Posted on 07/24/2012 11:22:43 AM PDT by marktwain
Lawmakers and government accountability advocates have expressed concern over a July 9 video message directed at Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents by ATF Acting Director Todd Jones, which they say is a veiled threat to government whistleblowers.
“Choices and consequences means simply that if you make poor choices, that if you don’t abide by the rules, that if you don’t respect the chain of command, if you don’t find the appropriate way to raise your concerns to your leadership, there will be consequences, because we cannot tolerate—we cannot tolerate—an undisciplined organization,” Jones said in the video.
Some lawmakers and government accountability groups interpreted the words as a warning to employees considering blowing the whistle on corruption.
In a July 18 letter to Jones, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) wrote ATF employees must be “free and clear of agency interference or retaliation” if they choose to talk to Congress.
“Your ominous message—which could be interpreted as a threat—is likely to have a major chilling effect on ATF employees exercising their rights to contact Congress,” the two lawmakers wrote. “Therefore, it needs to be clarified.”
“On numerous occasions, we have stressed to ATF and the Department of Justice the importance of protecting whistleblower disclosures and preventing retaliation against whistleblowers,” they continued.
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“The problem is the whistleblowers I know have all played by the rules and presented complaints to first, second and third level supervisors, the Ombudsman’s office, Internal Affairs, the EEOC, the OIG and OSC, Congress, and finally the media,” Dobyns wrote on CleanUpATF.org, a forum created by fellow ATF whistleblower Vincent Cefalu.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Gunwalker / Murdergate ping.
In Obamaworld, you are a slave of king Obama. Obama is evil.
“’The problem is the whistleblowers I know have all played by the rules...’”
The ATF should have been disbanded after Waco.
They are nothing but a bunch of wannabe Special Forces Barney Fife screw-ups.
They really have no useful purpose and should be defunded at the next budget........whenever the hell we finally get one...........
Zero Tolerance!
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