WASHINGTON — In the ever too eager climate to slash budgets, ex-ATF official Bernie La Forest thinks ATF could face some serious cuts — and even elimination — if it doesn’t start cooperating with Congress and give answers about a controversial gun program known as “Operation Fast and Furious.”
“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,” La Forest wrote in an email to retired and current agents he knows.
LaForest thinks it’s a big mistake that Ken Melson, head of ATF, has been muzzled and has declined an invitation to speak before Congress. He thinks politicians will pounce on that non-cooperative posture being taken by the agency. La Forest, an author of two crime novels, once headed up offices in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Detroit and Kansas City.
His sentiments, expressed to former colleagues in an email on Wednesday comes as Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa have loudly complained that ATF has refused so far to comply with requests for information about the controversial ATF program out of Arizona that let straw buyers purchase guns — all with the hopes of tracing them to the drug cartels in Mexico. Problem is, ATF hasn’t been able to keep tabs on all the guns that have ended up in the hands of criminals. And reportedly some were used in serious crimes.
LaForest shared his email with ticklethewire.com and David Codrea of the Examiner but added: “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.”
“Someone could be setting a trap,” he wrote in the email. ” 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.”
Read ticklethewire.com column: ATF Needs to Clean the Manure Off Its Boots Now
Bernie states about ATF, FBI, and Waco…“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.”
What “BS” this statement is. Hey Bernie…If it wasn’t for another ATF clusterf*ck Waco would never have happened. How many of your agents got killed or wounded because of ATF errors? ATF kills its own in order to maintain the credibility of an undercover case that Koresh new about. Also the ATF managers needed to have the cameras rolling. Lets see…ATF tried to entrap Randy Weaver to become a snitch, attacked Ruby Ridge, a Marshal gets killed, and the FBI has to respond. This resulted in the tragic death of Randy’s wife and kid. Now ATF creates Project Gun Walker. A Border Patrol gets killed with one of the guns ATF lets walk. How many more f ups can this country endure from a rogue agency? ATF is nothing more than a redundancy. Other federal, state, and local agencies can do anything ATF does, and better. Oh, and about losing jurisdiction; ATF claims original and exclusive explosives jurisdiction. Not so. Who do you think investigated explosive cases before the ATF was created? It was the FBI. No one stole it from ATF, it was not exclusively ATF’s in the first place. In this age of budget cuts, the best thing to do is eliminate the ATF. No one would miss them.