanies at the NRA. The meme, of course, is on track with the firearm confiscationist crowd's assertion that the Gunwalker Scandal would never have happened if the ATF had a permanent director. Here's the latest example of that from the editorial page of the Chicago Tribune.

What horsecrap.

Robert Mueller of the FBI, Hillary Clinton at State, Janet Napolitano at DHS, and all the heads of the various subordinate agencies except ATF were permanent appointees. They all saluted the Gunwalker idea when it was run up the flag pole and made sure their agencies got in line with the White House's desires. Each of those agencies is still covering up their own culpability in the worst federal government scandal ever.

If you know much of "Waco Jim's" career, the hypocrisy drips from every sentence.

Leaders earn and gain their real power not from certificates or anointments, rather from three things: Their integrity, their willingness to accept responsibility and their experience and competence to do the job.

So, in essence, the most effective way to get that leader is to keep it where it had been for the many decades: In the career civil service and in the career Senior executive service. The Justice Department can choose a very able person from that system to head up the agency.

I believe the director of ATF should be an ATF Special Agent, one who has sat out all night in the rain on a surveillance, worked on difficult bombings and arson cases, made undercover buys from violent felons, worked with victims of violent crime, talked to gun and explosives dealers and understands their issues, obtained and served dangerous search warrants, testified many times as a witness, worked with informants, heard shots fired in anger, and listened to the hate filled rants of Klansmen and militiamen neo-Nazis.

In other words, a leader who understands and has experienced the unique challenges that ATF faces.

Riiiight. Here's the real motivation of this piece. Cavanaugh, as savvy a political player in ATF's senior executive service as there ever was, a man willing to commit perjury to protect himself and his bosses, a man who was such a "team player" that he let the Waco dynamic raid go forward even when he knew the security was compromised at the risk of his own men, is speaking from his own ego here.

According to my sources within the ATF, HE always wanted to be Director, always thought he deserved it, and yet after Waco there was never going to be a political appointment for him, which is why he never got further up the chain than the Nashville field division.

He also may be trying now to make the case for himself as a dark horse candidate.

Whatever Cavanaugh's motivation, you can bet your ass it is self-serving and favor-currying. His career at ATF demonstrates little else, and his retirement has changed nothing.

You want to make somebody Director of ATF? Well, if the agency isn't going to be abolished (and I am on record as saying that as long as the current firearm laws aren't going to be repealed -- and they're not -- that I prefer the devil I know in rehab enforcing them to the devil I don't, like the secret political policemen at DHS), my vote is for Vince Cefalu. We disagree on one helluva lot, but at least he's honest. And, unlike Cavanaugh, he's not a serial perjurer. In fact, Vince blew the whistle on perjurers, which is what got him in trouble with the ATF's Chief Counsels Office to begin with.

Hey, now there's the first thing that Waco Jim and I have ever agreed on. The head of the ATF, if it is going to exist at all, maybe ought to be an honest street agent, somebody tough enough to tell his political bosses when they come to him with a BS idea like Gunwalker to go take one flying at a rolling doughnut.

However, I'm certain that Vince Cefalu is probably not the guy that Cavanaugh -- or the DOJ bosses that he is still trying to curry favor with -- had in mind.

Vince Cefalu in his own words. On FOX Business & in an interview at Tickle the Wire, kicking Waco Jim Cavanaugh's ass.

ATF Agent Says Agency Can Get an Agent Confirmed as Director if They’re Top Notch

Vincent Cefalu is a special agent with ATF. His column is in response to a column authored by ex-ATF official James Cavanaugh, who said appointing an ATF director by presidential appointment isn’t working. Cavanaugh said the appointment should be made by the umbrella agency — the Justice Department.

By Vincent A. Cefalu
For ticklethewire.com

I too I have worked for many Directors for 25 years and am STILL on the job. Therefore I would like to respond to the ATF unofficial mouth piece, Jim Cavanaugh.

First of all please stop speaking for ATF management, they are big boys. They have chosen to speak through DOJ attorney’s instead and that is quite troubling.

