WATCH

SPEAKING OUT
by Ed Magnuson

DEA, as we know it today, is the product of both evolution and at least six years of inexcusable poor management. Created in 1973 by Executive Order to be America's elite agency to fight the War on Drugs, it soon became the over-achiever of Federal law enforcement. Although understaffed, inadequately funded, and faced with an almost impossible mission, the Drug Enforcement Administration raged a relentless war, giving no quarter and expecting none.

But as DEA's successes mounted and the Agency grew so did its bureaucracy. And the revolving door of politics provided a progression of Administrators, some good and some not so good, with widely divergent plans, ideas and agendas. A cadre of "Yes Men" was engendered as each new Administrator ordained senior managers... generally based on the flawed principle that a man's worth and intelligence was directly proportional to how much he agreed with his supervisor. Bureaucrats with limited enforcement experience and whose primary concern was the advancement of their own careers were the order of the day.

However, the decay of the Agency was gradual with no one event or person seeming overly catastrophic. Although offended, righteous agents and managers kept their displeasure to themselves in the subliminal hope that things would get better... they didn't.

But with the emergence of Stephen Greene as Deputy Administrator in the early 1990's, another more significant reason for silence embraced the agency... the terrible fear of retaliation. A fear which has carried over into the administration of Thomas Constantine and, in fact, has been justifiably magnified. A fear which pervades the lives and debilitates the spirit of all DEA agents... A fear which has its root cause in silence.

If agents and managers, including myself, would have publicly spoken out early on in our careers the hypocrisy in today's DEA would not exist. The propensity for unfair treatment, injustice, and discrimination would have been crushed by an enlightened America, Congress and White House. The destructive excesses of self-serving and uncaring senior officials would not have been allowed... and the present state of America's drug obsession would never have hit its present levels.

A wise man once said, "A coward dies a thousand deaths but a brave man dies but once." (This writer meant women, too).

Don't do as I did and die a little each time I was kicked in the face. Don't do as I did and wait till I died a thousand times before speaking out. Don't wait until your family is tragically and irreparably affected as mine has been; my wife's recent stroke being in direct correlation to the stress, anxiety and depression caused by the Agency and callous supervisors.

And surely don't be like those who retire and discard in excess of twenty years of their life by keeping frightened silence.

Speak out now. Contact your Congressman, the media, and DEA WATCH, the voice of the Drug Enforcement agent!

Help and assistance is available, but help can only come to those who have the courage to help themselves. The problem today isn't having a White Knight come to the rescue... it's recognizing him when he knocks on your door.