agent resided as well and w they arehe going through some pain similar to what you are going through. very possibly as a result of ill-conceived policies by the atf. . . questions for the gentleman here from the agency, and appreciate your courage in testifying and want to assure you that i think i speak for the bulk of this committee that we really appreciate your courage in coming out. certainly it would be a bad thing if there were to be any repercussions. my question, in your testimony you were talking about you had followed that straw buyer from the gun store and it would stop. did you all ever go beyond the firsthandoff of that weapon to trace them to where they were going? not really, no. many a times what we would do is we would have the information beforehand where they would call the ffl and say hey, we are coming by to pick up 10 or 15 of these rifles, then they would notify the case agent and we would begin surveillance. we would often go to the straw purchaser
know, this investigation as you well know relies intensely on your testimony, not only in whole but in hope w find an answer at the end of this investigation to see this never happens again. to that end, i want to ask a couple of questions, specifically to you, mr. cost a. i was here for the beginning and missed for a coup of votes. to have the surveillance without interdiction and arrest, did that get the gist of it? for this investigation, yes. you stated in your testimony it has become common practice for atf supervisors to retaliate against employees that don t blindly tow the company line no matter the consequences. can you describe what any of that retaliation would be. i say refer back to investigations over the countless years, all the attorneys represented atf employees for all types of retaliation for whistle blowing, repudtive actions whether they deserved that you mention the e-mail you received you thought was threatening. oh, yeah. were you personall
we are looking at a fort bliss military construction project that has been completed this year that would take one of the bct s that was designated to come back from germany. it is prepared and ready for taking that bct from germany. the department changed the previous decision that we would fromg back two bct s germany to say we re not sure yeah. you have the milcom to take one bct back and on the five-year plan for military construction, there is $1 billion to be done in germany. germany contributed 7% of the cost of our milcon as compared with japan that contributes 40%. i would just ask you as you are leaving in your last two weeks if you can give serious consideration to the fact that we do not get an effort from germany. $1 billion of military construction for changing army headquarters and bases, couldn t that money be saved rather than sitting duck out of personnel or health care or save rather than out of personnel or health care or systems that were modernized for
to protect these rights. our solemn responsibility is to pold government accountable to tax payers because taxpayersld r have a rinmght to know what the get from their government. we worked tirelessly in partnership with citizenpartneri watchdogs to deliver the facts to the american deliver the faco the american people and bring genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy. the mission of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms is to protect our community from violent criminals, criminal organization, and the illegal use and trafficking of firearms. since the gun control act of 1968, the atf has been organized as a unique law enforcement agency that americans could trust to reduce the illegal transfer of guns into the hands of criminals. today s hearing concerns a breach of that trust that has left countless innocent, mexican citizens and at least one federal border patrol agent dead. in 2009, the atf began allowing straw purchasers to walk guns into mexico. believing that