Your comments early in this debacle suggested you were trying to mitigate and minimize HQs accountability for being so out of control. You were making excuses for how hard catching gunrunners is. Let me break it down for you; you develop evidence and probable cause you seize their guns and arrest them or not. No Guns hit the street.

They LET 2000 guns go to criminals because no one in the loop had the courage or integrity to stop it. Sound familiar Jim? You are obviously doing a Great bit of promoting. And I am intimately aware of the gunshots you heard in anger, and the circumstances of why you heard those shots. That’s not a GOOD thing Jim. Why exactly did you hear gunshots at all?

Have you lost your mind? Keep the appointment in Justice? Yeah that’s who I want overseeing and making sure ATF is accountable.

We have the opportunity to stand with the big boys and because of a totally ineffective and abusive Executive staff, you assert that we can’t get a Director confirmed.

Enter Clarence Thomas, he got confirmed, enter an EXTRA 2 years for the Honorable Mr. Mueller. Stop telling the American people St. John cant get confirmed. How would you know that. All three of our last attempts failed. Stop selecting poor candidates and we will have a Director. Just because he has an ATF badge, doesn’t make him competent

I think what you fail to acknowledge is that Mr. Magaw saved and rebuilt this agency, love him or hate him. He definitely would have been confirmed. Then Mr. Truscott began the process of bosses being bigger than the mission.

Then Mr. Sullivan, who paid about as much attention to our agency as you do to facts. Half United States Attorney and half ATF Director. I think I may have figured out why we have lost our explosives jurisdiction for all practical purposes.

Our ESF 13 function was openly criticized by the GAO. Our NRT program is in the tank and we have more employee disputes than either the FBI or DEA. The industry that we have all worked so hard to become partners with over the last 30 years hate us and don’t trust us.

A Director from inside would be preferred by ALL. The notion the NRA will tank anybody for no reason is insane.

The abuses brought down on the industry by bad policies, the legislating from inside a Bureau has to stop. The total adversarial demeanor has to change, between the field and HQ. Most have lost faith.

That’s not going to happen, dipping a little deeper into the same poison well. They are all either promoted by or have promoted each other.

We need clean crisp leadership to groom a future Agent as our Director. A General Stanley McChrystal of sorts, that realizes HQ is here to support the field, not the other way around. Put a strong “A” political Cop Boss in their and he will get confirmed as a Director.

The exact reason the current and your generation of bosses got away with so much is because the layers of accountability were so thick, and there was no transparency.

No one much had accountability that he/she couldn’t hand off to somebody else. Lets be accountable. We are ATF. We don’t redact 95% of a document to a Congressional Chairman. We hand all of our stuff over. We are ATF and we have nothing to hide.

So Jim, if we let the Justice Department pick our Director, is it your assertion that they would hold likes of Mclemore, Crenshaw, Ford, Hoover at bay?

Um, do you watch the news? The agency lacks character and accountability at the highest levels. An outsider has to clean house, and then provide a short list of qualified managers for consideration as our Director. And no Jim, that is not going to be you. If it makes you feel better, I don’t want the job either.

David Codrea: ATF whistleblower Cefalu parking lot termination secretly recorded

Riehl, seen talking to Cefalu through his Jeep window and reportedly telling him he couldn’t leave because he had to sign papers, had been criticized on the CUATF forum, and Gun Rights Examiner is attempting to track down audit reports to determine what an independent assessment reveals about the allegations there. But the bottom line is, an employee with over 25 years of service who has been a leading spokesman for whistleblowers was unceremoniously canned in a public parking lot by senior division management.

This just in from the desert telegraph: Vince Cefalu to be on FOX News tomorrow at 10AM Eastern.

Just received this email:

The buzz saw known as Vince Cefalu will be back at it tomorrow morning on FOX! Spread the word!

10am hour eastern / 7am hour pacific

America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum - FOX News Channel

This should be good.

ATF, for the record this show pulls a 3 Million viewership audience share. Ouch!

David Codrea: ATF whistleblower Cefalu calls on Romney to address Fast and Furious gunwalking

Whistleblowing Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent Vince Cefalu, in the news of late for having a stay placed on his termination by retaliatory management, itself a headline-generating event due to his high media profile and the callous way it was done, called on Republican Presidential contender Mitt Romney Friday to show leadership on Fast and Furious gunwalking.

