I think they had a "lesson learned" meeting and came up with a few action items.

R.E. DMV's post...........if you Amerikans care:


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110816,0,7676977.story 

Let's see, we'll promote you if you throw yourself under the bus. I was afraid this story would die with a whimper. Issa and crew's silence is deafening. So much for that. [gonzo]

And the beat rolls on.......


http://m.cbsnews.com/blogsstorysynopsis.rbml?feed_id=71&catid=20093557&videofeed=null 

Saw this on Foxnews.com today. Coulda' knock me over with a feather. [gonzo]

I hope all the beaurocrats that got promotions to keep their mouth shut from the investigation going forward sleep well like Eric Holder.

ATF Death Watch 64: The Gunwalker Cover-Up Continues
Posted on August 26, 2011 by Robert Farago


In ATF Death Watch 63, ATF Special Agent in Charge Dewey Webb and U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy bemoaned the loss of innocent life caused by smugglers sending American gun store guns to Mexican drug cartels. The same activity conducted by the ATF during Operation Fast and Furious. Here’s the punchline: the gun smuggling in question—involving Columbus, New Mexico police chief Angelo Vega [above] and 15 co-conspirators—may have been ATF-enabled . . .


What’s more, the U.S. Attorney’s office has cut a deal with 13 of those charged with illegal firearms purchases and related crimes. The defendants faced 280 years in prison. Each. As part of their plea, the sentences will run concurrently. They’re going down for five to 10 years. In exchange for . . .

Regular readers of this series might suspect that the police chief and his gun smuggling crew caught a break in exchange for their silence on Operation Fast and Furious. Which would presume that they knew that the firearms in question—some 200 rifles and handguns—were amongst those the ATF let “walk” into Mexico. Presuming the firearms were part of the ATF’s stingless sting.

The public information officer whose name appears on yesterday’s celebratory press release ain’t sayin’ if Vega’s straw dogs were buying at the ATF’s behest—whether knowingly or unknowingly. Clock this from lc-sun.news.com:

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Texas on has neither confirmed nor denied whether the weapons in Gutierrez’s case were connected with the controversial [Operation Fast and Furious] sting, but said Thursday they were researching the matter.

Still? When asked the same question a month ago to the day, ATF spokesman Daryl Fields said the same thing. Note: the ATF could trace the weapons confiscated as part of the New Mexican case in ten minutes. Here’s an indication that there is, at the least, “overlap”:

Six of the smuggled weapons – three AK-47-type pistols and three pistols nicknamed “cop killers” — were purchased around Jan. 9, 2010, by straw purchasers in Arizona, according to court documents, leading to accusations from defense attorney C.J. McElhinney that the Columbus smuggling case was connected to Operation Fast and Furious.

TTAG’s put in a call to Mr. Fields for clarification. We’d also like to know how many of the guns in the New Mexico case were recovered and how many are still out there, somewhere . . .

In raids, law enforcement seized 40 of the AK-47 type pistols, more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition and 30 high-capacity magazines before they crossed the border, and found another 12 firearms in Mexico that were traced back to the defendants. Three others were found on three dead individuals in an SUV in Juárez, and others were found at a narcotics bust there, according to federal prosecutors.

Yes, well, who was shooting whom with these weapons and why? If the guns were used against Los Zetas, that would be a reasonable indication that the ATF was involved (Los Zetas being our least favored cartel). If drug thugs uses some of these rifles to ice ICE Agent Jaime Zapata inside Mexico, that’s another story.

How about some intel guys? Meanwhile, there’s one non-fed who might know whether or not the New Mexican gun smuggling was connected to the ATF: the ring-leader. Igancio “Nacho” Villalobos. Only he’s not available for interview . . .

The lawyer for one of Villalobos’ co-conspirator told TTAG that he’s seen photographic proof that the ATF had ALL the members of the New Mexican gun running ring under surveillance before the feds swooped down and made their arrests. Strange, then, that Villalobos, and Villalobos alone, managed to escape.

