September 6, 2005
Congressman James Sensenbrenner, Chairman
U.S. House Judiciary Committee
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Dear Representative Sensenbrenner:
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 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
E-mail: sedmonds@nswbc.org