I have had the priviledge to work, drink, argue, party and have him as friend. This is beyond a travesty. While Vince is treated like this those who have lied go unpunished. The likes of Newell, Gillette et al go unpunished for now and their actions have cost lives. When will this madness end. Vince, my core brother, stay strong, fight the fight like you only can fight with the truth. You know your core brothers, from Miami to Atlanta from Louisiana to Chicago and all over the nation, will have your back in this fight.

Traver?

Yeah, right. Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

If the current administration makes Traver the acting Director, it will be the SES good old boy system as usual. There will be minor shuffling of leadership but same people who stood by and did nothing in new positions. Melson leaving and Traver coming in changes nothing. Here's an example for you, a bit crude but to the point: take 6 chairs and put a piece of crap on each one. Now move crap 1 to chair 6 and crap 6 to chair 1. What do you have? 6 pieces of crap on 6 chairs. If our higher ups have been inefficient/incompetent in their current jobs what makes them efficient/competent with a change of responsibility/job position? We need someone with vision/courage, someone with no ties to current leaders to take charge and change things, hold people of all ranks responsible fairly. Oh and by the way, let 1811's run 1811 related issues, enough with the lawyers running this agency. PLEASE, let's get some real change not some actor who is buddies with the same pieces of crap that have run this agency to the ground.

Word is that some elements of the 5th floor want to give away the USBDC and whatever explosive lead we have not only in the States but in Mexico too!!!! I am KMA but would like to retire as an ATF agent versus another agency. What more are we going to give away?

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.

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.

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.

So now we take time from agents schedule to have a drawing of a mummy done. Wow, time to crime must be huge. Can't fund other things, can't put people in the places they just might do some good, can give agents what they need to investigate but we can get an accurate sketch of a mummy. Was the mummy a prohibited person and we just had to investigate him? I guess I have seen it all!!!!!