Sky9 Excellent post.
Faxing the Ops Director or Ops Supervisor and asking for authorisation to operate into discretion despite in your opinion (as commander) that the crew are too fatigued to operate safely usually does the trick. State you are happy to proceed but just need to receive his confirmation before you set off, as you are a little unsure as to the wording in the company operations manual, Section X.Y.Z on page NNN.
Including the phrase : "Please can you sign to confirm that you are personally giving me permission to operate in direct contravention to the company operations manual" usually suffices.
Donīt get me wrong, I donīt mind the odd occasion and am as willing as others are to excercise discretion. However the law is quite clear - If you are fatigued, you are legally obliged not to operate the flight. The point about driving home after a long serries of duties (made above) is also a valid point, although totally outside the scope of the legislation.
On the subject of CHIRP - it is secure. If you are still worried about filing a report, do not put your name on it, set up an anonymous Hotmail or Yahoo account and put it on the CHIRP form for a point of contact for more information. More importantly, donīt send it in straight after the event, leave it a couple of weeks (especially if itīs a scheduled route), as that minimises the possibility of the company trying to guess who the reporter is. Oh, and for the really paranoid post it from Inverness (unless of course you live there, then you could post it from Bristol.)
Cheers, and Safe flying everyone.