Thread: CNN -ATF loses track of 1,400 guns in criticized probe

ATF loses track of 1,400 guns in criticized probe




(CNN) -- Federal agents can't account for more than 1,400 guns after a widely criticized operation aimed at tracing the flow of weapons to Mexican drug gangs, sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN.

Of 2,020 guns involved in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives probe dubbed "Operation Fast and Furious," 363 have been recovered in the United States and 227 have been recovered in Mexico. That leaves 1,430 guns unaccounted for, the sources said.

The ATF operation was intended to build cases against Mexican drug cartels by allowing firearms to go from the United States into Mexico. The hope was by tracing the guns in Mexico, agents would be able to determine the structure of various cartels and then bring them down.

The problem was that once the guns were allowed to "walk," there was no way to recover them until they turned up at crime scenes. The operation has been widely criticized in Congress, with the chairman of a House committee that investigated the issue calling it "felony stupid."

Rene Jaquez, the ATF's former attache in Mexico City, told CNN the operation never should have happened.

"Guns traditionally are just not allowed to leave the undercover operation for fear that it will enter into the criminal element and then be subsequently used in a crime at a later date," Jaquez said. "And the last thing any one of us as law enforcement officers wants to have attributed to us is the death of an innocent individual by a gun that was lost during one of our operations."

But the ATF knowingly allowed individuals to purchase weapons that they knew would end up in the hands of criminals on both sides of the border. And when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in Arizona in December, two AK-47 variants that were allowed to "walk" under the program were found at the scene.

In Mexico, the operation drew sharp criticism from top officials, who have long said that U.S. weapons are fueling the country's bloody drug war. And ATF agents in Arizona told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in June that they cringed every time they heard of a shooting after the program had been under way for some time.

Over the past several months, questions have arisen regarding who in government knew about and sanctioned this operation. Even though the operation was run out of the ATF's field office in Phoenix, Jaquez said it is highly unlikely that officials at the Department of Justice in Washington were not informed.

"You have to understand, this program was in operation 18 months or more before we had any idea it existed," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. "And as I look back on it now, it was a, it's a big joke" -- one Grassley says isn't so funny since the guns have turned up in the hands of criminals.

In late June, President Barack Obama said "appropriate action" would be taken once an investigation of the program is completed. But so far, details about who knew what and when have been scarce.

Last week, the embattled acting director of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, was interviewed by congressional investigators in a closed session. While the content of the interview remains confidential, Melson's personal attorney was at his side.

Grassley has stated he plans on seeing this investigation to its conclusion.

"There's a basic principle of government here that the people in the Justice Department are forgetting -- the public's business should be public," he said.


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07 ... index.html

While the title and implication of "ATF loses track of 1,400 guns in criticized probe" is greatly lacking.

This is big news that we have finally broken the story on CNN.


That makes Fox News, then CNN. ANy of the others yet like ABC, MSNBC, CBS, etc???

W

"Project Gunrunner" scandal

February 23, 2011 4:39 PM

"Project Gunrunner," an operation run by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was designed to stop the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico's drug cartels, but had the opposite result. Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
Video Report http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7357550n

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id= ... z1RzjAMec0

ATF loses track of 1,400 guns in criticized probe

=====================================

Whose in charge of the ATF, the ATF, the ATF? Whose in charge of the ..

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

While the title and implication of "ATF loses track of 1,400 guns in criticized probe" is greatly lacking.

This is big news that we have finally broken the story on CNN.


That makes Fox News, then CNN. ANy of the others yet like ABC, MSNBC, CBS, etc???

W

=============================================

How do you hide an 800 pound gorilla sitting on the coffee table in your living room?

MSNBC reported back on July 7th but don't see anything since then. They also had a report on the 6th that had to do with Kenneth Melson:

More U.S. agencies implicated in Mexico gun-trafficking probe

KTUU-TV

updated 7/7/2011 3:18:21 PM ET

The embattled head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has told congressional investigators that some Mexican drug cartel figures targeted by his agency in a gun-trafficking investigation were paid informants for the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.

Kenneth E. Melson, ATF's acting director, has been under pressure to resign after the agency allowed guns to be purchased in the United States in hopes they would be traced to cartel leaders. Under the gun-trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious, the ATF lost track of the guns, and many were found at the scene of crimes in Mexico, as well as two that were recovered near Nogales, Ariz., where a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed.

(more at the link)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43674824

ABC reported Feb 23,2011


Guns in Border Agent Killing Expose Gaps in Anti-Trafficking Effort

By DEVIN DWYER (@devindwyer)
Feb. 8, 2011

The killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in December has confounded investigators and emphasized a double standard in U.S. gun law.

Authorities believe Agent Brian Terry might have been killed during a shootout along the Arizona-Mexico border by bandits wielding AK-47s linked to a suspected gun trafficker, who bought his cache legally from U.S. dealers.

