ATF head clarifies remarks from video criticized as warning to whistle-blowers

Mike Levine
Fox News
July 30, 2012

A week after two Republican lawmakers raised concerns over what they saw as a threatening video from the new head of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives bureau, Acting Director B. Todd Jones has issued a “special message” to all ATF employees clarifying his remarks in the video.

The message, sent in written form through an internal system, notes that ATF policy telling employees to raise concerns “through the chain of command” can be trumped by an employee’s right to become a protected whistle-blower. And in a letter Wednesday to the lawmakers, Jones insisted that “at no time” was he “attempting to discourage, dissuade or prevent employees from” becoming whistle-blowers.

“This latest video message … was designed to reinforce and highlight the importance of accountability at all levels of ATF to (promote) safe and efficient Federal law enforcement, one of the main concerns raised to me by employees in the field,” Jones wrote in the letter, obtained by Fox News.

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Infowars’ Darrin McBreen covered this issue on the Infowars Nightly News.