Special Agent and Whistleblower Vince Cefalu's Trial Against ATF For Retaliation Starts Monday

After eight years of constant government stonewalling and mistreatment, including an unexplained firing in a Denny's parking lot, Special Agent and whistleblower Vince Cefalu's trial against the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives for retaliation and unlawful termination is set to start Monday.

ATF Agents write Issa and House Judiciary Committee. "Project Gunrunner or the "walking" guns portion could/should have been prevented."

Senior Special Agent Vincent Cefalu sent this through the Issa' website portal. The opening comment is dated today. The original of the attachment was sent two years ago. Had their complaint been heeded then, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO PROJECT GUNWALKER SCANDAL. This is a key fact which should not be lost in the more sexy discussion about Gunwalker. All the previous scandals and the way they were swept under the rug just added to management arrogance and an informed opinion that they were invulnerable to oversight or rebuke. From this came Gunwalker. And note well: administrations of BOTH political parties are responsible for that.

From: Cefalu, Vincent A.
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:44:45 -0400

Project Gunrunner or the "walking" guns portion could/should have been prevented. Based on a series of abuses, abject failures in the system to provide oversight and protect whistleblowers, Senior ATF management has been empowered to believe they are above the law and whistleblowers are fair game and ATF attorneys will crush anyone who comes forward. Myself and Special Agent Jay Dobyns have been the most public in attempting to gain oversight and accountability. Between us we have over 50 years of combined experience coast to coast with the agency. We reported, predicted and identified specific violations of law, policy and ethical mandates by senior managers within ATF. I am going to attempt to attach a letter sent and signed by 25 Senior and retired ATF Agents and Supervisors we sent to the Judiciary, Senator Feinstein and Barbara Boxer almost 2 yrs ago. Nothing happened. In Closing, Agent Dobyns and myself have spoken to MANY who would potentially come forward but for the knowledge of the devastation to us and our families personally and professionally. Many of these brave Agents will not be identified to you by ATF in response to your demands. Many will not come forward unless Jay and I and our attorneys can convince they will not suffer the career destruction we have. We stand ready to help save this great Agency but we need your help. With the current institutional air of reprisal that exists and the broken system that cannot gaurantee their protection, This Agency is poised to continue this insane pattern of dangerous and deadly programs, and ineffective enforcement, which puts us ONE decision away from yet another Dead Federal Agent. Feel free to contact me and or Special Agent Jay Dobyns for further assistance.

Attachment follows:

Judiciary Committee Members

President Obama, a civil rights attorney and constitutional law professor, has stated his commitment to justice, equality, transparency and enforcement of civil rights laws for every human being. He has committed to overhauling the Justice Department. However, we as members of the elite Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are gravely concerned about the Departments failure to hold senior managers within our great Bureau accountable. We are further concerned that such apathy in the administration of our great Bureau is and continues to negatively impact our ability to ensure public safety and has created an environment which has condoned massive waste, fraud and abuse.

The following are examples of practices which have now divided this Bureau and are the motivation for this direct action:

Multiple findings of discrimination against senior ATF managers which have gone completely undisciplined or disciplined in a manner not consistent with the standards applied to the line agents and employees.

False documents and testimony submitted by or ignored/supported by ATF Chief Counsel’s office to include falsification of evidence and perjury. Failing to comply with Open Records Act and lawful court ordered demands for documents and testimony. The refusal by ATF Chief Counsel’s office to provide truthful and factual counsel to the Executive staff continues to create costly litigation for the employees and wasteful litigation and costly settlements for the Bureau. The consistent failure of ATF counsel to report significant violations of policy and law by ATF managers to appropriate authorities i.e. OPSRO and the OIG, allows the patterns and practices to continue.

