Posted: 3/20/2003 11:35:06 AM EDT
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Was this common knowledge? Was it substantiated? It really wouldn't surprise me...I was just wondering if everyone already heard this. [url]http://pages.prodigy.net/geoffc/news39.htm[/url] Letter by Ross' attorney: An Open Letter to the BATF JAMES H. JEFFRIES, III, Attorney at Law- JAMES H. JEFFRIES, III ATTORNEY AT LAW 3019 LAKE FOREST DRIVE GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA 27408 30 June, 2000 Honorable Bradley A. Buckles, Director Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms United States Department of the Treasury 650 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest Washington, D.C. 20226 Re: Mr. John Ross St. Louis, Missouri Dear Mr. Buckles: I represent Mr. John Ross of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Ross is an investment broker and financial adviser with a respected investment firm in St. Louis. He has degrees in English and Economics from Amherst College. Mr. Ross is very active in community and public affairs. He is the grandson of President Harry Truman's press secretary, Charles Ross, and was himself the Democratic Party candidate for the United States House of Representatives from the Second District of Missouri in 1998. In short, Mr. Ross is an upstanding and productive member of his community. Mr. Ross has had a lifelong interest in firearms and is both a Federal Firearms Licensee and a Special Occupational Taxpayer under the National Firearms Act. Of central importance to the purpose of this letter is the fact that Mr. Ross is also the author of Unintended Consequences, a highly popular novel about the trials and tribulations of legal gun owners and dealers in the United States. Although the book is manifestly a work of fiction, it accurately depicts documented historical events in the long and sordid history of misconduct by personnel of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The book is in its fifth hardcover printing with some 50,000 copies in circulation and has become enormously popular among the gun owners of the United States. Because the book is highly critical of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, it appears that some in your agency have undertaken to suppress it and to intimidate its author. Honorable Bradley A. Buckles - page two For example, in 1997 the book's publisher became aware that individuals purporting to be BATF agents had threatened vendors of the book in at least three different states with "problems" if they did not cease their sales of the book. A full-page ad in Shotgun News offering a $10,000 reward for the identity of these individuals put a stop to that particular business. Now we have learned that in late May of this year agents from your St. Louis field office have engaged in an official effort to enlist Mrs. Ross, who is amicably separated from her husband as an informant against her husband. On or about May 24 2000, at about 7:30 a.m. two agents approached Mrs. Ross on the street while she was walking her dog, identified themselves by displaying their BATF credentials, and proceeded to inquire what she thought about her husband's book. When she was noncommittal the agents terminated the conversation and departed. This contact had been preceded in previous weeks by pretext telephone calls to Mrs. Ross, by what were undoubtedly your agents, in an attempt to draw her out about her husband's book. An agent, using the pseudonym of Peter Nettleson, and pretending to be a great fan of Unintended Consequences, sought Mrs. Ross's agreement that the book was, in fact, "a manual for the murder of federal agents." [1] I note in passing that best-selling author Tom Clancy in recent books has murdered a Director of the FBI, the President of the United States, the entire Congress, the Supreme Court, the entire cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a few lesser functionaries. I presume he has not thereby become subject to investigation by your literary critics. ------------------------ 1. As an experienced federal prosecutor I am fully aware of what is going on here. Disgruntled former spouses are a prime source of intelligence for law enforcement, having as they frequently do both a strong bias against the subject of the investigation and the proximity and intimacy to know many things not available to others. A structured approach such as this required, according to your manuals, formal agency approval. It required the investment of time and effort in setting up the approach: determining Mrs. Ross's new address, learning her new telephone number, physical surveillance to determine her routine so that she could be approached in a way that she could not simply shut the door and where there would be less risk of confirming witnesses, the use of a female agent to lessen any apprehension at being approached publicly by strangers, etc. Honorable Bradley A. Buckles - page three What kind of people are you? Is there no honor within the ranks of your agency? It has long been clear, from repeated court decisions and congressional committee reports, that your agents have no familiarity with the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Now it appears that they have not even been introduced to the very first Article of the Bill of Rights. I am writing to express our outrage about this conduct and to formally demand that your agency cease and desist from this unconstitutional abuse of power. I am contemporaneously making formal Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act demands upon BATF for the records and files pertaining to Mr. Ross, his book, and these events. By copies of this letter I am requesting the Inspector General of the Treasury Department to formally investigate this unlawful conduct and the Attorney General to investigate to determine whether Mr. Ross's civil rights are being violated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Sincerely yours, [signed] James H. Jeffries, III cc: Attorney General of the United States Inspector General, Department of the Treasury |
