Thread: DOJ Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe,ATF Director Sa

Justice Department Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe, ATF Director Says

By William Lajeunesse

Published July 06, 2011

| FoxNews.com

The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as "Fast and Furious," Fox News has learned.

"If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand," Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. "That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation."

The Justice Department is reportedly looking to oust Melson, who has been acting ATF director since April 2009, as the agency deals with its biggest scandal in nearly two decades. Andrew Traver, who was tapped in November by President Obama to become the permanent ATF director, could be named as acting director until the Senate acts on his nomination, sources have said.

In a separate development, congressional sources have learned that not only was U.S. taxpayer money being used to buy guns that were later sent to Mexico, but the main target of the investigation was actually a FBI informant and former drug dealer who had been deported years ago.

"Fast and Furious" has been at the center of an investigation by Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. The operation began in the fall of 2009 as an effort to trace and stop the trafficking of illegal guns on the Southwest border, but instead allowed thousands of guns to get into the hands of Mexican cartel members.

The two say they learned about the program after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. At the crime scene were two guns linked to the "Fast and Furious" operation.

At an Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing last month, three federal firearms investigators testified that they wanted to "intervene and interdict" loads of guns, but were repeatedly ordered to step aside to allow suspected smugglers to carry the weapons over the border.

Issa and Grassley have urged Holder to cooperate and turn over subpoenaed records that would reveal the scope of the government coverup.

The alleged coverup involves three law enforcement agencies: the ATF, FBI and the DEA, or Drug Enforcement Administration.

According to sources, unbeknown to the ATF, the target of their operation was a FBI confidential informant, a fact that only became known to them in April of this year after an 18-month investigation that cost millions of dollars of tax dollars.

"They were going after someone they could never have," a source in Washington told Fox News. "The Mr. Big they wanted was using government money to buy guns that went to the cartels. The FBI knew it and didn't tell them."

The confidential informant is a former high-level drug dealer who had been deported by the DEA. The FBI, however, recruited him as a counter-terrorism informant, providing information on potential dirty bombs or Al Qaeda suspects moving through the border region.

The FBI informant was picked up on a DEA wiretap, and forwarded to the ATF.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07 ... z1RL4irvZR

Moving from Other Topics to News

JULY 6, 2011, 1:31 P.M. ET
ATF Head Says Didn't Know Details of Fast and Furious

Comments (1)

By EVAN PEREZ
WASHINGTON—The head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told congressional investigators he wasn't aware of details of a troubled gun-running probe until after controversy erupted over the program, as he pushed back against efforts to blame him for the scandal and oust him from his job.

Kenneth Melson, the acting ATF director, in his first detailed comments addressing the scandal, contradicted testimony and documents previously released by lawmakers that suggested he was much more familiar with the program.

Mr. Melson also drew into the brewing scandal two other Justice Department agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, faulting them for not sharing information about informants and suspects.

Republican Sens. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa Wednesday released details of the Melson interview, which took place a day earlier, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. The Justice Department didn't immediately have a comment on the letter.

The operation in question, known as Fast and Furious, was designed by ATF agents to monitor purchases of buyers suspected of buying firearms for others, in particular drug cartel gangs in Mexico. ATF agents hoped to monitor the purchases to build a major case against top traffickers, but many of the arms turned up at crime scenes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Mr. Melson was expected to be ousted from his post as Congress and others ramped up their criticism of the program. Other media reports followed, suggesting he would resign. Mr. Melson denied those reports to the congressional staff.

His departure has been delayed by Justice Department deliberations aimed at figuring out how to move Mr. Melson from his post, and likely reassign him, without appearing to punish him while an internal probe of the operation is conducted, according to people familiar with the matter.

Richard Cullen, Mr. Melson's attorney, said the blame on Mr. Melson was misplaced. "Often times in investigations, particularly ones with public interest and fascination, things that appear to be true in the beginning turn out not to be true." He added that when all becomes known about Fast and Furious, Mr. Melson "will be seen as somebody who did a very good job and continues to do a very good job at ATF."

Mr. Cullen said Mr. Melson expected to be moved to another position within the Justice Department, which he said was the plan after Justice Department officials appointed him to the ATF post in early 2009. President Barack Obama's nominee to fill the post permanently is blocked in the Senate because of opposition from lawmakers and gun-rights groups.

Previous documents released by the lawmakers and testimony from ATF agents and officials showed Mr. Melson to have hands-on involvement with the Fast and Furious operation. At a hearing last month, Mr. Issa released ATF emails showing Mr. Melson seeking to watch from his desk live hidden camera footage from cooperating gun shops involved in the operation.

In their letter released Wednesday, the lawmakers said Mr. Melson disavowed knowing details of the operation, suggesting he had only superficial knowledge about the tactics being used. A person familiar with the interview said Mr. Melson contended the email was misinterpreted. Instead, he was only seeking to test the equipment.

Mr. Melson "was candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made and described various ways he says that he tried to remedy the problems," the lawmakers said in their letter. "According to Mr. Melson, it was not until after the public controversy that he personally reviewed hundreds of documents relating to the case, including wiretap applications and Reports of Investigation. By his account, he was sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story."

The letter also said Mr. Melson raised concerns about a separate investigation run by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, sister agencies that also are part of the Justice Department. Higher-level suspected traffickers, targeted by ATF, were possibly paid informants of the FBI and DEA, according to the letter.

People familiar with the probe say the lack of information sharing raises the prospect that taxpayer funds used to pay informants ended up being used to smuggle weapons.

"The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities," they wrote.

Messrs. Issa and Grassley say the ATF should have known it couldn't track the weapons and that firearms ended up in the hands of deadly drug squads.

The lawmakers also raised questions about whether the Justice Department's plans to move Mr. Melson out of his post came after he complained about the department's delays in turning over documents and cooperating with the congressional probe.

The ATF hasn't had a Senate-approved director since 2006; lawmakers and gun-rights groups have opposed nominees in the Bush and Obama administrations.

http://online.wsj.com

Fox News: Involvement of More Obama Administration Agencies in Failed Operation Fast & Furious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwEsiGP4 ... ture=feedu

Oversight Reveals New Details on Deady Gunrunner Investigation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5MtjMCa ... ture=feedu

ATF Director Testifies on Operation Targeting Gun Smugglers

DEA and FBI may have failed to share key information on informants

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, July 4, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson testified before investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee about Operation Fast and Furious. Following this interview, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, expressed their deep concerns about the involvement of the DEA, FBI, and other agencies – including the possibility that they were aware of and even working with people connected to Fast and Furious suspects.

In addition to these concerns noted in the letter to the Attorney General, Acting Director Melson made key assertions to investigators:

Contrary to denials by the Justice Department, Acting Director Melson acknowledged the agents had in fact witnessed transfers of weapons from straw purchasers to third parties without following the guns any further.
The ATF group executing Operation Fast and Furious had been placed under the direction of the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office.

http://oversight.house.gov/images/stori ... o%20ag.pdf

http://oversight.house.gov/index.php?op ... statements