Early Monday morning it was revealed supervisors within the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms have censored whistleblower John Dodson by denying an outside work application to publish a book about Operation Fast and Furious. The family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is expressing their support for Dodson and want his book to be published.
"The family of slain U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry stands behind ATF whistleblower John Dodson and supports his attempts to publish his manuscript pertaining to the flawed gun trafficking investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious. Recently, ATF officials told Dodson that he was prohibited from releasing his memoir because it would have a negative impact on morale in the Phoenix office of the ATF and would have a detrimental effect on ATF’s relationships with the DEA and the FBI. Do we really need to remind ATF leadership that the men that killed Brian Terry were carrying weapons supplied to them by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, an investigation that both President Obama and Attorney General Holder have publicly called ill-conceived? This latest incident reignites concerns that ATF leadership is again seeking to avoid responsibility for the deadly errors made in allowing the flawed gun walking tactics," President of the Brian Terry Foundation Ralph Terry said in a statement. "This should not be an issue of what some in ATF call “an opportunity for Dodson to get rich” rather it should be about accountability and transparency. ATF leadership has yet another opportunity to close an ugly chapter in its history by letting John Dodson publish his memoirs and tell the story of Operation Fast and Furious with the goal of never repeating the same mistakes. The Terry family and the American public deserve to hear what Dodson has to say. They also need to know that ATF has learned from its mistakes."
From September 2009-December 2010, ATF knowingly allowed thousands of high powered firearms to be illegally purchased in the United States and transferred to narco-terrorists in Mexico. Weapons from Operation Fast and Furious were left at Agent Terry's murder scene in 2010 after a firefight with an illegal rip crew working for Mexican cartels.
Newly minted ATF Director Todd B. Jones, who has been accused of whistleblower retaliation in the past, is being urged to allow Dodson to publish his manuscript in order to prove ATF no longer has anything to hide.
"The Terry family urges new ATF Director Todd B. Jones to reconsider his agency’s position and allow Dodson to publish his manuscript. It’s important that Director Jones shows that ATF has nothing to hide in the aftermath of Operation Fast and Furious, and that his agency is not involved in any kind of retaliation against Special Agent Dodson for his whistleblower actions which ultimately exposed and stopped the tactics of gun walking," Terry said. "Many Americans believe that ATF and DOJ have hidden certain aspects of the ill-conceived gun trafficking investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious that resulted in the death of Brian Terry; allowing the publication of John Dodson’s manuscript would go a long way in showing that ATF has nothing to hide."
The ACLU has sent a letter to ATF requesting Dodson's application to publish his manuscript be approved and asks that ATF revise its "outside work" policies in order to meet constitutional standards. According to ACLU attorneys, current ATF policies about outside work violate the First Amendment, whistleblower protections and Supreme Court precedent.