Newsgroups: talk.politics.libertarian,talk.politics.guns
From: Tom Whittaker <[t b w 00] at [juts.ccc.amdahl.com]>
Subject: Good Ol' Boys (Even More)
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 17:09:12 GMT

 
                                  Good Ol' Boy Event Probed

WASHINGTON [AP] - A union representing thousands of federal workers 
accused the government Wednesday of using a "dragnet approach" to 
finding out if employees attended "Good Ol' Boys Roundups," described 
by some as racist gatherings. 
As part of a month-old investigation, Treasury Inspector General Valerie 
Lau distributed a memo asking "all enforcement bureau employees" to answer 
three questions to determine if they were ever invited to or attended the 
annual events in southeastern Tennessee. Those targeted are tens of 
thousands of workers from agencies ranging from the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco and Firearms to the FBI to a section of the Internal Revenue 
Service. 
So far, 33 employees in Justice Department agencies have said they went to 
at least one Roundup, said department spokesman Carl Stern. He said nobody 
complained about being questioned. 

But within Treasury, some employees were upset at being asked what they did 
on their time off, according to a union representing 5,000 U.S. Customs 
workers queried and 75,000 federal employees overall. The organization 
threatened legal action if any employee's reputation or job were harmed. 

"I don't know what the fallout will be, but if there's any adverse reaction 
for any employee, we'll be there," said Robert M. Tobias, president of the 
National Treasury Employees Union. "We're extremely concerned about the 
dragnet approach. It's very over broad and intrusive." 

Most of the employees already have been questioned about the roundups, 
often directly by supervisors, said Elaine Kaplan, the union's deputy 
counsel. She said such probing could be a violation of a person's First 
Amendment rights to free assembly and is an invasion of privacy. 

"We've had a few complaints from people who are offended by being 
questioned about what they do during their off-duty time," Kaplan said. 
"It's not even clear at this point whether the information the government 
is relying upon is reliable. There are clearly constitutional problems." 

The investigation began after a 90-second videotape of one of the roundups 
surfaced, showing racist aspects such as the sale of T-shirts showing the 
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in gun-sight cross hairs, and a racist banner 
stretched across an entry point. Federal investigators are still trying to 
determine if the video is legitimate. 

Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin ordered the investigation, and a 
department official said the mass questioning was necessary as part a 
fact-finding effort to determine what occurred at the roundups. 

The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the 
department's general counsel was consulted to ensure that employees' rights 
were being taken into account and that the questioning was legal. The 
official said no official complaints had been filed. 

 
       I had learned that those who    |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
       are lying or trying to cover       CI$: GO OUTFORUM SEC.8
       up something generally make     |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
       a common mistake - they tend
       to overact, to overstate their                PERMISSION TO
       case. - Richard Milhous Nixon                 COPY / REPOST

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