BLM Misconduct, Irresponsibility, and Illegal Behavior Has Reached Boiling Point

The Environmental Assessments (EA and in accord with NEPA) is and always has been the criteria BLM and DOI must abide by, legally, when wanting to roundup horses.  When in violation of an EA, then the roundups cannot, and according to Federal Law -l should not happen — it is that simple.  This government agency ignores this situation, AND LAW, and performs the rounups anyway at heavy cost to not only the taxpayer, but when cattle involved on Public Lands, which ruins the entire Ecosystem!  BLM, DOI and Salazar essentially states, “. . . the taxpaying Public can go to hell.  We will do what we want!”

We are a nation governed by laws within the United States.  Government agencies are governed by these same laws, many statutes, and backed by well established legal-precedents.  Combined, these laws are well supported and certainly attest to the outright fact that excuses for breaking these laws are unacceptable.  So the question remains, how does the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management suppress and even usurp the laws of the United States continuously?  And why is it they are the most “Sued” government agency in American history, and seem to be proud of this situation, uselessly spending taxpayer money?

This article seriously questions why the laws within the United States have not been upheld, and in regard to several laws, and obviously continue to be ignored by the DOI and the BLM.  This defies logic!

Problematic is the situation that the Department of the Interior and the BLM, specifically, ignore these same laws that protect communities within the United States, as well as taxpayer money and the benefits that taxpayer money assimilates into benefits for the American Public. It is the American Public that is the victim here, both monetarily and going without particular benefits, and by the abuser, the Department of the Interior and their sub-agency, the BLM.

Despite legislation and accountability, both are ignored.  The DOI as well as the BLM simply ignore legislation and their prescribed public accessibility by American taxpayers, as outlined here, and on a letterhead directly from the White House: MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES, or establishing a transparent government agency in regard to public information.

The BLM is similar in its obvious ignoring of public transparency as well, and violates their policy directly.  Problems, constantly, in downloading BLM transparency policies are continuous, which is not so ironic. This is an out-of-control agency with no responsible conduct what so ever being a standard of their employee daily work ethics.

It is significant here to also state the Bureau of Land Management is a sub-agency of the DOI. The BLM is the most costly of any other agency within our government, loosing lawsuit after lawsuit for actions and decisions committed by uncontrolled government employees at the BLM.  These same employees are never fired, never asked to assume responsibility for their actions, or reprimanded — if at all.

Who Watches the Federal Government?

In the United States the people in charge of investigative situations within a government agency, specifically within the DOI and the BLM, and within the overall scope of illegal activity, is the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Up to this point in time, a thorough investigation is not in the mix of things to come, which frankly many people, Americans, believe is certainly over due.

The BLM has a law enforcement agency as well, but their law enforcement do nothing but side-step and often contributes and takes part in illegal activity against American citizens.  And just as often has ignored several Federal Court laws, rather than administer them appropriately. In this discussion the 9^th Federal Circuit Laws in regard to Press Access and transparency of helicopter roundups.  NPPA’s Ninth Circuit: Photojournalist’s Access is a “Fundamental Constitutional Right”.

Then we go to the 9^th Federal Circuit Court and their decision:  United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. — LEIGH v. SALAZAR — Laura LEIGH, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Ken SALAZAR, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior; Bob Abbey, Director, Bureau of Land Management; Ronald Wenker, Nevada State Director of Bureau of Land Management, Defendants–Appellees. No. 11–16088. Argued and Submitted Jan. 9, 2012. — April 16, 2012

“. . .  We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1), and we reverse. Because the preliminary injunction motion seeks unrestricted access to future horse roundups, and not just the one that took place in 2010, this case is not moot. As to the merits of Leigh’s First Amendment claim, the district court erred by failing to apply the well-established qualified right of access balancing test set forth in Press Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court Press Enterprise II, 478 U.S. 1, 8 #9 (1986). Courts have an unyielding duty to thoroughly analyze whether the government has violated this fundamental constitutional right, which serves to ensure that the individual citizen can effectively participate in and contribute to our republican system of self-government; Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court, 457U.S.596, 604 (1982). Accordingly, we remand this case for the district court to consider in the first instance whether the public has a First Amendment right of access to horse gathers, and, if so, whether the viewing restrictions are narrowly tailored to serve the government’s overriding interests. . .“

The public also remains confused, as not only the violation of law exists, but ethics violations exist as well.  Telephone messages were left at the Ethics Office of the DOI/ BLM, from this Journalist, as well as assistants and other Journalists’, but not returned, rather obviously ignored.  This is unacceptable behavior to ignore the public, but common within the BLM, as this government Agency is “not” nor has been accessible to the public within the past three decades – but almost acts as a Lobby-Group for Welfare farmers and energy groups, yes, but not the public as a whole, who they are self-proclaimed at “War” with the public currently.  Bias and vented interests exist here, consistently, and for quite sometime now.

