'I Smell Cash': How the A.T.F. Spent Millions Unchecked

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

Last edited Sun Sep 10, 2017, 10:29 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/us/atf-tobacco-cigarettes.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-5&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

BRISTOL, Va. — For seven years, agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives followed an unwritten policy: If you needed to buy something for one of your cases, do not bother asking Washington. Talk to agents in Bristol, Va., who controlled a multimillion-dollar account unrestricted by Congress or the bureaucracy.

Need a flashy BMW for an undercover operation? Call Bristol.

A vending machine with a hidden camera? Bristol.

Travel expenses? Take this credit card. It’s on Bristol.

When The New York Times revealed the existence of the secret account in February, publicly available documents made it seem like the work of a few agents run amok. But thousands of pages of newly unsealed records reveal a widespread scheme — a highly unorthodox merger of an undercover law enforcement operation and a legitimate business. What began as a way to catch black-market cigarette dealers quickly transformed into a nearly untraceable A.T.F. slush fund that agents from around the country could tap.

Your tax dollars at work... Well, maybe not.

[Voltaire2]

1. That's vile but I have to take exception to your list.

The first is much cruder, involving a mouth, and the last we should discard as it is a rightwing trope. Millions of people right now are either in need of or about to need effective government help from the storm catastrophe that has descended on our southern regions and the fire catastrophe in the west. Government help is effective if we make it effective.

[Maeve]

2. Please lose the insult to government help

Particularly when so many of our people are looking to FEMA for assistance.

edited to note that most 'first responders' are government, including my son, National Guard, trained in rescue and recovery. We the people are the government.

[Orrex]

3. You were doing ok right up until you quoted Reagan

That's such a steaming load of shit that I'm tempted to go back and re-read some of your previous posts to check for Right-bias.

Is the government corrupt? Sure, sometimes. In fact, there are only two institutions more certainly guaranteed to be corrupt than government:

1. Corporations
2. Churches

Government is a very distant third-place finisher in that race.

a multimillion-dollar account unrestricted by Congress or the bureaucracy.

Ooooh! Multi-million! While that's indeed serious, I'm much more concerned about the multi-billion dollar annual giveaways to huge corporations.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. My only bias is "rights" based

Corps and churches are corrupt??? Stop the presses! This here is LBN material.

Of course you're correct there. Corps are probably the worst. Sometimes even those designated as non-profit.


(BTW, I never knew Reagan said that. Learn something new everyday. Here's a Reagan quote that really sums the man up: "I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon." Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/ronald_reagan.html)

[Lee-Lee]

5. The BATFE has a long bad track record and needs to be disbanded

This all happened not far from me, and my experience with the BATFE has always been that they are a bunch of wannabe cowboys who all want to make big huge cases and while doing so totally ignore all the small but meaningful cases they should be prosecuting like going after straw purchasers and felons trying to buy guns.

The agency is a historical anachronism left over from the days or prohibition that has no real reason to exist and an agency. There is no reason for what they cover to be lumped into an agency.

The taxation aspects of what they do- taxes on alcohol, tobacco and firearms- need to be turned over to the IRS.

The firearms regulation, explosives regulation and arson investigation part should be done by the FBI.

The alcohol and tobacco regulation part should be done by the FDA.

There is no need for it to exist as and agency only covering the three things they do. It's a leftover from the day of prohibition and the agency has had so many troubles before and now it just needs to be disbanded because it clearly can't clean itself up.