Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Fast And Furious Whistle-blower Reaches Agreement Over Retaliation Claims

Peter Forcelli, an ATF agent who blew the whistle on management lapses in the gun trafficking scandal known as Fast and Furious, has reached an agreement with the bureau over his retaliation claims.

 A lawyer for Forcelli declined to disclose the terms of the settlement because it was the product of a confidential mediation process.

 "We can't reveal the details but Mr. Forcelli's smile could not be broader," lawyer Tom Devine, of the Government Accountability Project, told NPR in an interview. "This outcome was a 180 degree reversal by new management... This dispute is over."

 Forcelli appeared in Congress in June 2011 to blast his supervisors and the U.S. attorney in Arizona for failing to oversee a law enforcement operation that lost track of as many as 2,000 guns along the Southwest border.

 "What we have here is actually a colossal failure in leadership from within ATF, within the chain of command involved in this case, within the United States attorney's office and within DOJ as to the individuals who were aware of this strategy," Forcelli testified.

 Forcelli said he never understood the strategy behind the ATF operation. To watch guns walk across the Southwest border, he said, was a recipe for disaster.

 "We weren't giving guns to people who were hunting bear. We were giving guns to people who were killing other humans," he said.

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