ATF acting director may resign over Fast and Furious program
an unbelievable personification of authoritarian false flag state-sponsored terrorism… will he be only the first to be thrown under the bus by Obama and Holder? Methinketh heads shall roll down from the Hill in shame. We thank the ATF whistle-blowers who came forward to expose this remarkable scandal.
For an extensive catch-me-up, read here -
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/03/30/oath-keeping-at-the-atf/
ap photo_Kenneth Melson_ATF
ATF acting director may resign over Fast and Furious program
From Terry Frieden, CNN
June 20, 2011 3:49 p. m.
Read story at CNN, with video:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/20/us.fast.and.furious/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
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Washington (CNN) — Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is expected to resign under pressure, perhaps in the next day or two, in the wake of the controversy over Operation Fast and Furious, two senior federal law enforcement sources said Monday.
In the operation, straw buyers were allowed to purchase illegally large numbers of weapons, some of which ended up in the hands of cartels in Mexico.
Attorney General Eric Holder will meet Tuesday with Andrew Traver, head of the ATF field office in Chicago, about possibly becoming the agency’s acting director, according to senior federal law enforcement sources, who are familiar with the details of the controversy.
The Justice Department refused comment. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters he had no new information on the issue.
The operation has come under intense criticism since the December killing of a U.S. Border Patrol officer.
Operation Fast and Furious was “a colossal failure of leadership,” Peter Forcelli, a supervisor at the bureau’s Phoenix field office, said recently.
The program focused on following people who legally bought weapons that were then transferred to criminals and destined for Mexico. But instead of intercepting the weapons when they switched hands, Operation Fast and Furious called for ATF agents to let the guns “walk” and wait for them to surface in Mexico, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The idea was that once the weapons in Mexico were traced back to the straw purchasers, the entire arms smuggling network could be brought down. Instead, the report argues, letting the weapons slip into the wrong hands was a deadly miscalculation that resulted in preventable deaths, including that of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Terry was killed last year north of the Mexican border in Arizona after confronting bandits believed to be preying on illegal immigrants. Two weapons found near the scene of the killing were traced to Fast and Furious.
“I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe it at first,” Terry’s mother, Josephine, said when she learned the ATF may have let some of the guns used in the attack slip through its fingers. Terry’s relatives said they want all those involved in his killing and who helped put the weapons in their hands to be prosecuted.
“We ask that if a government official made a wrong decision, that they admit their error and take responsibility for his or her actions,” Robert Heyer, Terry’s cousin and family spokesman, said in a hearing last week by the House panel.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, called the operation “felony stupid.” As many as 2,000 semiautomatic rifles reached the hands of cartels as a result, and Issa said the top two ATF officials were briefed on the program regularly.
In Mexico, the case has drawn nationwide attention and sharp criticism from top officials, who have long stressed that U.S. weapons are fueling the country’s drug war.
The Mexican attorney general’s office demanded a quick U.S. investigation of the matter in March and said authorities must hold accountable anyone who was responsible for the operation.
“As the United States government has signaled, the government of Mexico was not informed of any operation that would include the controlled transport of weapons to Mexico,” the office said.
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June 21st, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I don’t think he’ll resign. He trade his silence for another paid position. If Holder tries to DX him, Melson will go for immunity and turn on his bosses.
June 21st, 2011 at 8:36 pm
American military and law enforcement are a disgrace-nothing more, nothing less-and we all know it and are ashamed to admit it or talk about it
June 23rd, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Here is an email I got from Dudley Brown of National Association For Gun Rights. There are many, including myself watching this case.
Lee,
Attorney General Eric Holder and his anti-gun cronies at the Justice Department are starting to realize they may be in some hot water.
But, as was to be expected, they are going to throw someone else under the bus and hope it all goes away…
After a revealing week of hearings on the horribly corrupt “Project Fast & Furious” – the BATFE’s attempt to create crime in order to make themselves relevant – the head of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, is getting ready to take the fall by resigning.
I guess Eric Holder still refuses to take any responsibility and is placing all the blame on his subordinates.
As you now well know, courageous agents within the ATF have been testifying before Congress that senior leadership at both the ATF and the Justice Department forced gun shops to sell firearms to known smugglers who sold the guns to drug cartels in Mexico.
This disastrous plan resulted in multiple federal agents being shot and killed with weapons that were allowed to “walk” into Mexico.
And this happened even after agents working on the case warned their superiors that it would happen.
The response from ATF/Justice Department leadership?
That a few “eggs” have to be scrambled to make an omelette.
Now, in light of all this controversy, the acting director of the ATF is trying to take the fall by resigning.
But this is where it gets really shady.
Guess who his replacement is supposed to be?
A man I’ve been keeping my eye on for a while – Andrew Traver.
You see, Andrew Traver has been an enemy of gun owners for quite some time.
As head of the Chicago division of the ATF he has advocated nearly every gun ban you can think of.
And even some you haven’t.
To give you an idea, he’s been Obama’s number one choice to head the agency since last year.
The simple fact is…
…he’s worse than the guy he’s replacing.
And what’s more is that, because he’s been the one Eric Holder wanted for quite some time to step in as the director, it is inconceivable that he was not briefed at some point on Project Fast & Furious.
They’ve been talking about Traver taking the helm of the BATFE for at least 6 months (that I know of).
