Post a Comment On: Sipsey Street Irregulars

[Image]
When David Codrea criticizes Elijah "Bloody Hands" Cummings for inactivity in dealing with ATF scandals when he had chairmanship of the Oversight Committe, Jay Dobyns' case is one that he refers to. As Jay points out below, had Cummings and other authorities dealt with ATF's cowboy management then, we would not have the Gunwalker scandal and its heaps of dead today.

Jay Dobyns writes:

What has become difficult for me on a personal level is that the persons responsible for my damages from/at ATF are, for the most part, the same ones responsible for creating and covering up Gunrunner. I tried my best to do something about how they conducted ATF business three years ago but, in the end, I was not able to accomplish any significant change.

Brian Terry has. He payed the ultimate price to draw attention to the situation. Unacceptable under any terms, reason or excuse.

John Dodson and Darrin Gil have. I applaud them. They stepped up to become Whistleblowers knowing in their hearts that they were going to take a beating from ATF while being alienated from the agency and their peers.

Some people want to complain about how they handled the business of speaking out. I would bet that the family of Brian Terry isn't. Without Senator Grassley's and Congressman Issa's backing ATF would not have given them the time of day anyway. ATF is denying their claims even with the Congressional support.

If Brian Terry hadn't been murdered and John and Darrin hadn't spoke out I personally think Gunrunner would still be in full effect.

***

See if any of this might sound familiar compared to today's events:

In 2008, after my home was subjected to an arson fire, myself and other agents warned ATF Headquarters Executives that the same bosses now managing Gunrunner were reckless, dangerous and catastrophic failures in the management of criminal investigations. We "Blew the Whistle" on their misconduct.

We were quickly and systematically retaliated against by ATF for speaking out. ATF Headquarters Executives basically dared me; more accurately taunted me, into filing a lawsuit. Several executives including the Director stated, "Do what you gotta do." I did. Even more retaliations were heaped on. The shotcallers just locked down and denied, denied, denied.

The Exec's flat out refused to listen to our complaints when we explained that the Phoenix Field Division management team was thoughtless, irresponsible and inattentive.

The official "unofficial" ATF spokesman of today's mess, Jim Cavanaugh, was spreading the word that we were "outlaws" and disgruntled employees seeking nothing more than fame and a payday, unashamedly "spinning it" on behalf ATF without knowing the facts or circumstances and while everyone else involved sat quiet.

ATF's executive leadership and attorneys summarily dismissed our warnings while simultaneously ignoring the detailed investigative findings of oversight agencies such as the OSC and OIG whom offered identical conclusions to those of the Whistleblowers. Didn't matter. ATF promptly protected the accused managers, organized a cover-up their incompetence, laid the blame for the fire on me and others and knowingly/intentionally/willfully lied to members of U.S. Congress when they asked ATF questions about the situation.

Yeah, kinda does sound familiar, doesn't it? Eerily similar to current ATF events and that account is dead nuts accurate as being proven out by disclosure, discovery, deposition and volumes of new information arriving daily and at a frantic pace.

***

So now, I do not hate to tell ATF Headquarters that, "We told you so" because, guess what(?), we told you so - several times - years ago. The ATF decision makers were just too flat-out arrogant and inconvenienced to listen to anyone but themselves and ATF Attorneys. "No way we can trust the word of lowly street agent over that of a GS-15 or SES."

So now, whatever is ultimately found out to be criminal or life threatening about the recent operational decisions in Phoenix and the managers who made them; a large portion of the responsibility for allowing Gunrunner to exist and these guys to manage must absolutely be owned by those executives who protected and defended the nearly identical complaints and allegations against them years earlier.

RIP Brian Terry.

(Please do not interpret this message to imply that I perceive my dispute with ATF to be in any way or remotely close to the significance and tragedy of the deaths of Agents Terry and Zapata, the suffering and mourning of their families, their friends, their partners and their agencies. I don't and would never disrespect the the sacrifice of another law enforcement officer. This message is simply offered as a response to the posting of Hawkeye1677 [Thank you] and so that anyone reading this will know ATF executives had plenty of time and fair warning to do something about what was coming. They just didn't.)