Posted on 10/16/2013 6:10:53 AM PDT by kimtom
After months of anguished debate over mass shootings, gun control and Second Amendment rights, the Justice Department finds itself on the defensive after a training manual surfaced that suggests federal agents could face a firing squad for leaking government secrets.
The online manual for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — complete with a photo of a turn-of-the-century firing squad — was obtained by The Washington Times from a concerned federal law enforcement official, and it immediately drew protests from watchdogs who said it showed a lack of sensitivity to gun violence and the continuing hostile environment toward whistleblowers.
Stephen Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblower Center, said the DOJ has forgotten about the protections of the First Amendment, which covers leaks to the media, and that the photo could scare its employees into self-censorship.
The photo “would have a chilling affect on legitimate speech. And some of the rhetoric used against whistleblowers could be construed as inciting to violence because they’ve turned up the rhetoric,” Mr. Kohn said.
Justice Department officials said the photo was included as a joke and that they were unaware it was viewed as offensive by agents. They plan to remove the entry, but not until the government shutdown is ended and federal officials return to work.........
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
We should just forget to “fund” the BATFE.
Gee, how.. Adolphian/Stalinian of them.
One word, WACO.
:)
judas folking priest
Bring back dueling while you’re at it!
Acknowledging the fact that these are BATF employees, they are Americans, too, and with the acknowledgement that many of them let their power go to their heads, or to the extent that their heads were replanted “elsewhere upon the human body”, they are still deservant of their civil right to face a jury of their peers, and not summarily, upon another bureaucrat’s desire, be summarily executed.
It is fitting, that the singular, particular bureaucrat, that devised this little scheme, should face all of the BATF, since as a government entity, they are “ a team”, and therefore, let “the team” exact punishment fitting.
But! we live in a free society (sic) and keeping secrets from the people, is a sign of despotism.
we need a more narrow defined “national security”.
the use of that term means little anymore.
But...but...but... Obama said that if he became president he would make the Executive Branch more transparent! /sarc
I know who I’d challenge first...and second....and third...
Does this mean the guy who leaked this manual has been summarily shot?
"We thought they'd all get a real laugh out of having their lives threatened. I mean, where's their sense of humor? It's not like we would really execute any of them. After all, we're not living in a totalitarian dictatorship... ...oh, right, never mind..."
You don’t quit the BATF.
HOW DO WE KNOW IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET?
Yeah, I’m really laughing at the threat of being shot by a firing squad issued by the same folks who sent thousands of rifles to the drug cartels in Mexico, in order to kill actual Mexicans, in order to discredit the 2nd Amd.
What a bunch of jokers!
ATF? Do they give the person being executed a last TOBACCO cigarette to smoke?
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