What are the odds? And what are the odds that Villalobos was a running a gun smuggling op in New Mexico that was both independent and parallel to the ATF’s Arizona and Tampa-based gun smuggling efforts?

As we said from the start of Senator Grassley and Congressman Issa’s investigation into the so-called Gunwalker scandal, the pols needs to [find and] interview the people at the sharp end of this black bag job.

While I’m not scanning the skies for black helicopters (yet), Uncle Sam’s minions are circling the wagons, attempting to keep a lid on who know who did what with which gun from what source and why.

Not to put too fine a point on it, this is looking like one big ass conspiracy. Here’s the list of people involved with yesterday’s Vega-related high five:

The investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with assistance from the Comandante Chihuahua State Police in Palomas, Mexico and the Secretariat of Public Security in Juarez, Mexico. The U.S. Marshal’s Service, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, New Mexico State Police, Las Cruces Police Department, El Paso Police Department as well as other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies also provided assistance during the investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Greg McDonald and Steven Spitzer.

Obviously, the agencies involved were compartmentalized. (One of the reasons the Gunwalker scandal broke: the ATF didn’t tell agents at the sharp end why they shouldn’t bust smugglers before American gun store guns crossed the border.) McDonald and Spitzer may not even know the truth about U.S. government-sponsored gun smuggling.

But they might. Congress should ask, before the ATF and their helpers tie-up all the loose ends.

Most of them take money from the banks laundering the money, why would they bite the hand that feeds?

They don't represent the sheep they lead them.

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 8/30/11 12:21 PM EDT
The man who led the controversial Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation will step down as the interim head of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it named a new acting director for the agency.

Kenneth Melson, the bureau’s acting director, on Wednesday will move to the Office of Legal Policy, where he will be a senior adviser on forensic science, the department said without making reference to the failed gun-tracking operation that is alleged to have ultimately put guns into the hands of criminals. Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney in Arizona who oversaw prosecutions in that state related to the Fast and Furious operation, is also stepping down, the department said.

“Ken brings decades of experience at the department and extensive knowledge in forensic science to his new role, and I know he will be a valuable contributor on these issues,” Attorney General Eric Holder said of Melson in a statement. “As he moves into this new role, I want to thank Ken for his dedication to the department over the last three decades.”

Melson’s replacement is B. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Jones “is a demonstrated leader who brings a wealth of experience to this position,” Holder said. “I have great confidence that he will be a strong and steady influence guiding ATF in fulfilling its mission of combating violent crime by enforcing federal criminal laws and regulations in the firearms and explosives industries.”

Melson took the top spot at the ATF on an interim basis in 2009 and oversaw the execution of Fast and Furious, an effort that was aimed at rooting out gun smugglers selling weapons to Mexican cartels. Ultimately, the ATF lost track of as many as 2,000 guns that were sold during the operation, including two that were found near the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent.

In a separate statement, Holder commended Burke’s “decision to place the interests of the U.S. Attorney’s office above all else” in stepping down. CBS reported that Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, who worked under Burke on Fast and Furious, will be reassigned to the Civil Division of the Justice Department.

Holder also praised Burke’s work, and said his office’s “quick response to the devastating shootings in January that claimed the lives of several people and critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was crucial in arresting and charging the alleged shooter.”

An investigation of the Fast and Furious operation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee found emails showing that Melson was regularly informed of the problems with the investigation.

One associate told POLITICO that, despite news stories predicting Melson’s exit since the beginning of the summer, he may have been reluctant to resign due to issues related to eligibility for retirement. Melson started at the Justice Department in 1983 as a federal prosecutor in Virginia.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House oversight committee, initially called on Melson to resign, but reversed course in July, saying that Melson should not be forced out until the facts about the operation were fully known.

In a statement Tuesday, Issa said “the reckless disregard for safety” by the Justice Department “certainly merits changes” in personnel.

