Posted: 3/31/2010 7:36:45 PM EDT
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Why is government blocking access to ATF whistlebower website?
March 30, 10:02 AM Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea Courtesy Oleg Volk, A Human Right Firearms designer Len Savage sent me an email this morning calling my attention to a post on attorney David Hardy's Of Arms and the Law blog. Access to the CleanUpATF.org website is being blocked from Department of Justice computers. Users attempting to visit it are reminded that they're being watched and noted. Why? Here's a screenshot posted on the CleanUpATF forum: We've discussed CleanUpATF numerous times here at Gun Rights Examiner. They're the group of ATF employees who are fed up (pun intended) with corruption and incompetence at the bureau, and who formed "a non-profit organization dedicated to returning integrity, accountability and decency to the management of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE or 'ATF')." A few of the more egregious examples of what has compelled them to speak out: Managers, Counsel, Internal Affairs and staff of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (BATFE or "ATF") have repeatedly given false testimony, concealed substantial waste, fraud and abuse, abused their lawful authority, and waged systematic campaigns of reprisal against their own employees that dare to speak out. This website is intended by members of the ATF community to promote restoration of integrity, accountability and responsibility to ATF's leadership, and regain the trust of the American taxpayer. and In recent years, ATF management has become widely and officially known for corruption, self-service, and at times, overt incompetence...In the last two years alone, there have been nearly 400 employee complaints. In an organization with only about 5,000 employees...Recently publicized cases have involved malicious and carefully orchestrated management campaigns to smear, discredit, and professionally destroy agents who have repeatedly risked their lives for ATF and the public, solely in reprisal for the filing of legitimate complaints...The Bureau's leadership has also miserably failed or even deliberately refused to meet its responsibility to protect highly decorated undercover agents from documented threats... Here's the thing––most private companies and government agencies have web use policies. After all, you don't want to be paying someone to do a job only to find they're squandering work time abusing Internet privileges. So is it unfair for CleanUPATF.org to complain about government abuse and waste and then turn around and complain they can't surf the web? Here's what the Department of Justice has to say about that: Personal Use of Government Property An employee should recognize her responsibility to protect and conserve government property and resources, and to make an honest effort to use official time and government property only for official business. 5 C.F.R. § 2635.704 through .705 Use of Government property, and Use of official time. An employee may not use the official time of another employee for anything other than official business. The use of any government property, including computers and the Internet, for any partisan political activities is always prohibited. Department of Justice employees are generally authorized to make minimal personal use of most office equipment and library facilities where the cost to the Government is negligible and on an employee's own time. 28 C.F.R. § 45.4. This is the Department's de minimis use policy, and would permit an employee to send a short, personal electronic message to another individual. However, personal messages sent to large groups of people and messages sent to disseminate information on non-Governmental activities, such as charitable events and causes, commercial activities such as personal businesses, and religious observances, are prohibited. If an employee of the Department of Justice has questions about the Department's rules covering the limitations on personal use of government equipment and resources, or questions about whether planned personal use of office equipment is permitted, she should consult with her supervisor, or her ethics official. Assuming these requirements are being adhered to, what do we see happening at Justice? Some representative comments from CleanUpATF: I equate this to the censhorship that occurs in China. The Chinese government will not allow its people to search Google. ATF will not allow its employess to go on cleanupatf.org....who is worse? I checked the american cancer society which is a .org and that site came up. So it must just be cleanupatf.org. You might notice that they do not cite the "DOJ policy" that "requires" ATF to block ATF employees from viewing a website that relates directly to ATF policy and current affairs. Naw. In classic ATF management knee-jerk fashion, rather than encouraging free discussion and debate, and instead of actually addressing the critical issues raised on this website in a straight-up and constructive manner, we'll simply block the site! Problem solved! The CUATF Webmaster makes a prediction: Hey Melson (and cronies), here's a news flash for you. This will not prevent our message from getting out. Indeed. If that was the intended consequence, we find management judgment once more in question. Why not forward this column's link to newspapers in your area, and ask them why they continue to remain silent on issues of ATF abuse? http://www.examiner.com/ |
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Big deal. When I worked on the helpdesk of a printer manufacturer, our IT staff blocked access to a third-party forum devoted solely to bitching about our hardware and pirating our software. Whistleblowers have access to non-.gov computers to do their whistleblowing on. |