Kenneth Melson Resigns As ATF Chief Over 'Fast And Furious' Gun Trafficking Operation

Kenneth Melson is out as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Melson has been under fire from Republicans over the scandal surrounding the gun trafficking program Operation Fast and Furious. The Justice Department announced that Melson will be moving to the Office of Legal Policy.

Melson has been under pressure to step aside since earlier this summer, after a House Oversight Committee hearing revealed controversial aspects of the program. ATF agents charged with monitoring the illegal sale and transfer of guns from the U.S. To Mexican drug cartels told lawmakers that, instead of arresting small-time buyers, they were ordered to stand by and let the guns go through, in the hopes of tracing them to larger arms dealers.

After border patrol agent Brian Terry was murdered in a shootout along the Arizona-Mexico border in December 2010, two weapons found on the scene were linked that the Fast and Furious program.

This month, the Justice Department announced that guns from the program had turned up at the scenes of at least 11 crimes in the U.S. In El Paso, Texas, 42 weapons were seized from two crime scenes alone.

Melson “was part of the bad judgment. … This was a program so stupid from the start,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the head of the Oversight Committee, told Fox News in June.

In July, after a review of the program, Melson admitted that, in at least one instance, agents could and should have intercepted the weapons. "I read through those and found ROIs (reports of investigation) that indeed suggested that interdiction could have occurred, and probably should have occurred, but did not occur," Melson told congressional lawmakers.

This article has been updated to reflect the official announcement from the Justice Department.

Comments

[David Bixby]

02:55 AM on 09/04/2011

Why isn't this on the front page of the New York Times and the Washington Post? Eric Holder should resign. President Obama should resign. This country should apologize to Mexico for supplying its criminal element with guns that are killing its police force. This scandal is worse than the Ollie North scandal. Obama and Holder should be extradited to Mexico to stand trial for providing arms that murdered their police!

[Pat Bateman2000]

05:54 AM on 09/06/2011

If only HP had a worst comment of the day badge. You deservedly would get it. That's high praise.

[Cat9]

12:14 PM on 09/28/2011

F & F

[MoreFreedom]

12:18 PM on 09/02/2011

If a regular citizen did what the people in the ATF did, they'd be arrested, prosecuted and jailed. Why are our government employees allowed to break the law and why aren't prosecutors indicting and prosecuting them?

We've a two class system in the US now. The coercive government class is no longer held accountable for their law breaking, while regular citizens find they can't even follow the law because of it's contradictions and they better hope to not end up in the cross hairs of a government employee - as then they will be prosecuted and bankrupted if not put in jail. Our civil servants are no longer civil, and no longer servants. Instead they are criminals using government for their own ends, typically to fatten their wallets.

[ElmCreekSmith]

01:28 PM on 09/01/2011

If, as the Chicago machine dominated Democrats keep telling us, Barack Obama "killed Usama bin Laden," then Barack Obama delivered illegally purchased guns to the Mexican cartels.

ECS

[ww745]

02:47 PM on 09/01/2011

Then to hush it up The ATF chief takes the blame and resigns. Then the un-Justice dept. gives him a job rather than charging him with murder. If I gave guns to people who should not have them I would get charged with the crimes they commited also.

[A-COL]

10:57 AM on 09/01/2011

How big a problem is the flow of illegal guns from the US - in reality NOT Much! Although the Obama administration’s ATF originally maintained “over 90% of the firearms seized in Mexico originated in the US,” they were forced to back-peddle on that claim when U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG) made the ATF admit “the 90% figure cited to Congress was misleading because IT APPLIED ONLY TO THE SMALL FRACTION OF MEXICAN CRIME GUNS THAT ARE TRACED and MEXICO ONLY ATTEMPTS TO TRACE GUNS THAT MOST LIKELY CAN BE TRACED TO THE US.” A Nov 2010 OIG analysis of ATF data suggest a much lower percentage really come from the US and a recent Feb 11 STRATFOR (a widely respected global intelligence company) analysis calculated almost 90 PERCENT OF THE GUNS SEIZED IN MEXICO ARE NOT FROM THE US.