But the committee will continue to investigate Fast and Furious “to ensure that blame isn’t offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department,” Issa said. “There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) voiced dismay that Melson has been reassigned and not forced to step down. Holder, he said, should have requested Melson’s resignation and “come clean on all alleged gun-walking operations.”

In July, there was fresh evidence of distance between Melson and Justice Department leaders when he gave a lengthy interview to congressional investigators outside the presence of and without advance notice to DOJ’s legislative affairs team. In the interview, Melson said he had objected to aspects of DOJ’s plans for handing the legislative inquiries and that he had been told not to tell Congress why mid-ranking ATF officials with responsibility for the Fast and Furious operation were reassigned.

The ATF has been without a permanent director since 2006. The confirmation process for the Obama administration’s nominee, Andrew Traver, the head of the agency’s Chicago office, has stalled under opposition from the National Rifle Association.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62320.html#ixzz1WXIlUMmX 

That Was Fast & Furious: U.S. Attorney For Arizona, Dennis Burke Resigns

According to Fox News, Dennis Burke got physically sick during questioning last week when questioned by congressional investigators. Burke became so ill, that he could not finish his questioning.

______________________________________________________________________________

KFYI News

Amid fallout from Operation Fast and Furious



Dennis Burke, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, has delivered his letter of resignation to President Obama - effective immediately.

The move comes amid fallout from Operation Fast and Furious, that was designed to track gun buyers and major weapons traffickers along the border. One of the guns was linked to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last year.

“My long tenure in public service has been intensely gratifying. It has also been intensely demanding. For me, it is the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of my career and my life and allow the office to move ahead," Burke said in the letter.

Burke was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona in 2009.

Burke's departure comes the same day as the transfer of ATF acting director Kenneth Melson to a new post.


Mark Carlson

Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke has submitted his resignation to President Barack Obama. In an email sent to his staff Tuesday, Burke says his long tenure in public office has been intensely gratifying and intensely demanding.

Burke says it's the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of his career and life and allow the office to move ahead.

Burke was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona in 2009. The U.S. Attorney's Office says Burke's resignation is effective immediately.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

When is Holder's turn

Ya ever notice how Rick and Fuzz and the other disillusioned stay clear of these threads? I'm surprised they are not here defending Holder and saying it was Bush's fault this happened.

Just sayin'........................

Just like most of the media. [gonzo]

Well at least we've finally cut down on gun trafficking to Mexico.

Interesting read. Dialog reads like a Quentin Tarantino script. Hmmmmmm. [gonzo]

Not just guns!!!!

Good grief.....media still running cover on this. White House connected to F&F.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/584023/201109071801/A-White-House-Gunrunner-.htm 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/08/weapons-linked-to-fast-and-furious-found-at-violent-arizona-crime-scene/ 


But wait...there's more!


Fast and Furious linked to 12 more violent crime scenes in Mexico
Published September 3, 2011 | By Bruce McQuain



This just gets deeper and wider:

Just hours after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, federal officials tried to cover up evidence that the gun that killed Terry was one the government intentionally helped sell to the Mexican cartels in a weapons trafficking program known as Operation Fast and Furious.

The revelation comes just days after a huge shake-up of government officials who oversaw the failed anti-gun trafficking program and Congress renewed its demand for more answers.

Also late Thursday, Sen. Charles Grassley’s office revealed that 31 more Fast and Furious guns have been found at 12 violent crime scenes in Mexico.

Additionally, as mentioned, evidence of a cover up has been found:

In an internal email the day after Terry’s murder, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emory Hurley and then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke decided not to disclose the connection, saying "this way we do not divulge our current case (Fast and Furious) or the Border Patrol shooting case."

Nice. Wonderful. Your “transparent” government at work.

