Federal LEO advocacy group charges retaliation for Gunwalker testimony

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Senator Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa were sent a letter last Wednesday by Luciano Cerasi, Associate General Counsel, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, detailing allegations of whistleblower retaliations against Peter J. Forcelli, Group Supervisor, ATF, by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona and the Department of Justice Office of Deputy Attorney General as a result of testimony he gave on June 15. Forcelli was one of the individuals who appeared before the second House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing into “Project Gunwalker,” where he testified “I believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes, on both sides of the border, for years to come.”

This fear was corroborated in another letter sent Wednesday from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he acknowledged “ATF advises that, as of August 16, 2011, it has identified twenty-one additional firearms associated with Operation Fast and Furious that were recovered in Mexico and reportedly were associated with violent crimes.”

Included in Forcelli’s June testimony were several serious allegations regarding the conduct and decisions of Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, author of a memo reported last Thursday in this column advising then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, Dennis Burke, of the link between alleged straw purchaser Jaime Avila and guns found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. These departures from “the most basic law enforcement techniques” by AUSA Hurley were referenced in a joint letter issued last Thursday by Sen. Grassley and Rep. Issa.

Citing prior good professional relations with AUSA Hurley and others, including former Phoenix Special Agent in Charge William Newell and former Supervisor David Voth, Forcelli saw things change during his testimony when Patrick Cunningham of the USAO Arizona accused him of being untruthful in regards to AUSA Hurley.

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