Kenneth Melson, ATF Chief, Pressured To Resign Over Fast And Furious Gun Trafficking Scandal

Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, is facing pressure to resign over a controversial gun-trafficking operation that is being blamed for the death of a U.S. border agent.

The ATF program, dubbed Operation Fast and Furious, was designed to monitor the illegal sale and transfer of guns from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels.

At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, ATF agents told lawmakers that instead of arresting the small-time buyers, they were instructed to stand by and watch to see where the guns went in an effort to build a case against bigger arms dealers.

Doing so, however, meant that U.S. guns wound up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. And after Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered in a shootout along the Arizona-Mexico border in December, two weapons found on the scene were linked that the “Fast and Furious” program.

"ATF is supposed to be the sheepdog that protects against the wolves that prey upon our southern border," ATF agent John Dodson said at the hearing. "Rather than meet the wolf head-on, we sharpened its teeth and added number to its claws, all the while we sat idly by -- watching, tracking and noting as it became a more efficient killer."

Dodson said agents were never given reasonable answers why their activities were limited.

An ATF supervisor in Phoenix, Peter Forcelli, said some tried to raise concerns with supervisors but were rebuffed.

"My concerns were dismissed," he told the committee. "I believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes, on both sides of the border, for years to come."

Republicans and Democrats on the panel expressed outrage about the ATF program and demanded answers from the Obama administration about why arrests were secondary to tracking the firearms, Reuters reported.

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department was moving forward with plans to replace Melson as head of the ATF.

Two senior federal law enforcement officials told CNN on Monday that Melson is expected to resign as early as Monday or Tuesday.

The ATF would neither confirm nor deny Melson’s potential departure early Monday afternoon, telling Politico that the agency is “not commenting on any speculation or any of the news reports.”

Comments

[TheAmendments]

08:36 PM on 07/07/2011

ATF ‘Gun Walking’ Kenneth Melson - Key Figure in Corruption of the Justice System
____
News regarding the imminent departure of Deputy Director Kenneth Melson in the wake of the ATF ‘gun walking’ scandal may be premature. Convoluted relationships between President Obama, FBI, and US Department of Justice are part of corruption of the US justice system that has reached the level of an unprecedented constitutional crisis…
LINKS:
[1] 11-07-06 PRESS RELEASE: ATF ‘Gun Walking’ Kenneth Melson - Key Figure in Corruption of the Justice System
http://www.scribd.com/doc/59417750/

[Lana Domino]

12:50 AM on 06/28/2011

This program was reckless homicide by the ATF and Department of Justice. Our own federal agents have been killed with these guns. That is simply unforgivable for what Brian Terry and Jaime Zapada gave their service and sacrifice to their country and what did our government give to them? I am a friend of Brian Terry's and I will keep fighting until justice is served for him and all people responsible are prosecuted and held accountable. In my eyes the ATF and Department of Justice have the blood of these men on their hands. I have a website on facebook Justice for Brian Terry! A True American Hero! I will post until Brian gets the justice he deserves and his family gets the answers they deserve. They have been fighting for answers and justice since he died, it is not fair that they have not had time to truly grieve their loss because the ATF and Department of Justice took that from them. No one should ever have to lose a family member or friend at the hands of our own governments reckless decisions! Lana Domino

[Taisposo]

09:49 AM on 06/27/2011

You have to wonder how idiots like Melson ever get into the positions of authority they hold.
Certainly someone in the past should have recognized his inability to form logical and workable ideas.
Or is this the Peter Principle in operation?

[David Carson]

02:53 PM on 06/28/2011

I would say that the Peter Principle is in operation here

[Buba Jones]

08:49 PM on 06/22/2011

The Fast and Furious investigation can not stop with the resignation of Kenneth Melson, acting director of the ATF. We already know that other Federal agencies including DEA, ICE and Border Patrol were involved in Operation Fast and Furious. None of those agencies report to Kenneth Melson. Authorization for the involvement of those other agencies had to come from higher up. Both BATFE and DEA report to Eric Holder and since the operation crossed his agencies, he was involved. Similarly, Border Patrol and ICE report to Janet Napolitano and since the operation crossed her agencies, she was involved. Since the operation crossed departments (Homeland Security and Justice) and those departments report to Obama, he too had to have been involved -- it can really be NO other way.

[Sugarmaker]

11:47 AM on 06/21/2011

We should consider the possibility that he's falling on the sword. If he has broken any laws, criminal prosecution should be brought to bear for the purpose of uncovering any links going higher in the bureau.

[kaveman3]

08:33 PM on 06/21/2011

"prosecutio­n should be brought to bear for the purpose of uncovering any links going higher in the bureau. "

Any higher and we start questioning the DOJ and Obama's cabinet members.

I say we start right away.

[Peter Combs]

10:37 AM on 06/21/2011

Whats most amusing, this isn;t front page news here on HP...anyone know why?

[molonlabe]

12:07 PM on 06/21/2011

Simple. Because it doesn't support the anti-gun rhetoric that demonizes civilian ownership/transfer of firearms.

Support for gun control is in the crapper. They need the lies and misrepresentations to keep whatever relevance they have left.

[Peter Combs]

02:25 PM on 06/21/2011

Actually I think its because it makes Obama look like a bumbling fool who hires nit wits in Ivory towers who are visionless...

[leftnerve]

12:09 AM on 06/21/2011

Here's an idea: Abolish the ATF completely as should have been done a long time ago.

[hagagaga]

04:51 PM on 06/21/2011

Cutting unnecessary bureaucracy and the like makes too much sense to happen, as with the DEA.

