adelgadoiis

I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and I have to tell you that CNBC just aired a show called Remington Under Fire. The show revealed that the Remington model 700 rifle has a long history of accidental discharges for two reasons: Depending on the year that the rifle was made, when you switch the safety off, the gun may fire and after a certain year, the "trigger connector" may cause an accidental discharge. Either way, it is important to protect your friends and family. As investigators, it is important to know in case someone is killed with one of the effected weapons because an innocent person may go to prison over a death they were not responsible for. Let your friends know of this possible hazard. Some of these weapons are used by SWAT snipers and military snipers. We all know the negative reprocussions that can result if someone is killed by a law enforcement official while on duty.

On 21 Nov 10, 60 mins did a story on how the DEA captured the Merchant of Death, the largest private arms dealer in the world. The DEA brought the Merchant of Death back to the US this week. Kudos to our DEA brothers and sisters for a well run investigation. I do not know if any other agency had any part of this investigation but it appears the DEA was the lead agency. I highly recommend the video which you should be able to find on line.

Today I went to see the new movie Fair Game. The movie is about the unlawful act of Scooter Libby who publicly exposed the true identity of a CIA Covert Operations Officer named Valerie Plame. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joe Wilson who in 2002 traveled to the country of Niger to determine the validity of intelligence that Iraq attempted to obtain an enriched Uranium derivative to make nuclear weapons. Wilson determined that this intelligence was not valid and reported his findings to the CIA. The Bush administration used inaccurate information about the Iraqi efforts to justify the war in Iraq and the rest is history. This movie perfectly demonstrates to the world how some people in the US government can use their position or access to government information to mislead our leaders and fellow Americans. As a result of this misinformation campaign, the American Government will waste billions of dollars on efforts that lead to unproductive ends. Many of us who have stepped forward to report wrong doing can empathize with Valerie Plame and Mr. Wilson. We know what it feels like to drum up the courage to come forward despite our co-workers telling us that they will deny ever making a statement because they do not want to be part of rocking the boat. We know the uneasy feeling of paying for attorneys and dealing with the stress that comes with telling the truth. We know the feeling of thinking I have no choice when we see things are being done wrong or illegally. We just keep the faith that true justice will prevail and that the dishonest perpetrators will eventually be held accountable for all of their improper acts. I recommend the movie if you think that the stories we put up on this web site are not the truth. It is not a funny movie nor is it an action packed movie. It is about bad people in our government who will try anything to discredit and ruin the lives of honest government employees. So if you think this web site is full of a bunch of whiners and disgruntled employees making comments, I suggest you see the movie and if you really want to test the waters, try reporting some misconduct and see how quickly your perspective will be changed.

This is addressed to anyone in a position of power who is willing to use their power to correct a lot of wrongs. I am, Adam Delgado, a former ATF Agent assigned to the San Juan Field Office. Over the last six years I have attempted to do the right thing and comply with ATF instructions. I have attempted mediation on two occasions and nothing fruitful was offered by Ms Loos. A friend of mine was an 1811 with the Postal Inspectors and her boss gave her a hard time about doing her military reserve duty and she ended up resigning from her 1811 job. After 2-3 months, someone in the Postal Service noticed that there was something wrong with this situation and instead of ignoring the problem, that person wrote an official letter to my friend, apologizing for the error about military leave and offering my friend her job back with full compensation/reinstatement. I was floored with how easy that whole situation was resolved and I told my friend that she had better take that offer because she would never have any ground to stand on in any future litigation. I told her I wish I would have gotten a letter like that. Instead, I have spent over $100,000 in legal fees, court reporter costs, court fees, travel to/from Washington DC and Puerto Rico as well as my mortgage for my house in Puerto Rico that I have not been able to sell. ATF does not need a Federal Judge or an Administrative Judge to tell them to do the right thing. ATF only needs to take it upon themselves to stop compounding the damage. I worked hard in Puerto Rico. I did 3 years and six months in Puerto Rico, a hardship location. I had asked to be transferred to Chicago and it was refused. I asked for a hardship transfer to Chicago and my supervisor did not recommend approval. Chicago is now in dire need of more Agents to help stem the rash of violent crimes that are occurring in Chicago. As a former Chicago Police Officer with nine years of experience, I know the violent parts of Chicago and I can make a difference. Stop the attorneys from making this more complicated that what it needs to be please. I was given an inaccurate Standard Form 50 upon my resignation. The SF 50 stated I had 14 years of education when actually I have 18 years of education. I asked ATF Counsel Valerie Bacon, via e-mail, to forward my request to the HR people to give me a corrected SF 50 and I have not received anything. For those former ATF employees, I suggest that you have another civilian personnel office look at your SF 50 to see if there is inaccurate or derogatory information on it as you may not be able to get another Federal job because of a bad SF 50. I left ATF because of the discrimination I was exposed to by ATF supervisors as well as Whistle Blower retaliation for my reporting illegal activities, possible criminal acts by Task Force Agents, abuse of power, and an Internal Affairs investigator told me that "If you are going to sling mud, you had better expect mud to be slung back at you." I asked him if I was under investigation and he said no but he did go up to the US Attorney's Office to speak to lawyers there about me. The IA guy tried to get dirt on me, the complainant. The IA guy did open a case on a fellow agent who spoke highly of me. This caused a lot of undue stress on the agent, who like me, only told the truth. I made a complaint against my former supervisor, a GS-14, who the IA guy claimed under oath is his friend. When asked under oath, my former supervisor, stated that he did not consider the IA guy as his friend. There were a lot of other conflicting statements during the depositions if someone with some integrity would care to review the transcripts. A probationary agent could find the inconsistencies in the testimony of some of the deponents. I reported all of this to the Department of Justice OIG and they too ignored it. Puerto Rico has the highest crime rate of any place that flys the American flag. Why did ATF Puerto Rico have such terrible numbers during 2003-2007? Why did an ASAC from the Miami Field Division come to Puerto Rico and tell a group of 1811's, "you guys need to stop stealing your pay checks." Why was an agent promoted to a GS-14 position right after he threaten his fellow agents with a baseball bat in an e-mail from his ATF account? There were serious problems in Puerto Rico and all I did was my job. This is an opportunity for the ATF leadership to make a move in the right direction. Show us all how serious you are about making things right. I would welcome the opportunity to speak with Mr. Melson as he said he was will to do during the CNN interview.

How is it that Ms Loos can sit through depositions of an ATF GS-14 who admitted under oath to making the comment, “You will be dead if you call Internal Affairs” and “your career will be dead” and think there is nothing wrong with this? In what corporation could a supervisor just get a verbal admonishment for this yet they took the gun from another agent who only made the comment, “if you want to make this personal, we can make it personal.” How can ATF protect supervisors who abused their authority and their lack of leadership resulted in embarrassing low numbers of guns recovered from proactive cases in a 12 month period in Puerto Rico where crime is the highest in the US and its territories? How can GS-14s perjure themselves in depositions and no one does anything about it? How can an honest employee who complies with ATF directives instructing him to report illegal and improper conduct be forced out of service from ATF? Why are GS-14s allowed to operate with impunity while destroying morale and damaging the reputation of ATF? Why did ATF send an Internal Affairs investigator, who is good friends with the GS-14 who is accused of wrong doing, to look into the allegation of wrong doing? Why was the IA agent allowed to go after me, the complainant, and another agent who spoke favorably of my investigative skills, work ethic, and professionalism?