Sipsey Street Irregulars: Issa to Billy Hoover: Don't retaliate against whistleblowers.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Issa to Billy Hoover: Don't retaliate against whistleblowers.

Jonathan Strong reports in The Daily Caller: "Issa warns ATF not to retaliate against whistleblowers."

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is warning the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (ATF) not to retaliate against whistleblowers who contradicted initial blanket denials by the Justice Department over “Operation Fast and Furious” in testimony to Congress.

A June 21 letter from Issa to William Hoover, deputy director at ATF, lists a series of accounts from whistleblowers recounting fears they would face retaliation.

ATF agents testifying before the Oversight Committee at a June 15 said that retaliation was common at the agency for officials who did not toe the company line.

But a deputy for Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would never strike back at whistleblowers. “The Department of Justice will not, would never, retaliate against whistleblowers,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said.

In his June 21 letter, Issa tells another story, recounting testimony from four agents saying ATF is “a very retaliatory agency,” in the words of an unnamed “Special Agent Number 3.”

PDF of letter.

Also, David Codrea's take.

5 comments:

Mickey Collins said...: “The Department of Justice will not, would never, retaliate against whistleblowers,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said.

Guffaw!
And the department of Justice never knew anything about Fast and Furious until Grassley told them about it, right?; June 22, 2011 at 2:36 PM
Mark Matis said...: What ELSE would one expect from FedPig?; June 22, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Uncle Al said...: But a deputy for Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department would never strike back at whistleblowers. “The Department of Justice will not, would never, retaliate against whistleblowers,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said.

Yet another DOJ lie. Can you say "Tamarah Grimes" Mr. Weich?; June 22, 2011 at 4:23 PM
Anonymous said...: I just want to express my appreciation for you staying on what is probably the biggest scandal and abuse of power by the executive branch in living memory. Especially when other blogs are spending so much time on useless drivel. Thanks a ton and stay on their butts. Eventually, when the embarrassment gets to critical mass, everybody else will fially understand the magnitude of this mess, and maybe do some serious coverage. Could be they are afraid, I suppose.... but if thats the case, they should get out of the serious news business altogether.; June 22, 2011 at 4:44 PM
fgd-anchorage said...: '“The Department of Justice will not, would never, retaliate against whistleblowers,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich said.'

It is a really good omen when they not only provide grist for the mill but deliver to the door step.; June 22, 2011 at 4:50 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.

Sipsey Street Irregulars

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Issa to Billy Hoover: Don't retaliate against whistleblowers.

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