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Commentary by the webmaster of the above site: The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), apparently not satisfied to run roughshod only over the Second Amendment rights of the citizens of this Republic, appears to have taken on the role of Government Literary Critic. In what may be the BATF's first excursion into the hallowed fields of the First Amendment, this paramilitary branch of Federal Law Enforcement seems to be attempting to broaden its mandate well beyond the oversight of booze, smokes and guns (these are a few of my favorite things) which have historically constituted its proscribed regulatory domain. Most of the regular readers of these pages certainly have at least a nodding acquaintance with Mr. John Ross, and his 1997 cult classic "Unintended Consequences". I say "cult classic" only because the book was so wildly popular among gun-rights activists while being so largely ignored by the self-apointed lords of the mainstream media. Besides, the word "cult" resonates so deeply these days with both those in favor of, and opposed to, the unmistakable tendency of government toward consolidation of central power at the expense of individual liberty. Can Bryant Gumbel say "Unintended Consequences"?. I doubt it. Mr. Ross' novel, a work of fiction which captured the imagination of tens of thousands of gun owners across this country, and elsewhere, apparently has caught the eye of some folks in the Justice Department. Our Government's law enforcers are so concerned, apparently, with the potential threat posed by the words of Mr. Ross, that they have undertaken to investigate the man to make sure he's on the level, and not a seditious rabble-rousing nut. Well, OK... maybe they're investigating; maybe they're hounding, harrassing and intimidating. The lawyer's letter speaks for itself. The lawyer's letter describes specific, documented episodes of actions taken toward the book's publisher, book vendors, and even Mr. Lott's ex-wife. It is clear that our Government's employees did their homework. They studied and knew the ex-Mrs. Ross' movements with calculated precision. Now ask yourself this: If you were NOT John Ross, the grandson of Harry Truman's press secretary, an investment broker, pillar of the community, and noted author, but if you shared his concern for the tragic loss of freedom in this country and made your concerns known, then who would you be? Maybe you would be...um... Randy Weaver. Or maybe you'd be one of any number of the lesser known victims of police state tactics across this land; gun owners, gun collectors, gun dealers, bikers, rebels, patriots and assorted fringe kooks like you and me, who lose a little more freedom, a little more dignity each day. With every late night knock on the door, each no-knock warrant or warrantless search, with every questionable income tax audit or property seizure, we are all diminished. Now I want to say for the record, and for the benefit of any and all Federal Agents who may be reading this essay, that I never, ever used these pages to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Government by force or violence. Not yet. I never once suggested that Federal Agents crashing through your door should be taken out with a head shot. (That was G. Gordon Liddy, I swear! My name starts with a "G", but that's where the similarity ends, honest! I never, ever said that one day we'll rise up and "make the bugger's eyes water". Pink Floyd said that, not me. And did you ever hear me say that my vision of the future is "a jackboot forever stomping on a human face"? Nope. No Siree! That was George Orwell. But you BATF literary critics surely already know that he was an eccentric Brit whose real name was Eric Blair, and he's already dead. So please, BATF, even though I don't have an ex-wife to mine for garbage, please don't pry into my ass with a magnifying glass. You've already been to my house. Thanks to the diligent efforts of one of your Hartford Field Office operatives, you have the floor plan of my house in your files. If you'll just leave me alone, I promise never to say anything bad about you bastards. |
| If that is not scary enough for you the B.A.T.F.A (as now known) is no longer attached to the Department of the Treasury, they are now in the Justice Department without any restraints or any comities to answer to. Also they were in direct violation of several laws when they named specific companies in the 94 Assault Weapons Ban and the list goes on and on. Put it this way all of your Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties depend on the 2nd Amendment, without it kiss them all away. In Fact if you were not already aware of this the B.A.T.F.A are active members on this site as well as all other pro gun sites and monitor it 24/7 as well as having subscriptions to all of the Firearms Magazines, so buyer beware on allot of the items that you know you cannot have but are advertised (STING). Oh and due to the new regulations and amendments (nothing like changing the rules in the middle of the game) to the importation of parts the gun parts kits that you see advertised everywhere, the legitimate companies that do this and are trying to comply with the whimsy changes of there requirements and stipulations of our beloved B.A.T.F.A. are being monitored, having there phones (and peoples phones who do allot of business with these companies) tapped. Oh yes Homeland Security made self proclaimed god’s of this organization sworn to uphold our rights and liberties as “FREE AMERICAN CITIZENS”. Rant complete[soapbox] |