17 replies to this topic

[Doc Holiday]

What is the story with Newell, and SES, filling a GS 15 position? They tolf Gil that was not going to be and SES during his tour. And his tour still has almost 2 yrs left on it. How much did this cost us? Who's in charge of Phoenix now? Can't be Gillette, he's already been shown to have violated ethics rules. What's going on here?

[Iceman]

Does anybody know what prompted the overnight Attache change from Gil to Newell? By all accounts, Gil and his people were doing a great job. Who convinced Melson to put Newell into a GS-15 position? Does he lose his SES or do they manipulate the whole Intl affairs branch to accomodate Newell? If so why? If it wasn't SES when Gil was there, what made it SES overnight? Why Newell? Just because he speaks spanish? Seriously ATF? Newell and crew has decimated the productivity and morale of the Phoenix FD, so you give him what he wants. He cost taxpayers over 1 million dollars in unecessary disputes and you place him in charge of the Mexico mission that ALL of Congress is watching??????

[Doc Holiday]

The spanish issue was never mentioned because it was not an issue. Newell undermined the Mexico mission at every turn as a temper tantrum for not getting the job. Newell is NOT the only spanish speaking boss we have. With his history of abuse and incompetence, he clearly should not be rewarded. Gil was told the Mexican Attache job IS NOT and WILL NOT be an SES job. What changed in a couple months Chait and Hoover? And yes, Mr. Melson wasn't paying attention and should have been suspicious at the total lack of direct contact he was afforded with Gil. Cancelled meetings, filtered info. I bet Mr. Melson was blind sided by the OIG report because of Chait and Hoover.

[Concernedsup]

This is my point on the Mexico Attache flip-flop. We all know what happened here. It is not and was not about language proficiency. Don’t convolute the situation. They sold Darrin a bill of goods by telling him he was going to Mexico City to make an investigative impact on behalf of ATF. Then they failed to support the mission they sent him to serve. He called them out to their faces, that being Hoover and Chait. Instead of listening to their man with his boots on the ground they insulated Darrin from Melson and put their own self-serving spin on the situation. Then the OIG got involved. Not because Darrin reached out to them either. He was interviewed and gave honest answers. Hoover and Chait needed a scapegoat for the mismanagement and Darrin was convenient because he was not blindly marching to their corrupt orders. They chose the wrong guy if that is what they wanted. Newell and slew of other ATF people were fluent in Spanish when they named Gil the Attache, knowing full well that Darrin was not. They picked Darrin anyway and when he served the mission and didn’t suck up they canned his ass. That’s how Hoover and Chait operate. You can lay this move on Darrin’s lack of Spanish skills but if you think that is why these moves were made then join full on with the rest of the ‘HQ Fun Bunch’ and find an excuse for every bad decision or stop drinking from the headquarters coolaid punch bowl. Lets see how much better things get down there now that our super-SES and fluent Spanish speaker Bill Newell is in place. Chances are extreme that it gets worse, not better.

My point was not why he was removed. If Darren wants to put out why he was removed that is his decision. My point was that Newell knows Spanish and has lived in a Hispanic country before therefore would have an upper hand on being able to better communicate, go to meetings, cocktail parties etc when it deals with Mexican nationals or Spanish speaking nationals period. No fault of Darren's he applied for the job and HQ selected him. Problem was, and is, he never learned the language or the culture thus could not attend these meetings or go to the Spanish speaking parties. Did he do a good job, I am not his first line supervisor nor his second line rater so can't comment on that. Again let's read what others write and then comment instead of just attacking for attacking sake. And microscope are you assigned to the ATF Mexico office? If so again I ask that you enlighten me on the situation.

[Phillip McMichael]

This is my point on the Mexico Attache flip-flop. We all know what happened here. It is not and was not about language proficiency. Don’t convolute the situation. They sold Darrin a bill of goods by telling him he was going to Mexico City to make an investigative impact on behalf of ATF. Then they failed to support the mission they sent him to serve. He called them out to their faces, that being Hoover and Chait. Instead of listening to their man with his boots on the ground they insulated Darrin from Melson and put their own self-serving spin on the situation. Then the OIG got involved. Not because Darrin reached out to them either. He was interviewed and gave honest answers. Hoover and Chait needed a scapegoat for the mismanagement and Darrin was convenient because he was not blindly marching to their corrupt orders. They chose the wrong guy if that is what they wanted. Newell and slew of other ATF people were fluent in Spanish when they named Gil the Attache, knowing full well that Darrin was not. They picked Darrin anyway and when he served the mission and didn’t suck up they canned his ass. That’s how Hoover and Chait operate. You can lay this move on Darrin’s lack of Spanish skills but if you think that is why these moves were made then join full on with the rest of the ‘HQ Fun Bunch’ and find an excuse for every bad decision or stop drinking from the headquarters coolaid punch bowl. Lets see how much better things get down there now that our super-SES and fluent Spanish speaker Bill Newell is in place. Chances are extreme that it gets worse, not better.