[Sam Hain]

11:59 PM on 06/20/2011

"Not one in-country drug cartel member was arrested as the result of the ATF’s gun-running sting op. Then again, the ATF has no jurisdiction in Mexico. So maybe the ATF was counting on the Mexican federales to do the right thing, arrest a big fish and send him stateside"..

...Except the ATF never informed the Mexican Government about this operation!

http://thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/06/robert-farago/atf-death-watch-8-gps/

[seegray]

12:36 AM on 06/21/2011

Um....that's not what your link says.

[seattlejames]

11:20 PM on 06/20/2011

The idea of doing something so stupid seems like it came from a bad TV movie. The lack of a reason or explanation, to your own people, for not making arrest is very troubling. This seems like a poorly planned operation which largely depended on hope and luck, for success.

[Kevin Rayburn]

11:13 PM on 06/20/2011

how about making his sorry bureacratic A$$ go to mexico by himself and gather up all these weapons, shouldnt be too hard since they are all in the hands of outlaws......if he succedes he can resign if he doesnt succede....sorry about his luck. one more thought here, this dude has pretty much proven the theory that if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns.....especcially if the ATF provides the outlaws with the guns.

[returnofthejedi]

10:40 PM on 06/20/2011

He should resign. If anyone is killed by one of those weapons he should be charged! While we are at it the same should go for the NRA.

[Kevin Rayburn]

11:10 PM on 06/20/2011

a border patrol agent was killed by one of those rifles.

[kaveman3]

12:37 AM on 06/21/2011

"If anyone is killed by one of those weapons he should be charged! "

Brian Terry, border agent...dead already.

[Pooter1]

10:21 PM on 06/20/2011

Those ATF agents that spilled the beans had better watch it. The Obama Administration has a very bad opinion of whitleblowers.

As a matter of fact, a group of whistleblowers just last Wednesday started a petition demanding that Obama return theTransparency Award he received stating that, "....this administration has squashed "legal inquiries into secret illegalities more often than any predecessor" and "amassed the worst record in U.S. history for persecuting, prosecuting and jailing government whistleblowers and truth-tellers." The group also claims, ".... that the White House has refused to make its visitor logs public, while overseeing a 15 percent spike last year in budgetary outlays for classifying secrets. The Obama administration has spent $10 billion in enforcing secrecy protocols."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/whistleblowers-rescind-ob_b_876971.html

This Administration loves working "under the radar' and does not take kindly to having what its "doing under the radar" up made public. Maybe that is why it has only made public just 1% of the records of more than 500,000 meetings that the WH was involved in just for the first eight months of his presidency...records would detail who attended and the purpose of the meeting.

You gotta love that "under the radar' kind of transparency.

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/04/13/4115/white-house-visitor-logs-riddled-holes

[hagagaga]

01:06 PM on 06/21/2011

What administration has taken kindly to whistleblowers?

[SOD]

01:35 PM on 06/21/2011

"What administra­tion has taken kindly to whistleblo­wers? "

Two wrongs makes a right fallacy.

"This administration has... amassed the worst record in U.S. history for persecutin­g, prosecutin­g and jailing government whistleblo­wers and truth-tell­ers."

There is a distinct difference between not treating whistle-blowers well and having the worst record in history regrading the treatment of whistle-blowers.

Do I need to further explain this too you?

[Buba Jones]

11:15 AM on 06/23/2011

Obama has violated his promise to act tranparently completely.

[snack cakes]

10:20 PM on 06/20/2011

How about investigating arms that were sold to the mexican government by the us government that fell into the hands of cartels. Last time I checked, you couldn't buy fully automatic weapons and hand grenades in american gun shops.

[PalinEffect]

09:55 PM on 06/20/2011

TOO bad this bumbling idiot is not in charge of the DEA! 11 TONS of pot siezed in Chicago on a railcar, for example. Sickening. What a waste.

[pita143]

09:29 PM on 06/20/2011

What is funny about this, is this guy is NOT the head of the ATF....there is NO HEAD of the ATF, he is only the Acting Director because the GOP in the Senate is blocking the appointment of a new Head of the ATF. And there are a whole list of other jobs that are blank because GOP members in the Senate use their Member status to block appointments. ONE SINGLE Person can block the vote of anyone who is up for confirmation to a position.

[Rasebiho]

09:59 PM on 06/20/2011

So are you thinking that since he was only the Acting Director and wasn't going to be nominated as the Director he was willing to run the Fast and Furious operation? That would imply that he expected to be rewarded someplace other than ATF.

[JDINTX]

12:36 AM on 06/22/2011

All the more reason to believe DOJ was intimately involved in this operation. An acting head would take this on alone? How does he get FBI and DOJ cooperation? This stinks like a dead fish....from the head down.

[leftnerve]

11:47 PM on 06/20/2011

lol. I knew this was the GOPs fault somehow. thanks for helping us make the connection. There's no place to hide with geniuses like you on the case.

[pita143]

08:30 AM on 06/21/2011

try doing some of your own research "more on" and you will see just how many positions are vacant because the GOP is blocking all the nominations of this Administration.

Bush and the GOP were whining about using the "nuclear option" because they said that Bush's appointments were not getting and up or down vote. At this exact time in Bush's election he had over 165 Nominations voted on......Obama has had 82. Clinton had the EXACT same number as Bush at this same time period in their election.

The fact is the GOP is blocking things repeatedly and all for political reasons. They want this or they want that. If the Democrats did that they would go nuts.