The use of internal affairs to conceal ATF manager’s ethical and/or criminal violations regularly includes lackluster investigations and/or only cursory investigations when Senior management officials are implicated. The failure to pursue allegations against ATF managers when they are supported by documentary evidence is common practice. Refusal to open investigations against ATF managers is the standard response. It is common-place to withhold or delay OIG findings or interviews related to senior managers when discipline or more severe consequences would be warranted. Chief Counsel’s Office, Internal Affairs, ELRB and senior management facilitates the timely retirement from the Bureau of managers who are known to have committed significant violations of policy or law. This effectively shields them from perjury or sworn testimony harmful to the Agency. Internal Affairs conducts hyper-aggressive investigations related to whistleblowers and or EEOC complainants. OPSRO fails to conduct transparent investigations for the purpose of covering up gross mismanagement and abuse of authority by senior managers. The obstruction of justice and perjury by senior ATF managers has been ignored.

ATF EEOC Directorate blatantly and willfully disregards statutory timelines (often in excess of 300 days) creating artificial delays within the process and forcing unnecessary litigation and litigation expenses to complainants causing a Bureau wide chilling effect on potential complainants. With the support and guidance from Chief Counsel’s office, the EO office and the Agency withhold evidence or deny its existence until such evidence has been proven to exist by the complainants.

Management witnesses are thoroughly interviewed while witnesses identified by the Complainant are ignored or retaliated against later. Reports of Investigation are improperly documented. The no fear act is ignored and manipulated within the Bureaus hierarchy.

Multiple violations related to the validated threats against Special Agents have resulted in extremely expensive and unnecessary litigations at taxpayer’s expense. In these instances, the Bureau’s history of retroactively attempting to destroy the agent’s reputation and discredit the agent’s honorable service were employed through Chief counsel, Personnel Office and Internal Affairs. Personal attacks on the professional contributions as well as psychological attacks were employed. Multiple and punitive transfers to create hardship upon these agents when complaints were logged destroyed not only the agents but their families. Families have been splintered through multiple punitive transfers, health complications are created within the families and often financial devastation is the result.

Counsel’s office has consistently stated this strategy is the Bureau’s position to supervisory classes to send a message and discourage complaints. The agency failed to act, acted in bad faith and in several cases ignored policy and safety procedures knowingly. When the threatened agents challenged ATF management, they launched a campaign of personal and professional attacks and retroactive destruction of the complainant’s reputation to discredit the complaints. In most cases no negative documentation existed prior to the complaints. The devastation to the families is undeniable. An attack is carried out against an agent and the Agency does not respond with even one agent. The Special Agent in Charge ensures no ATF assets are directed at investigating or protecting the Agent’s family. A veiled attempt to name the Agent as a suspect was undertaken by management as a matter of reprisal for his prior whistle blowing activity.

Perceived, and actual whistle blowers have suffered withering attacks on every possible administrative and employment related grounds. A perceived whistleblower was denied all of the Bureau internal remedies. The result was a fabricated and fictitious assault on the agent’s ability to perform their duty after 18+ years of service. An unnecessary lengthy and expensive and extremely damaging litigation resulted. Chief Counsels Office was once again directly implicated in the fabricated representation to a U S Congressman and administrative court of law. The assigned attorney was quickly and quietly employed by a sister agency before accountability by himself or his supervisors could be obtained. Multiple incidents of the agency falsely responding to Congressional inquiries can and will be provided.

The Bureaus second most powerful manager Deputy Director Edgar Domenech, himself filed a whistleblower complaint and publicly stated that the Bureau of ATF has a propensity for reprisal and he “knew” such actions would result in career suicide. This institutional pattern of fear does not create a transparent law enforcement agency and blatantly violates the No Fear Act. It should be noted that there are many dedicated and professional managers within ATF who have or have wanted to act ethically and professionally, only to suffer the same abuse as the field agents. Supervisors are transferred back to headquarters, demoted or their successful careers impeded at the hands of vindictive senior managers. It is unconscionable that such courageous Agents and Supervisors should be governed by such a hostile and pervasive institutional mandate of fear.