It will be interesting to see what happens to international branch. In order to accommodate the Newell SES transfer to Mexico, management will have to create a SES level branch chief job so Newel has someone to answer to. Another buddy boy social promotion???

Is this fraud, waste & abuse?

[Concernedsup]

Hey concernedsup. Thanks for the state department briefing. I may not be as smart as you but I already knew language is a barrier in these situations. Genius. If it was so damn critical then why did they send Gil in the first place? Why was Kumar the HQ connect? I know the facts on this situation and Gil got f*****d to make room for Newell, so did Dan. Language or no language knowledge. Justify it however you want. If you know ATF then you know exactly what happened. Check the facts and tell me I'm wrong.

As for your second piece of advise, no one is throwing anything out for simply the sake of saying stuff. Don't try to difuse the reality of the situation.

Microscope as you can see I don't comment much on here but when I do I speak with facts. I will email you privately and discuss further. As to sending someone with no spanish language ability that's on HQ as to Gil situation and what happened I. am more than aware of what truly happened but will not put it on this forum as it is not appropriate. If you wish to discuss further and enlighten me on all your knowledge on Mexico please feel free to email me. Always looking to learn more.

[Thor God of Thunder]

Knowing the language or culture was not a consideration, obviously, when they sent the first one down there. Now all of sudden, they come up with the business reason that one does not "habla" and the other does. Whether legitimate or not, the ulterior motive was that Gil was providing truthful and honest feedback as it relates to the situation in Mexico and the other will not. Hoover and Chait can't handle the TRUTH! "You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? Chait? Hoover, Melson? Special Agents have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You curse Special Agents. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Special Agents save lives. Special Agents' existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, save lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me in that field. You need me in that field. You use words like honor, code, loyalty, integrity and ethics...you want us to believe you use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a lie. Either way, I don't give a damn about your lies!" As a Special Agent and in spite of your leadership failures, I will continue to do my job!

[Concernedsup]

When ATF sent Darrin Gil to Mexico they sent a man who is an agent and investigator but expected him to attend cocktail parties and slap the back of Mexican Generals.

Now they have Newell who is a no-account politician who wants nothing more than to attend meetings and show powerpoints but are pretending he is there to investigate.

They ruined the career of a good man in order to take care of their failing friend

Not speaking badly of either individual you mentioned, Gil or Newell, but it's pretty hard to go to Mexican cocktail parties or slap Mexican Generals on the the back if you don't "habla" the local language or know anything about the culture and then don't even care to learn. One knows the language and has been exposed to the culture, the other one doesn't and really didn't care to learn. Plain and simple that in it's self is half or more than half the battle to getting things done in any foreign country. I suggest to all we think about what we say before knowing all the facts and just throwing out a comment for the sake of saying stuff.

[Doc Holiday]

Pure and simple, they pulled Gil because of the OIG report. He answered the IGs questions as prescribed by law as did ALL of the staff. Once again, ignore the abuses and the stonewalling by Chait, Hoover and company. Why didn't the Director know of the widespread failures in Mexico and the SW border? Because Hoover and Chait filtered everything Gil sent up. To include cancelling meetings between Gil and Melson. They just promoted Canino. If they were to yank him right after the OIG report, he would have owned ATF. If Gil files a WB complaint, Mr. Melson on down better head for the hills. This whole thing was choreographed for the sole purpose of placing Newell in his dream job. As for a SES reporting to a GS 15, word is they are already trying to force Kumar out of his position (which by all accounts he has done a great job), so Newell won't have to report to him.

[Phillip McMichael]

Yes. Because Melson, Billy, Chait and the rest have been asleep at the wheel and been trying to pretend that they were diligently pursuing our SW border programs, and the OIG called them flat out incompetent, they had to scapegoat someone. What better way to get the Abusive Bill Newell out of Phoenix before it cost the taxpayers another million this year in settlements? Give him what he wants. He'll keep his mouth shut, make no waves and we can fly under the radar again. Although they have refused to make our attache' position an SES when Gil was down there, what do you want to bet it will be reclassified now. And what of Gillette? He has been shown to lack total ethical bounders, and proven he has NO business as a manager, why is he still there. We are watching nation wide Mr. Melson.

What happens to Gill and Canino? Didn't they just get there. Also, now does the SES Attache answer to the GS 15 International Branch Chief or is that position going to be SES now too?

[Doc Holiday]

Yes. Because Melson, Billy, Chait and the rest have been asleep at the wheel and been trying to pretend that they were diligently pursuing our SW border programs, and the OIG called them flat out incompetent, they had to scapegoat someone. What better way to get the Abusive Bill Newell out of Phoenix before it cost the taxpayers another million this year in settlements? Give him what he wants. He'll keep his mouth shut, make no waves and we can fly under the radar again. Although they have refused to make our attache' position an SES when Gil was down there, what do you want to bet it will be reclassified now. And what of Gillette? He has been shown to lack total ethical bounders, and proven he has NO business as a manager, why is he still there. We are watching nation wide Mr. Melson.

[Phillip McMichael]

What's going on down there? Are they shuffling the ATF command staff?