Abolish ATF? FBI & BATFE 'turf war' (NAGR)

ATF and FBI fighting turf war

It was revealed to congress that the notoriously anti-gun Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are in the middle of an ugly inter-departmental turf war.

In testimony to Congress FBI director Robert Mueller adminted that the turf war between law enforcement agencies he once claimed was resolved is still interfering with the work of both agencies.

From the Associated Press:

FBI Director Robert Mueller conceded to Congress Wednesday that turf fights persist between his agents and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Mueller was asked at a Senate hearing about a report by The Associated Press on Tuesday that government investigators had found persistent feuding between the two law enforcement agencies, despite repeated efforts by the Justice Department to settle the conflict.

A draft report by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, an internal watchdog, found the conflicts have led agents to race each other to crime scenes, withhold information from each other and refuse to train together.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized the Justice Department’s supervision of the FBI and ATF and said the report raises serious concerns about the problems between the agencies.

Grassley asked the FBI director if the problems between the two agencies have been fixed, as they had claimed last year.

“They have not all been resolved,” said Mueller. “As the inspector general points out, there are still issues.”…

The inspector general’s draft report found a major part of the problem stems from a lack of clear direction from the Justice Department, which has responsibility for settling disagreements between the two offices.

Grassley complained that the agencies told him last year that they had resolved their disputes, and yet the report indicates such fighting continues. He also said the Justice Department has failed to answer questions on the subject.

The department owes it to taxpayers, Grassley argued, to settle their disputes and work together.

Mueller said the two sides work together well most of the time, but there are exceptions.

The inspector general’s report is still being updated and it is not clear when the final version will be released publicly.

The draft version said the conflicts can delay investigations and highlighted a number of incidents, including:

• In December 2008 the FBI protested a local prosecutor’s request to use the ATF to investigate a blast that killed a local bomb technician in Woodburn, Ore.
• In March 2008 both agencies responded to a bombing near a U.S. military recruiting station in Times Square. ATF sought to have the suspect charged immediately in what the inspector general called a “race to the courthouse” to take the case from the FBI, which was already pursuing the suspect in a different state.
• In November 2007 the FBI was notified of a pipe bomb found in a truck at the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona and claimed jurisdiction as a terrorism case. Notified several hours later, ATF disputed any connection to terrorism in a confrontation in front of local law enforcement officials.

The answer seems pretty clear to me, abolish the BATFE and leave the real police work — like stopping the drug trade, shutting down gangs and arresting rapists — to the FBI.

Originally founded in the late 1920’s, the BATFE was founded as part of the Treasury Department and didn’t even have arrest rights. It was then passed around like a hot-potato, from the Treasury Department to the FBI to the Justice Department.

The BATFE’s long history of excessive force and perjury in their unholy persecution of gun owners should put them outside of the law rather than as the laws titiualr “enforcers.”

If Congress wants to get serious about law enforcement it should abolish the BATFE.

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