A Special Agent attempts to resist an investigation using unlawful wiretaps. The Special Agent openly challenges and reports it to superiors. After 20 + years of exemplary service, the next 1 ½ years results in the Special Agent and his family being transferred 5 times, suspended for 3 days, attempts made to have a psyche evaluation conducted, 2 letters of reprimand, and ultimately a termination. ATF Counsel agreed to settle the complaint in concert with the complainant’s attorney present when unlawful and unethical practices were uncovered on the part of SES managers during sworn testimony. In the case of this whistleblower/grievant, not one significant act of misconduct was documented for over 20+ years of decorated service until the very night that the complaint was made. Once the depositions were cancelled, ATF Chief Counsel’s office indicated there would be no settlement. This protracted the litigation and insured a much more costly settlement and a further waste of taxpayer’s funds. Documents requested 12 months prior to the hearing dates, were turned over just days before the complainant’s response was due. These documents existed all along and ATF counsel refused under lawful authority to relinquish them and in fact denied their existence.

The government mobility agreement is used contrary to law and ethical designs to punish Agents without due process and often times without justification. Complainants or those who would challenge unethical and/or illegal acts by Special Agents in Charge or senior managers are often threatened with collecting their next pay check in Fargo, North Dakota or Anchorage, Alaska. This violates the reprisal laws, the No Fear Act and the intent of the “good of the Bureau” ability to relocate agents. This practice is paramount to waste fraud and abuse because hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted for the retaliatory transfers.

Internal Affairs is regularly used by ATF to generate credibility issues against complainants while ignoring the substantive whistleblower complaints which originally initiated internal affairs involvement. An anonymous letter was sent to the Department of Justice OIG from Las Vegas, Nevada alleging government Fraud waste and abuse. The OIG provided the letter to ATF Internal affairs for follow up investigation into the allegations contained in the anonymous letter. One of the primary objectives by ATF Internal Affairs investigators was to identify the author of the anonymous letter. During theInternal Affairs investigation, ATF identified an Agent who ATF had perceived to have been the whistleblower. This Agent became the recipient of vindictive personnel actions that ranged from a letter of reprimand to a notice of proposed removal from Federal service. Further investigation identified the true author of the letter and he/she admitted to being the author of the letter. ATF management then directed their attack on the actual whistleblower. ATF continued their attack on the perceived whistleblower and terminated him from Federal service. The Agent was later reinstated by ATF after appealing his removal to the MSPB. An Agent who provided documentation that supported the above agent’s allegations later became the target of reprisals for assisting the agent unknowingly after a demand for the documents was made by the agency.

The Wireless Communication Section (WCS) routinely discriminates against its older Telecommunication Specialists by subjecting them to a hostile work environment. In one case a Telecommunications Specialist with a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering was fired for technical incompetence. In another case a Telecommunications Specialist in his sixties with bad knees was being forced by WCS to attend a radio tower climbing school, something his bad knees would not allow him to complete so he retired. On several occasions, Telecommunications Specialists assignments have been changed to create hardship and as an act of reprisal to expedite a constructive retirement. Unwarranted disciplinary actions along with unsatisfactory annual performance evaluations are arbitrarily used to retaliate against employees. Many current Telecommunication Specialists left their old agency to come to ATF under the Pay Demo system in order to get the equivalent of as GS-14 salary. This system attracted the best and brightest from other agencies. WCS lacks leadership and relies on a hostile work environment as a means of managing our employees and assets.

Multiple substantive official allegations against senior managers go uninvestigated. One senior manager was alleged to have ignored ATF policy and procedure with regards to massive amounts of missing government property and certifying such documents knowingly. Another senior manager participated in the concealment of the intentional destruction of a Special Agent’s badges in an act of reprisal. He conspired to conceal the act and failed to report this act which is the willful and wanton destruction of sensitive government property. Both of these managers remain in the SES program.

Senior executive staff members have been advised directly and informally of the abuses and are either unwilling or incapable of making the necessary policy changes to prevent the ongoing abuse.

