September
8, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sibel Edmonds, sedmonds@nswbc.org
In a letter
addressed to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Chairman, Susan Collins (R- ME), National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
(NSWBC) urges the committee to investigate and hold a hearing in the case of
Mr. Sandalio Gonzalez, the former Special Agent in Charge for the Drug
Enforcement Administration in El Paso.
Mr.
Gonzalez, a thirty-three year veteran of law enforcement, has suffered
retaliation for reporting concerns that the United States Attorney’s Office for
the Western District of Texas, along with federal law enforcement agents,
supported and protected a confidential informant who they knew had “supervised”
torture and murder of people, and who they knew would engage in similar
activity in the future. After discovering that the informant murdered at least
one person, law enforcement agents and the U.S. Attorney’s Office allegedly stood by as he participated in, and aided and abetted numerous other
killings. The actions alleged by Mr.
Gonzalez also placed United States agents in Mexico at risk and resulted in the
near abduction and murders of a DEA agent and his family in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
“Government
employees should never be forced to choose between career and conscience when
faced with agency wrongdoing,” said Sibel Edmonds, Director of the NSWBC. ”Universally respected and loved by
the agents under his command, Mr. Gonzalez was retaliated against, forced into
retirement, and took with him a vast amount of institutional memory and an
extensive repertoire for securing our nation against its enemies. This is our
country’s loss, thus congress must act.”
Copies
of the letter were sent to the Senate & House Judiciary Committees.
Dear Senator
Collins:
A member of
our organization, Mr. Sandalio Gonzalez, the former Special Agent in Charge for
the Drug Enforcement Administration
in El Paso, has suffered retaliation for expressing concern that the United
States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, along with federal
law enforcement agents, aided, supported, and protected a confidential
informant who they knew had “supervised” torture and murder of people and who
they knew would engage in similar activity in the future. After discovering that the informant
murdered at least one person, law enforcement agents and the U.S. Attorney’s Office allegedly stood by as he participated in, and aided and abetted
numerous other killings. This informant
was protected in order to preserve and
prosecute cases made against drug traffickers and cigarette smugglers.
The actions
alleged by Mr. Gonzalez also placed United States agents in Mexico at risk and
resulted in the near abduction and murders of a DEA agent and his family in
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. As a senior
executive service manager in the DEA, Gonzalez rightly felt that it was his
duty to speak up and attempt to insure that federal agencies conduct themselves
according to law and stated policy. For
this, Mr. Gonzalez, a thirty-three year veteran of law enforcement, was
punished. Universally respected and
loved by the agents under his command, Mr. Gonzalez was forced into retirement
and took with him a vast amount of institutional memory and an extensive
repertoire for securing our nation against its enemies. We would point out that Mr. Gonzalez did not
blow the whistle in the normal sense; everything he did was in-house and not
directed at the media or members of Congress.
Out of all
the cases we run across we bring this one to your special attention because it
involved multiple agencies and for the egregious consequences agency
misbehavior may have had in this case.
Arguably, as a result of the failure to follow policy and simple ethical
practices at least one wholly innocent United States resident was abducted, tortured, and murdered, and numerous
Mexican nationals were killed.
Because of
the seriousness of the agency failures alleged by Mr. Gonzalez and the special
credibility due his observations we pray for the following actions:
•
That
the Committee on Homeland Security, or individual members of the Committee,
request a confidential briefing from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States
Attorney for the Western District of Texas, and the Drug Enforcement Administration on the government
actions surrounding the allegations by Mr. Gonzalez.
•
That
the Committee on Homeland Security schedules a hearing on the actions
concerning Mr.
Gonzalez’ allegations of malfeasance
and retaliation and subpoena appropriate witnesses to describe and explain
those actions.
We attach Mr.
Gonzalez’ letter of concern to the Bureau of Immigrations and Custom
Enforcement and the United States
Attorney’s Office that precipitated agency retaliation, and also the letter
of complaint to the Department of Justice Inspector General. Mr. Gonzalez joins us in the requests we put
forward here, and we look forward to your response.
Respectfully,
National
Security Whistleblowers Coalition
Sibel D.
Edmonds
Director
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For more
information and a copy of Mr. Gonzalez’ letter to the Bureau of Immigrations
and Custom Enforcement, please contact Sibel Edmonds at sedmonds@nswbc.org
About National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded
in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers
who have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform
authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at
nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s
borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases
criminal conduct. The NSWBC is
dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of
methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the
public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship
to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and
working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the
NSWBC mission statement.
For more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org
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