Do you think that a guy being groomed for that position wouldn’t be briefed on the agency’s biggest operation?
I think you know where this is going…
While it is certainly clear that ATF leadership needs cleaning out, to replace the current director with one who is admittedly anti-gun and clearly involved in what his boss is already in trouble over…
Well, that’s unacceptable in my book.
I called my Congressman and told him that replacing one leader who has no respect for my rights with another one doesn’t “fix” the problem.
It’s an attempt to pacify the public.
They know it, but they’re hoping you don’t.
Give them a call and tell them you know what the Justice Department is trying to do and you’re not falling for it.
Call your Congressman at (202) 224- 3121 and tell them that the ATF needs a serious overhauling and that the Attorney General needs to be held responsible for this flagrant abuse of the law.
Make sure they know that your Second Amendment rights are more important than funding some rogue Agency Gone Wild.
I know I’m going to call everyone I know in politics and make sure this doesn’t go unnoticed.
Do the same for me.
For Freedom,
signature
Dudley Brown
Executive Director
P.S. After you’ve called your Congressman and told them to hold Eric Holder’s anti-gun Justice Department accountable, click on this link to send a few bucks to the National Association for Gun Rights.
I have to keep this place growing to fight these gun-grabbers who think we aren’t looking. I have to let them know that yes, we are. And we won’t stand for this kind of behavior.
June 24th, 2011 at 2:55 am
I think the problem goes even deeper than one public servant replacing another public servant and both being seen as favoring gun control or as being anti-2nd Amendment.
I think the problem is systemic, and that the system itself is a berserk bureaucracy of conjured statist constructs based on a false image. That ‘false image’ is supported by the minds of believers in nationalism as opposed to believing in the compact between the sovereign States.
I think that is where the root of the problem is grounded, and it ties right in with the propaganda programs of official U.S. information operations. If I am right, that false image is designed to nullify any notion of individuality or individual freedom.
We need to look at dissolving most of our Federal enforcement agencies on grounds that their existence is not justified within the granted and enumerated powers assigned to the Federal government by the several sovereign States in compact. Let the States return to being the vehicles for the voice of the people, and let the nationalist propaganda take its rightful place in history alongside Hitler’s nationalist socialism.
As a black operation, the ATF was deliberately arming the Mexican cartels for the purpose of creating the problem which they propose ATF can solve better than any other agency. Stomp our 2nd Amendment into the dirt while at it. Federal power now needs to be de-centralized.
Salute!
Elias
June 26th, 2011 at 2:15 am
You all need to contact rep Darrel Issa he is the chairman of the oversight comitee.He vowed to expose all responsible for F&F.He even suspects what we know.That it was planned at the highest levels of the DOJ and even higher to among other reasons further restrict the 2nd amendment.The AG lied under oath how he was just finding out about it while Mr Issa blasted him.The documents theDOJ released were blacked out allmost completly leaving only the heading and the closing.LOL.Needless to say that mad Mr Issa quite mad.We need to let the good guys on that comitee like Jason Chavtes and a few others that we are behind them.Some of the members are following the agenda and are making noises like the 2nd amendment is at fault and not the administation. God bless our republic
June 26th, 2011 at 7:13 am
The tyranny in washington is growing to astronomical proportions. Hopefully we can change some of that next election.The constitution is being assaulted on a daily bases.The sacret oath that we all meant is being broken without a second thought.I heard N.Pelosi defending the patriot act saying “we all took an oath to defend and protect the people of the united states” I was so mad I wrote her to ask if she really thinks thats what the oath says.We need to march on washington during elections or hold a peacefull protest to let them know we know whats going on and will not stand for it.Its time for some kind of action.Before its to late.One more round of Q E or banker bailout our country is lost.
June 27th, 2011 at 12:32 am
Linko, by Jove I think you’ve got it. On all points mentioned. The (illegitimate) One’s entire intent has been the destruction of the nation. Look at his ridiculous climb in the political sphere to do exactly as Marx, Alinsky, Cloward-Piven, ad infinitum examples of leftist saboteurs and seditionists have taught to destroy a nation. Obumbles is doing no more than following the textbook, with some wild support from money somewhere (koff-koff-Soros-koff-koff). It is their intent, they wrote the books, they found the puppet, and away we go.
June 27th, 2011 at 12:33 am
their. I hate catching a misspelling on the read after posting. Editor?
June 30th, 2011 at 7:24 am
I have often wondered how the U.S. Marshals Office, the oldest law enforcement agency in our nation’s history, lost its mission. The Congress could solve a great deal of cultural conflict and save a great deal of money, if they dissolved all of the 58 federal LE agencies into the USMO. They wouldn’t lose the expertise, they gain cooperation and lose all the top end salaries of the men and women leading these agencies that refuse to cooperate with each other. The same could be said for the state’s, as many of them have duplicative agencies, same for the small PDs into the S.O.s and so on. A big breakdown in communication led to 9/11, too many actors in the mix and again, deliberate elitist attitudes, etc.
July 1st, 2011 at 6:26 pm
For everyone who reads my blog. I am asking you, that on this coming 4th of July, to let this, or whatever flag of Independence you may have, fly on your home.
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And to pass this along to everyone you know.
Lets do this. Spread the word everywhere. Let them know we are out there.
If you don’t have one, there is a good bet you local surplus store or gun shop does.
http://causapatet.blogspot.com/2011/06/fly-colors.html