ATF’s Counsel’s Office, ELRB and HR resources act in concert to proactively attack and destroy Agents who complain and to deter others from acting on whistleblower or discrimination practices. Letters challenging mental and emotional stability are common practice. Low evaluations and letters of reprimand not consistent with Bureau practices are used. The agency pursues Psyche evaluations and forced reassignments, unjustified integrity investigations which would normally amount to nothing more than a local management issue if the agent had not been a complainant ATF knowingly and intentionally ignores EEO laws, procedures and practices. Although the law requires discrimination investigations to be addressed within 180 days, ATF has an average time to investigation exceeding 300 days. ATF counsel regularly and unethically delayed the procedures at every turn. This has generally gone hand in hand with ongoing and often times withering acts of reprisal to cause the complainant to drop their complaint. Whistleblower and discrimination complaints have become synonymous with career suicide and stated publicly by Edgar Domenech in his whistleblower complaint. As the second most powerful man in ATF he felt compelled to author anonymous letters out of fear for his career. Senior ATF managers are not required to testify in hearings, depositions or any other personnel action without ATF counsel present. Management statements are reviewed by Chief Counsel’s Office before they are submitted to the investigator. “Attorney Client” privilege is often invoked to protect the individual managers, not the Agency. The authors of this action will testify before Congress or meet with the Director without the benefit of counsel and will not invoke their right to the attorney client privilege if the agency heads will do the same. The truth remains the truth negates the need to hide behind legal representation. Managers are prepared and their testimony crafted by ATF Counsel, after the fact to attempt to conceal their reprisals. In one cases a Senior Executive schedule manager being groomed for a Special Agent in Charge stated “I do not know”, or I don’t recall” over 100 times during one sworn deposition. These responses were related to direct questions about actions he was responsible for or policies he was relying upon to defend his actions against the employee. Why would a manager be elevated to such a level if he cannot recall or doesn’t know ATF policy?

ATF does not recognize the wasteful process of ignoring legitimate employee concerns. Multiple Whistleblower and discrimination complaints which could and should have been resolved at the lowest level were escalated to a full blown legal battle due to the Bureau’s institutional mandate not to accept responsibility for its mistakes. ATF counsel’s office resists mediation or alternative dispute resolution measures due to the false assumption that this will create a flood of complaints. ATF has written millions of dollars worth of damages checks, court costs, travel funds and wasted man-hours on complaints which could have been handled with a hand shake. This is done with impunity and no oversight.

The standing philosophy that Whistleblower and discrimination complainants are automatically the enemy of the Bureau creates unnecessary litigation and results in higher monetary settlements. The Bureau is currently relying on sound-bite enforcement and failing to pursue sound investigative priorities.

Assignments to historically unfavorable positions and job duties have flown under the radar as reprisal. However, significant positions related directly to the successful mission are used to push senior agents out the door or to force compliance by junior agents. The field divisions’ operations officers are critical and essential to the effective management of ATF’s Mission. Yet consistently these positions are used to punish individuals who have made complaints, filed grievances or to ensure the constructive retirement of otherwise happy and productive senior agents. Agents are regularly threatened with assignments to TOO or other jobs or details for the sole purpose of causing hardship on the agent.

Agents are subjected to gross disparities in scrutiny or surveillance of their performance or work product if they file Whistleblower complaints, grievances or discrimination complaints.

The signatures on this document represent some of the most egregious abuses of authority over the past three years. However, the list of Agents, Inspectors and clerical staff who are willing to provide documents and direct sworn testimony related to the violations and abuses contained in this letter is significantly larger. The total lack of leadership and oversight has diminished the Bureau’s ability to perform its Mission at the lowest level. Collectively we intend to see that “Our” Bureau’s credibility and standing in the law enforcement community is restored to the level it once held.

It should be noted that in each case, the employees referenced in this letter made every attempt, sometimes heroic attempts, to resolve their grievances at the lowest and most informal level. Every representation contained in this letter is supported by memoranda, court documents and sworn depositions and internal written communications. This is a nationwide vote of no confidence.

Respectfully submitted,
/s/
G/S Rene J. Jaquez, Phoenix
S/A Jay Dobyns, Arizona
S/A Vincent A. Cefalu, California
S/A Kelly Niess, California
S/A Paul Jessen, New Mexico
S/A John Taylor, Nevada
S/A Jim Tokos, Nevada
Investigator Robbie Mcgowan-Butler, California
Radio Tech Stephen Swift, California
Admin Assistant Phyllis Goins, California
S/A Stephen Carman, California, Ret.
S/A Charlie Fuller, Tennessee, Ret.
S/A Sierra Donaven, Michigan, Ret.
Joesph Stafford, Ret. OCDETF Coordinator, California
Adam Delgado, Illinois, Former ATF S/A
Eugene Richards, Illinois, Former ATF S/A

Pajamas Media interviews Vince Cefalu.

