Thread: Obama Gun-Sting Breakthrough

Obama Gun-Sting Breakthrough


Thanks to a clever bipartisan deal, embattled ATF chief Kenneth Melson will testify before Congress about his role in the bungled Fast and Furious gun sting—possibly revealing who on Obama’s team was in on the scheme.

June 27, 2011 4:52 PM EDT


The head of the embattled federal agency that combats gun trafficking has agreed to talk with Senate investigators, a potentially important breakthrough as Congress tries to determine whether higher-ups in the Obama administration knew about a controversial sting that let assault weapons flow across the border into Mexico’s drug wars.


The testimony—expected next month from Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—was brokered as part of a deal between Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the committee’s top Republican, Iowa's Charles Grassley. Grassley and his fellow Republicans were given full access to ATF documents, Melson, and other key witnesses; and in return, Grassley agreed to release three Obama administration nominees he had been blocking, according to correspondence obtained by NEWSWEEK and THE DAILY BEAST.


Grassley had been fighting to get full access for months. He finally got it with a letter Leahy wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting access for both his staff and Grassley’s investigators to the evidence and witnesses in the gun-sting investigation. In return, Grassley agreed to let proceed the nominations of Jim Cole to be deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco to be assistant attorney general for national security, and Virginia Seitz to be head of the Office of Legal Counsel, the letter shows.


ATF has acknowledged it knowingly allowed more than 1,700 weapons—most of them semiautomatic assault weapons like AK-47s—to be sold by cooperating U.S. gun dealers to suspected straw buyers for the Mexican cartels during a 15-month sting in Arizona known as Operation Fast and Furious. Melson is the highest-known official to date to acknowledge approving a strategy to build criminal cases against Mexican drug cartels by allowing assault weapons to flow from U.S. gun stores through straw buyers and across the border. Officials said his testimony is considered a key piece of evidence, and Grassley’s investigators plan to interview him by the middle or end of July.


The revelation of the botched sting has generated outrage in both the United States and Mexico. Nearly half the weapons were later recovered at crime scenes on both sides of the border, including two at the murder of U.S. border agent Brian Terry last December and more than 300 at Mexican crime scenes. In recent days, evidence has emerged in the investigations conducted by Grassley and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that the deputy attorney general’s office inside the Justice Department encouraged a new gun-fighting strategy in October 2009, just days before ATF started the Fast and Furious operation.


Holder, the attorney general, has denied knowing about the controversial ATF sting, which ran from November 2009 to February 2011, and he has ordered an internal investigation. President Obama has said he believes serious mistakes may have been made. Since the controversy erupted this spring, ATF and federal prosecutors have been ordered to stop all guns flowing to straw buyers. Frontline ATF agents have testified they strongly objected to the agency’s decision to “let guns walk,â€

SCANDAL PRONE ATF CELEBRATES GAY PRIDE MONTH

By NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
June 27, 2011
© 2011 NewsWithViews.com

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) last Wednesday sponsored its first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month program at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. despite being embroiled in a controversial probe.

As part of the program, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson provided remarks while Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) served as Wednesday's keynote speaker.

The celebration was in recognition of the accomplishments and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans to ATF and the nation, and to promote awareness of the LGBT culture.

But many believe this is merely window dressing designed to stop the continuing scandal that resulted from an ATF operation that actually placed weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartel members and Mexico's criminal population. http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/06/ ... nguage/%20

"Operation Fast & Furious backfired on the Obama administration especially the Attorney General [Eric Holder] and now an intense investigation by Congress and non-government groups may end up inside the Oval Office," said political strategist Mike Baker.

"This gay pride theme -- repeal of don't as, don't tell in the U.S. military and celebrating gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender in the ATF -- is an obvious play to garner favor with the progressives who can make or break the presidency of Barack Obama," he stated. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... -pride-mon

ATF works to ensure sexual orientation discrimination and prejudice are not tolerated in our workplace, said Director Melson at the celebration.

"The ATF is an equal employment opportunity environment where effective and equitable participation is encouraged. We are grateful that the Honorable Rep. Frank could share his experiences with our workforce as we celebrate diversity today," he said.

Congressman Frank spoke about his experiences serving as an openly gay congressman for the 4th Congressional District of Massachusetts and his rise to Democrat stalwart status. However, that rise to power included a relationship with a male prostitute who used Frank's home as his bordello and allegations of a sexual relationship with the head of the Fannie Mae foundation, an organization Frank was supposed to investigate.

ATF created its LGBT affinity group called ATF Pride with the primary goal of ensuring equal employment opportunity and enhancing development opportunities for LGBT employees at the agency, according to its press office.

"The ATF has been underfire for an alleged operation that contributed to the deaths of Americans. So what better way to appeal to the news media -- cheerleaders of the gay movement -- than to tap into one of its pet projects: assisting homosexuals to push their agenda,â€