Helicopter Roundups and the FAA Laws

Also ignored are their actions that consistently ignore FAA Laws. The law is FAA PART 91—GENERAL OPERATING AND FLIGHT RULES § 91.13 – Careless or reckless operation. The law is quite clear, yet ignored. This Journalist says “ignored” because there exists video taped evidence, in abundance and privately held, and on the Internet, which is not edited what so ever. This FAA Law is a felony, and as outlined in FAA Part91–#91.13, as well as within many state and federal jurisdictions on Vehicular Assault upon people or animals.  Those responsible for Private Contractor conduct are BLM employees, as well as the private contractors themselves.

“Officials for Sun J Livestock in Vernal, Utah, the contractor for the Triple B Roundup between Elko and Ely, did not return messages seeking comment,” as the reporter at the Las Vegas Review Journal states in the article when asking them about the obvious abuse of horses, with eyewitnesses as well as a questionable resolution to a BLM investigation and ultimate BLM report.  The report, from BLM staff, also appeared to assume there continues to be such a conduct as acceptable animal abuse, “attrition” in government speaks.  There “IS NO” such thing as acceptable animal abuse, and roundups exhibit standards of unacceptable animal treatment, calling it attrition, as if it is a war zone and acceptable because of the term, and the term only.

In this Journalist’s opinion there is guilt written all over this situation, and why? Because those abusive situations did happen, and will happen again because these people get away with the abuse, supported by the BLM administrators! And, I might add, get paid with tax payer dollars quite well, for abusing the horses. Ignoring this situation, outright felonies, simply escalates the problem.

When approaching the FAA with past conduct of abuse, toward animals and people, the FAA Inspector General’s Office choose the low-road of ethical conduct.  They stated repeatedly the complaint paperwork was lost, so they do not know of any complaints on horse abuse or people involved.  Yet, this Journalist submitted paperwork to the FAA Inspector Generals office on 5 (five) separate occasions, in regard to Reckless Operation of an Aircraft and seriously and obviously endangered a civilian woman  by use of helicopter.

Not so surprisingly, separate paperwork was lost on all five occasions, and the final decision of the FAA Inspector General’s Office was that no improper use of aircraft existed, and unprovable, and the complaint paperword left incomplete.  Not so ironic, received right after receiving the letter that they needed a copy of material already submitted five other times!  Disgusting, a government agency would do this, so blatant and obvious!

Here is a brief list of payments to this same Sun J Livestock company, as reported on the Government’s BLM “Contracts for Wild horse/Burro Control Services (FY 2000-2009)” i.e. 2010, 2011, and 2012 not included, but their behavior far worse as witnessed and logged abuses accumulated ten-fold, and for your information and knowing where you tax money goes:

February 23, 2011 – Sun J Livestock received $82,648.20 for not even an entire weeks worth of roundup;

September 13, 2010 — Sun J Livestock received $82,966.00 for a little short of a weeks worth of roundup;

December 6, 2010 — Sun J Livestock received $649,850.20 for a little over a weeks worth of roundup;

January 10, 2011 — Sun J Livestock received $1,221,767.90 for about two weeks of roundup; etc. . . .

Exploring further we find even more appalling situations, and payment by tax payers, in the amount of $116,744,281 million dollars between the same period of i.e. 2000-2009, per their “Contracts for Wild  Horse/Burro Control Services.”  Called Acceptable Animal Abuse.

Not so surprising is the fact that the abuse has indeed escalated due to lack of qualifications, inexperience of the roundup personnel, the cover-up of bad conduct by BLM employees, and the all around bad attitude and the Tribal Mentality of the BLM. It has indeed become a situation of employees and the private contractors versus the presence of the general public and witnesses at each of the roundups.

This Journalist also listened while a BLM employee, a Supervisor, stated unceremoniously, that if there were any Advocates to show up at his BLM Horse Auction in Grants Pass, Oregon, then employees and others would, …”beat them up out back.”  The situation of childish behavior and trivializing taxpayers’ here in America apparently is the norm for BLM employees. This coming from their leadership.

Further Violations of these Government Agencies

Now we can take directly from a letter dated June 18, 1993 (when the ignoring and breaking of the law first developed, and nothing was done, and still on-going to this day. The letter is on a United States Department of the Interior letterhead, Subhead Bureau of Land Management, To: Deputy Assistant Inspector General-Investigations, From: Chief, Law Enforcement and Resource Protection:

The letter sites what this Journalist had already written in a previous article. But what this letter does is actually outline the specific laws broken, Criminal Felonies each, with an abundant explanation, as follows and predicated with . . . it appears that criminal violations of the following laws have occurred:

1. 18 USC 641; Pu8blic money, property or records; whoever receives, cancels, or retains the same with intent to convert to use or gain . . .
2. 18 USC 1512 (b); tampering with a witness, victim, or informant (Obstruction)
3. 18 USC 371; Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States; conspiracy to obstruct a      criminal investigation . . .
4. 16 USC 1338 (a) (1); wild horses and burros: protection, management, and control; any person who sells, directly or indirectly, a wild free-roaming horse, or burro maintained on private or leased land. . .