If you’re interested in knowing the truth about this, read my 16 July 2011 Blog article: “US Inspector General Makes Obama ATF Admit Only a Fraction of Illegal Weapons Seized in Mexico Come from US!” at: http://old-soldier-colonel.blogspot.com/2011/07/us-inspector-general-makes-obama-atf.html

[rae112754]

02:03 AM on 09/01/2011

He can't resign yet. The ATF hasnt filled my order of automatic assualt rifles yet.............

[Right Whale]

10:53 PM on 08/31/2011

The really dark side of this story is that it's primary mission was politics to set up an environment for adopting more gun control. The hottest thing the ant gun crowd had going ast the time was the whole "American guns being used in crimes in Mexico issue"..

[Rooster Coburn]

09:54 PM on 08/31/2011

Wayne LaPierre for ATF!

[cmcclarty]

08:14 PM on 08/31/2011

The agents that died there family should sue now.

[rikilii]

10:32 AM on 09/01/2011

Sue for what?

[David Carson]

11:43 AM on 09/01/2011

malfeasance

[Arthur Harold Cooper]

07:25 PM on 08/31/2011

Not good enough. How about filing charges of gross deriliction of duty? When do we tell this administration: "Enough is enough?! WHERE IS THE PUBLIC OUTCRY? This man needs to be prosecuted!!! So does the rest of the administration.

[Kevin Rayburn]

01:18 AM on 09/01/2011

imagine what would happen to you if you sold an assault rifle to a felon-drug dealer and that rifle was used to shoot a law enforcement officer.

[David Carson]

08:09 PM on 09/01/2011

which is precisely what happened

[jhooperaa]

04:57 PM on 08/31/2011

So let me get this straight. This guy totally screws up and get people killed with his hairbrained scheme to sell guns to the drug cartel and he is reassigned to another job in the Justice Department. Does anyone ever get fired in the government for incompetence? NOPE. In the private sector he would be gone in a hearbeat. In this case I am sure he will keep a salary of $200,000+ a year to buy his silence as to who really approved the program.

[keng181]

08:59 PM on 08/31/2011

the biggest crime organizations are governments. im sure you know that it's basic history my friend. they dont get rid of their own unless they are a threat to exposing their criminal system. the shuffling of positions is just to minimally save face at least for generally brainwashed public who fall for it and dont give it a second thought. oh and its not just a hairbrained bad idea ... everything done in gov is known about by the higher ups and is planned intentionally. almost nothing is accidental. for ex. the reason for invading iraq was to create chaos(and extract certain classified technology and other objects...another story). not nation build or for stopping "terrorism" ( a term of double-talk). they succeeded in their true goal and only failed in terms of their apparent goal told to quell the public. even the apparent goal was a lousy excuse that many didnt buy... but still we are fightin over in the mideast.......... anyway liked your comment

[rikilii]

10:33 AM on 09/01/2011

He screwed up, but there's no evidence (and no logical basis for thinking) that the screw up got anyone killed.

That's just absurd political/media hyperbole.

[jhooperaa]

04:52 PM on 08/31/2011

Like Watergate it is the coverup that always catches up to these people. In time the approval for this program will be traced to Eric Holder. He will have to resign. Hopefully soon. He is the WORST attorney general in decades.

[skooli]

02:34 PM on 08/31/2011

Someone has to come up with better campaign names. They lost track of the guns "Fast" now the people are "Furious".

[Rexter]

02:06 PM on 08/31/2011

Typical civil service B.S. They never fire anyone, if you want someone gone - promote them or pawn them off on someone else.

[bobcouchman]

12:52 PM on 08/31/2011

this investigation should continue with holder and obama having to defend themselves. you cant tell me a department chief made the decision to give thousands of weapons to mexican terrorists.

[dave778967]

12:31 PM on 08/31/2011

I'm gonna keep saying it until all of the cards come crumbling down. This guy did not have the clout to run this operation. Allowing guns to travel into a foreign country without that country's knowledge is completely illegal. We all know it. The fact that this guy was moved rather than fired tells the tale. As long as he works for the Justice Department he cannot be compelled to testify against it. Holder would simply not allow it. So to fire him would give him the opportunity to tell the whole tale. That's not gonna happen because more higher ups would have to fall. Who knows how high it goes. One thing is sure. Holder knew about. Use a little common sense America. The guy in ultimate charge is not made aware of an operation that involves another country. NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY. He knew and it's time the truth comes out as to how high this tragic and illegal operation went.