'Cost-cutting measures...a ready-made excuse to lop off heads'
A former ATF agent foresees dire funding consequences if the bureau continues failing to cooperate with congressional investigations.
This came in on the evening of Mar. 30 via email from a trusted source. This correspondent has confirmed it was written by retired SAC (Special Agent in Charge) Bernie La Forest, who “headed up offices in Kansas City, Detroit, Phoenix and Los Angeles,” and is reproduced below unedited. It is in response to Allan Lengel’s TickleTheWire.com report “ATF Needs to Clean the Manure Off Its Boots Now.”
Mr. La Forest has given permission to share his email with Gun Rights Examiner readers with the folowing caveat:
I would only ask that you make it clear that this was simply an “opinion” of someone who has been “out-of-the-game" for several years. I was never muzzled as an ATF manager, even when I and others testified before a congressional subcommittee concerning the 1981 –’82 Proposed Abolishment of ATF under the Reagan Administration.
It is explosive stuff:
Someone could be setting a trap. We saw it happen after Waco . . . our Man said nothing at the Congressional hearings—and an almost apocalyptic period of recrimination and payback took place within ATF. The FBI Man could not keep his mouth shut! His BS babbling resulted in more FBI agents, two or three more HRT squads, and more money than could be possibly spent . . . well, in a perfect world at most law enforcement agencies.
Now, another ATF Director is refusing to testify before Congress. I figure they told him to suck it up and stonewall the committee by his DOJ bosses and people in the White House.
This refusal is exactly what some politicians want. If the “failure to cooperate” continues, ATF is in for another blood bath . . . maybe a fatal one this go-around. It could be an effortless task, a simple matter–while appearing logical to most uninformed citizens. Cost-cutting measures, directed at government employees, are a ready-made excuse to lop off heads. In 1992 - ‘93, ATF appeared to eat their own by purging nonconformist with a disastrous reorganization scheme where smoke and mirrors were the management tools of the day.
Another contrived metamorphosis may not work, even if the new team of ATF managers gives away the farm. When Bureau was on the ropes after Waco, the FBI peeled away some great jurisdictional “stuff” from ATF’s naive managers at the time.
Of course, everyone has an opinion . . . . . . . . as they say,
Bernie
It sounds fantastic, but this is the opinion of someone who understands the culture and knows the players. Hopefully, Senator Grassley and Rep. Issa will look into this and ensure that Mr. La Forest's fears do not materialize.
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Also see:
- A journalist’s guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' Part One and Part Two for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner.
*Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
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