A BLM Investigation

Here are remnants of a BLM Investigation, mysteriously discontinued the evening before turning the paperwork over to the Federal Grand Jury. This continues today, at many different levels, and perhaps why the laws are still ignored by BLM employees.

There were four Investigations ongoing at this time; Case #RP-05-93-021-01; Case #NM-960-03-93-021-023SA; Case #NM-960-03-021-020; and Case #NM-960-08-92-021-805 respectively.

The highlights of the Investigations follow;

1. BLM Management personnel have authorized the transportation of wild horses to group adopters at the expense of the government;
2. BLM management personnel have authorized the fee waiver and/or fee reduction of wild horses without delegated authority;
3. BLM management failed to inspect and prepare written reports for group adopter facilities and property prior to receiving adopted wild horses;
4. BLM personnel publicly and openly promoted the commercial us of wild horses, i.e., bucking stock and slaughter house;
5. BLM personnel in concurrence with BLM management, entered false information regarding the wild horse documents into BLM DPS-8000 data base;
6. BLM personnel through their government positions, arranged for special privileges and allowances pertaining to wild horse adoptions;
7. BLM personnel and management knowingly converted to the use of another, wild horses belonging to the United States;
8. BLM personnel and management did knowingly attempt to interfere with an ongoing investigation by discussing privileged information regarding the Investigation with other BLM personnel, some of whom were subjects of the Investigation;
9. Many, many more “lack of document” charges, especially in regard to the Wild Horse Herd Counts and the financial income and expenditures mandatory at each BLM facility, were not completed, lost, or unavailable for confirmation – in order to appropriate funding for each facility;
10. Several more listings expressed concern toward illegal activity, and lack of following directorial and mandated training and compliance of Inspectors, Wranglers, and Field Level Administrators of the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

So how did this become a situation where the Grand Jury was virtually taken out of the entire equation here, despite the fact there were approximately 872 Felony Counts; and 1,279 combined Felony and Misdemeanor Counts, to include fraudulent paperwork, fraudulent data input into the BLM computer systems, erroneous paperwork, Employee Misconduct, money laundering, misplaced funds and much more.

Well, it gets even more interesting here, as the list will show, given by one Deputy Field Solicitor, Department of Justice:

1. Attempts by BLM managers to learn about sealed Grand Jury information;
2. Participation by BLM managers in destruction of evidence;
3. Alerting suspects concerning impending search warrants;
4. Release of confidential informant and undercover investigator identities, actions he noted, threatened the lives of both the informant and the investigating agents;
5. Threats of abuse and sexual innuendos, reduction-in-work-force, and other discriminatory situations happened as well, but too numerous to list here.

After all of that an Attorney, Charles Brooks in the Department of Justice, chimed in and recommended against undertaking any prosecution, because, he concluded, “the Wild Horse and Burro Program was so tainted that it would be unfair to single anyone out for prosecution.”  No Sir, that is simply Untrue, and could not be filled with more Bullshit — These people disrespect all Americans’ by doing this!

CONCLUSION

If, indeed, we are the America that defines and redefines our established freedoms, and indeed ruled by laws, then government agencies must not be exempt from these laws, nor ignored further.  It is time for the citizens of the United States to stand up to government employees doing illegal activities.  Report them!  It is time for people to stand up and be counted, to say “Stop this illegal activity and spending our taxpayer dollars frivolously with no accountability”.  We must demand that our investigating bodies take charge, not just to cover up for an out-of-hand and irresponsible government agency, but to make arrests for illegal activities that remain ongoing by BLM and DOI employees’ and managers.

For References and further information go to:

For the entire informative packet and interview see Horses Led To Slaughter, Anatomy of a Cover Up in the Wild Horse and Burro Program, PEER White Paper, Number 14, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Washington D.C. 20009-1125, http://www.peer.org/pubs/whitepapers/1997_horses_to_slaughter.pdf , 1997.

An Interview with Former Sen. Conrad Burns, http://www.animallawcoalition.com/wild-horses-and-burros/article/1052, Posted Sep 17, 2009.

Former BLM Employee Pleads Guilty to Public Corruption Charges Sophisticated Contract Manipulation Scheme Defrauds BLM of Over $400,000, http://www.fbi.gov/portland/press-releases/2010/pd041610.htm

For addresses, FAX numbers, and listings go to:

Senators of the 112^th Congress:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Contacting the Congress:

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/