Whistleblowers at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made the allegations last month, sparking a congressional investigation of the incident and renewed scrutiny of the government programs meant to curtail the sale of hundreds of weapons to so-called straw purchasers.

The buyers meet the legal requirements to purchase as many assault weapons as they want, but they're often not acting for themselves, critics say. Instead, they illegally distribute the guns across the southwest border region or traffic them into Mexico.

"There are serious concerns that the ATF may have become careless, if not negligent, in implementing the [Project] Gunrunner strategy," U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley wrote in a letter to acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson of the agency's initiative to curtail illegal firearm trafficking.
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If the weapons used to kill Agent Brian Terry had been obtained from a straw purchaser of whom the ATF had been aware, Grassley said, "that raises a host of serious questions that the ATF needs to address immediately."

The Justice Department said in a letter Friday to the Judiciary Committee that claims made about the guns were false and that the agency would brief Grassley and other senators on its investigation. An ATF spokesman declined to comment.

But sources familiar with the case say the implication that ATF sanctioned the sale of weapons to suspected straw purchasers, or should have better tracked them, belies a larger problem: flawed gun laws and enforcement mechanisms that permit the mass purchase of assault weapons and allows their trafficking to commence largely unchecked.

Under federal law, individuals who pass a background check and other requirements can purchase an unlimited number of assault weapons, without any reporting to or tracking by ATF.

Purchases of two or more handguns in a five day period, however, are tracked by ATF, which critics have called a double standard.

Individual purchasers are also allowed to re-sell or trade their weapons, but they are not allowed to buy weapons with the intent of obtaining them for someone else.

Moreover, gun shop owners and federal agents say, it's difficult to identify and stop suspected straw purchasers at the time of purchase. If a person meets the requirements, it's up to a dealer to decide whether or not to sell the guns.

New Rule Still Under Review

"There's no requirement that gun dealers report a pattern of gun purchases, whether several assault-type weapons in a purchase by one person, or if it's a cash transaction, or a bunch of young Hispanic males," said Dick DeGuerin, a Houston attorney representing Carter's Country, a company under investigation for alleged sales to suspected straw purchasers.

"Many dealers, like Carter's Country, agree to voluntarily do that, however, because they're requested to by ATF agents," he said. "But there's no question that every one of the transactions was lawful. And once the gun leaves the store, it's not the gun store's business anymore. It's the ATF. And they often don't fully utilize the information the dealers provide."

ATF officials say the agency regularly collects information on suspicious buyers from dealers and follows-up on leads, but acknowledged they are ill-equipped with staff to adequately investigate every suspicion of a straw purchaser.

There were roughly 3,600 ATF employees in the firearms division in the 2010 fiscal year that ended September, a number that has held relatively steady since the 1970s.

But officials also say the agency is doing its best with limited resources.
PHOTO: There are serious concerns that the ATF has become careless, if not negligent, in implementing programs meant to curtail the sale of weapons.
Gilles Mingasson/Getty Images
Semi-automatic weapons for sale are on... View Full Caption
Vegas Hosts Largest Gun Convention Since Tucson Watch Video
Kennedy Townsend Calls For Tighter Gun Laws Watch Video
After the Tragedy: Guns Watch Video

In late January, ATF announced the arrests of 20 suspected straw purchasers in the Phoenix area, which, officials said, disrupted a major gun trafficking operation. "We strongly believe we took down the entire organization from top to bottom that operated out of the Phoenix area," William Newell, ATF special agent in charge, said.

Meanwhile, acting ATF director Melson requested that the Obama administration approve an emergency, one-year rule requiring gun dealers to report multiple sales of long guns with detachable magazines -- such as AK-47s and other assault rifles -- as is required for handguns.

The administration rejected the request last month, facing fierce opposition from the gun lobby and a desire to curb excessive government regulation.

The rule is still under review by the Office of Management and Budget and may ultimately be implemented, but not before a period of public comment and debate.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/guns-bor ... d=12866024

Gunwalker probe points to DOJ




Two Republican congressman investigating ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" program said yesterday "senior officials at the Department of Justice" were "unquestionably aware" of the operation.

In a letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) demanded copies of all communications among a dozen top DOJ officials in what they called "this reckless program."

Their allegations are among the most serious yet in the unfolding gunwalker scandal, in which ATF allowed thousands of weapons to be smuggled south of the border directly into the hands of the drug cartels.

CBS News has previously reported that top officials at ATF were deeply involved in the operation, and that both DEA and FBI may also have had knowledge of it. Grassley and Issa say their ongoing investigation has led them to the conclusion that top DOJ officials knew about the gunwalking.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-2 ... 91695.html

Federal agents can't account for more than 1,400 guns after a widely criticized operation aimed at tracing the flow of weapons to Mexican drug gangs, sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN.

How convenient....

Added the CNN article above to the Homepage.
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