Here.

An ATF agent's indictment. "ATF DIDN'T make every effort to 'interdict' these guns or they WOULD HAVE been interdicted."

On CleanUpATF.org yesterday, experienced ATF street agent Vince Cefalu issued a damning indictment of his own agency in the Project Gunwalker and other scandals.

We (the field) have formally, officially and sometimes unofficially attempted to encourage Director Melson, DD Hoover and their predecessors to restore the integrity of the agency. We have asked them to demand leadership from our executives, and to control and reign in Chief Counsels Office and corrupt and unethical practices. So here we are. Mr. Melson can no longer pretend to be in charge or have ANY say so in our Agency's future. Mr. Traver sits silent as if he has NO IDEA any of this is going on. So what happens? EXACTLY what is supposed to happen, Congressional oversight.

1. Fact: Mr. Melson chose not or was told not to respond to a U.S. Senator with DIRECT impact on our agency's future.

2. Fact: The allegation Sen. Grassley references is not false and Mr. Melson and Newell have publicly admitted it in their press conference. We did know, we didn't "interdict" or prevent this from happening. We NEVER let guns walk. That has been our mantra since we became a Bureau.

3. Fact: ATF DIDN'T make every effort to "interdict" these guns or they WOULD HAVE been interdicted. We have been interdicting guns for 40 years. We know what that is Mr. Melson. PS, we don't withhold information regarding potential guns hitting the streets from our sister agencies. Not even if they are MEXICAN. Those guys are going toe to toe with the worst we've ever seen and you don't TRUST them? Stop the "legal word games". The nature of a straw purchase makes it inherently illegal if we have information regarding the purchaser (which we did). Stop acting or attempting to convince Congress or the public that because at face value a person is not prohibited that we CANT do anything because this particular gun is not contraband. There are a bunch of successful trafficking groups in Atlanta and New York that DO interdict guns everyday. Its called doing our job.

4. Fact: No Project Gunrunner doesn't focus on straw purchasers, THAT IS THE POINT.

5. Fact: We will not dismantle entire organization without the Mexican LE help, but they can hardly help with Newell and Gillette hoarding their intel EVEN from our own people. The grandstanding needs to stop.

6. Fact: ATF and Mr. Melson have totally retaliated against ANY agent who demands leadership, NOT JUST IN THIS MATTER. Do the math. Release the DSZ disbursements. Exposes the smoke and mirror bad faith mediations and the wasted MILLIONS of dollars of DOJ money spent defending your indefensible abuses against SA Jay Dobyns and others.

7. Fact: Senior managers scoff at your training, have been found to have violated serious mandates regarding whistleblower reprisals and EEOC retaliations and you DO CLEARLY NOT understand the importance of accountability.

8. Fact: if it's confidential information, then why is Newell and Melson holding press conferences to tout it?

9. Fact: the standing policy about not releasing information apparently did not apply when Congresswoman Giffords was shot. That's right, there was no evidence of governments malfeasence or misconduct in that situation.

10. Fact: you do not look forward to briefing the Senator or you would have. That would first require that you become aware of the case and be granted access to our case files.

11. Fact: the fast tracking of Newell to Mexico before the Senator can provide the necessary oversight and perhaps make corrections to at best a flawed management practice and at worse GROSS negligence is a testament to exactly what we have collectively said about the Agency's institutional arrogance.

The agents of ATF do have integrity. They do love this agency. And we WILL cooperate with ANY member of U.S. the Congress who is in the performance of their lawful and elected duties.

Left-collectivist anti-FOX blog takes on Vince Cefalu.

Fast And Furious: The Latest Fox News Hunt For Eric Holder’s Scalp

Well whaddaya know. Somebody figured it out. "Behind the fall of Operation Fast and Furious -- Motives, allegiances add to saga intrigue."

The Arizona Republic tries to understand the improbable tale of the Coalition of Willing Lilliputians.

If this story follows previous ones, this will also appear in tomorrow's USA Today. Perhaps they'll find a consistent spelling of my name by then.