And as the investigation continues, more and more evidence of both criminality (cover-up) and incompetence becomes apparent at echelons far above the agent level:

Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Thursday they are expanding their investigation into the scandal. In a strongly worded letter to Anne Scheel, the new U.S. attorney for Arizona, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested interviews, emails, memos and even hand-written notes from members of the U.S. attorney’s office that played key roles in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) program.

“The level of involvement of the United States Attorney’s Office … in the genesis and implementation of this case is striking,” wrote Issa and Grassley.

It is also trying to be denied by the DoJ which has been less than cooperative in the Congressional investigation into the operation:

“The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, so the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers will likely rise until the more than 1,000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered — most likely years down the road," Grassley said in a statement released Thursday.

"What we’re still waiting for are the answers to the other questions the Attorney General failed to answer per our agreement. The cooperation of the Attorney General and his staff is needed if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this disastrous policy and help the ATF and the department move forward.”

And, my guess is, given who runs the DoJ (and who the head of that department works for) they’ll be waiting for some time.

I think it past time that the mantra of “hope and change” be given a reality check and renamed what it has become over the past 3 years — “smoke and mirrors”. The promise to change politics as we knew it, to provide transparency and to be a transformative administration have all failed to the point that whatever attempt was actually made to accomplish those campaign goals (if there ever were any) have utterly and completely failed to emerge, much less overwhelm the supposed bureaucratic ossification and politics of Washington.

This administration is simply another in a long line of administrations that has failed to live up to its hype and promises. It is utterly and completely, even mundanely, just another old fashioned political promise machine which has no way to materialize what it has promised.

Smoke and mirrors, my friends, smoke and mirrors.

~McQ




And the "hits" keep coming....



Holder: 'Fast and Furious' operation didn't reach DOJ 'upper levels'


September 07, 2011|By Terry Frieden, CNN Justice Producer

In his first public comments since a personnel shakeup over the controversial "Fast and Furious" operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Attorney General Eric Holder said ongoing investigations will find involvement did not reach "the upper levels" of the Justice Department.

During a televised Justice Department news conference, Holder acknowledged the ATF's gun-running operation designed to track weapons to Mexican drug cartels "was clearly a flawed enforcement effort."

But Holder rejected the idea investigators will find that either he or his top aides had any knowledge of the operation.

"The notion that this reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that at this point I don't think is supported by the facts and I think once we examine it and once the facts are revealed we'll see that's not the case," Holder told reporters.

The Justice Department Inspector General and the Republican-run House Governmental Affairs Committee are separately investigating the case. Both are expected to continue for several more months.

Holder also defended his decision to transfer rather than fire his ATF director, Ken Melson. "Ken has served this department well over the course of some three decades," Holder said.



http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/06/report-justice-department-let-ieds-walk-into-mexico/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter 

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix, AZ, declined to charge Jean Baptiste Kingrey, the Wall Street Journal reported, despite the strenuous objections of at least one agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who was leading the ATF’s investigation into the grenades case.

The U.S. Attorney’s office sought to enlist Kingrey as an informant against the La Familia Michoacana cartel. Kingrey “maintained contact with agents for several weeks,” according to the Journal, “then disappeared, the U.S. officials familiar with the case said.”

But while the ATF apparently insisted on charging Kingrey when he was arrested in June, the man was also part of an ATF operation earlier this year that involved allowing him to “walk” explosives over the U.S.-Mexico border as part of the Bureau’s efforts to investigate drug cartels, federal prosecutors claim. ATF agents hoped to track Kingrey’s movements, but apparently lost track of him before he arrived at the border, where Mexican authorities failed to prevent his entry.

Anyone see the escalation yet?

This needs a Special Prosceutor...Obama KNOWS WTF is going on and ok'd this.

Don't let Holder slip off the hook and replace him so he gets a "special deal"...oh no...keep the useful idiot and spin him back towards his master!

http://m.examiner.com/exSeattle/pm_76139/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4faioRg5 

Another weapon was covered up at the scene of re boarded agents murder............

The criminals in this administration NEED TO GO.