In a February exclusive special feature at Townhall Magazine, one of the original ATF whistleblowers who went public with the agency's illegal operation, Fast and Furious, presents his diary describing how Justice Department corruption led to the scandal being investigated by Congress.
Vincent Cefalu is a 30-year law enforcement veteran, 24 of which were spent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, commonly known as the ATF. Cefalu asserts that the current environment at the ATF is so corrupt that honest officers cannot act without fear of reprisal from dishonest officers and corrupt supervisors.
Cefalu begins his story here:
My name is Vincent A. Cefalu. I am a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms under the U.S. Department of Justice. Welcome to our nightmare. I say “our” because dozens of us can’t write a single article, and I have been asked and am privileged to speak on behalf of my peers who have not had the opportunity to voice their concerns related to ATF mismanagement, particularly with Operation Fast and Furious. This grotesquely dangerous and reckless operation should have never been considered, much less allowed to occur. It employed the unprecedented practice of allowing fi rearms to be transferred to violent criminals without any interdiction effort at all, in hopes of somehow later identifying high-level Mexican cartel members.
Critics of the investigation into Fast and Furious commonly point to a similar program implemented under the Bush Administration. But as Cefalu notes above, the Fast and Furious scheme implemented in 2009 under Obama involved no attempts at interdiction, no cooperation with the Mexican government, and blatant violations of the law.
It already has been shown that similar operations under the Bush Administration did not involve the key scandalous facets noted above.
Cefalu continues:
At no time in my career prior to becoming a complainant against my own agency—the agency I love and have been honored to serve— could I have ever been convinced I would be the poster boy for whistleblowers and challenges to corrupt government. As a young Marine military policeman, I was thrilled, proud and honored to be in law enforcement. I never considered it work....
But I ended up the lead agent in a case with huge vendetta overtones by my state and local counterparts, where members of an ad hoc task force insisted on fast-tracking wiretap attempts against the suspects. I refused. When I reported this officially, senior management retroactively fabricated justifications for the actions they were preparing to take against me. This led to a network of frustrated agents and inspectors, which ultimately resulted in my being contacted regarding the gun-walking practices and cover-ups related to Fast and Furious. I took this information to Congress and advocated others to do the same.
The agent goes further to recount how ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell took actions resulting in the agency being forced to pay a million dollars in settlements, which under normal circumstances would have been ample grounds for dismissal.
But he was never investigated.
In another instance, Special Agent in Charge George Gillette took numerous actions that resulted in his being cited for disciplinary action on multiple occasions. The agents who worked under him logged a plethora of complaints concerning his incompetence and mismanagement.
But he was allowed to keep his position and function unabated, which according to Cefalu led directly to Fast and Furious.
Instead, not only did the ATF keep these persons in place, it took serious retaliatory action against honest agents who had the audacity to complain. Cefalu states,
...by attacking those who exposed corruption, ATF was able to keep their golden boys in place. This process was repeated all over the country (Newell has since been relocated to D.C. headquarters, but not fired). So pronounced was the mismanagement that ATF logged more complaints than either the DEA or FBI per agent. This is notable because the latter two are much larger agencies.
I write this article almost 6 years into the whistleblower process with ATF and only after millions of taxpayer dollars and countless hours of manpower have been expended by my agency to attack and discredit me and other whistleblowers...
And herein lies the reason the American people must not allow the Obama Administration, Democrats in Congress, and even some Republicans, to put this issue on the back burner or cut dirty deals under the table with corrupt government officials.
Laws have been broken and people have been murdered. Justice demands that Administration officials be held accountable for their actions not only in terms of employment but also in terms of legal and criminal ramifications.
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