The initial story line of Fast and Furious was about outrage -- anger that guns, let out of sight, had been used in crimes. But the backstory of the investigation is one of hidden motives, curious contradictions and strange allegiances, both among those who organized the effort and those who exposed it. . .

Bloggers

A growing number of ATF employees wanted to expose Fast and Furious. The question: How?

Dobyns and Cefalu began networking with two of the most prominent and prolific Second Amendment bloggers in America.

David Codrea, an Ohio-based writer, is field editor for GUNS Magazine and an author on a website known as "The War on Guns: Notes From the Resistance."

Mike Vanderboegh runs a website, Sipsey Street Irregulars, which he identifies as a gathering place for the 3 percent of Americans willing to fight for the right to bear arms.

Vanderboegh and Codrea, longtime friends, this year received Soldier of Fortune Magazine's Second Amendment Freedom Award and the David and Goliath Award from Jews for Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

Dobyns says he turned to the bloggers because of a shared animus toward ATF administrators. "Do they have an agenda? Of course they do," he said. "But it's my experience that they're not anti-ATF; they're anti-bad ATF."

Codrea and Vanderboegh began churning out essays on Fast and Furious, even giving the operation its sardonic nickname, "Project Gunwalker." They joined forces with other bloggers, government employees and gun dealers in what Vanderboegh calls "a coalition of willing Lilliputians."

Their reports, frequently quoting anonymous sources, exposed the dubious investigative strategy but went much further, speculating that the White House was involved. A typical posting by Vanderboegh carried the headline, "... Obama's Gunwalker Was a Deliberate Conspiracy Vs. the 2nd Amendment."

That hypothesis has gone viral in the gun-rights blogosphere. Proponents, noting that Obama was endorsed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence during the 2008 campaign, claim that high-placed officials in Washington, D.C., devised a plan to flood Mexico with firearms as justification for a crackdown on gun ownership. . .

At a news conference in late January 2011, federal authorities announced indictments against 20 gun-trafficking suspects, including the man who bought weapons found at Agent Terry's death scene.

Newell, then the special agent in charge for Arizona, said those who arm the cartels "have as much blood on their hands as the criminals that use them."

Asked if the ATF knowingly let guns "walk," Newell answered, "Hell, no."

Codrea, the anti-ATF blogger, says outrage swelled because of that response, plus a growing sense of urgency: People were getting killed on both sides of the border, and ATF whistle-blowers were risking their careers by criticizing an agency that has a reputation for retaliation. But mainstream media -- lacking on-the-record sources -- resisted publication of undocumented claims about Fast and Furious.

Bloggers turned to politicians, making calls and e-mailing members of Congress.

Codrea wrote an open letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, begging for an inquiry. "We had to bang pots and pans because we were small fry," he says.

Vanderboegh sent e-mails to politicians for two weeks, with no success. Finally, he says, he wrote to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., threatening to publish an accusation that the senator was "complicit in the cover-up." Within hours, Vanderboegh says, he heard from Sessions' staff and was channeled to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

A congressional investigation was under way.

"We were the midwives of this scandal because nobody else would touch it and the agents were out there, twisting in the wind, willing to tell the truth at great risk to themselves," Vanderboegh boasted in a subsequent Internet post.

In interviews, Vanderbeogh and Codrea chuckle at the irony of government agents relying on their critics to find a congressional audience.

"It's so improbable that ATF guys would come to us, the Second Amendment advocates," Vanderbeogh says. "But we realized we did have common enemies in the ATF hierarchy."
Congress

Vanderbeogh says politicians were hesitant, unable to believe whistle-blowers, afraid to go after the Obama administration with such a bizarre tale.

"They were hunting some very, very dangerous game," he says of congressional investigators. "This was something that could turn on them and eat them."

As more agents came forward, some with corroborating records, Republican lawmakers became attentive -- and more assertive in going after an executive branch run by Democrats. . .

Many have suggested that the ATF should be abolished.

Codrea and Vanderboegh say that last option would be a mistake because firearms enforcement might become the province of a larger, more powerful agency such as the FBI -- difficult to attack politically.

"I very much prefer the devil that I know in rehab to the devil that I don't know," Vanderbeogh says.