ATF's Testimony Proves Fast and Furious was an Obama Plot

On July 4th, Acting ATF Director Ken Melson testified for hours before representatives of the Grassley/Issa congressional committees. Personal counsel in tow, Melson made a number of allegations concerning the Department of Justice and two agencies under DOJ control—the FBI and the DEA.

According to his testimony, not only did the DOJ refuse his repeated requests that the ATF be permitted to provide information demanded by the congressional committees, the Department also arranged for tax dollars from the FBI and DEA to help finance Fast and Furious straw buyers.

And as Fast and Furious supplied weapons were found at the murder scenes of both ICE agent Jaime Zapata and Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, it means that both killings were financed by American taxpayers.

Equally disturbing to Sen. Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa is the fact that the Justice Department tried to “conceal from Congress the possible involvement of other agencies in identifying and maybe even working with the same criminals that Operation Fast and Furious was trying to identify.”

That is, the FBI and DEA were working with the same drug dealing, gun trafficking higher ups the ATF was ostensibly targeting and hoping to unmask with Fast and Furious.

One such individual, deported years earlier by the DEA, is now working as a “counter terror informant,” tasked with reporting to the FBI the possible presence of dirty bombs and al-Qaeda members crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. Yet neither agency shared this information with the ATF. And, of course, neither did Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.

Two days after Melson’s testimony, the story broke of guns being walked out of the ATF office in Tampa, Florida. Their destination, Honduras, has become a major gateway for Colombian drugs entering Mexico and the United States. The weapons presumably went to Honduran M-13 and M-18 gangs, which have taken over the drug trade in the nation, making deals with Mexican and Colombian cartels.

So, these are the facts:
■Fast and Furious was not purely a Phoenix-based operation. Guns are now known to have been walked from Houston and Tampa field offices and perhaps many others. This makes Gunwalker a nationwide federal scheme.
■The FBI and DEA employed drug dealers and gun traffickers, who participated in Fast and Furious.
■One Fast and Furious weapon was found at the scene of Jaime Zapata’s murder, two at the scene of Brian Terry’s. Has anyone ever heard of murderers leaving their weapons at the scene of the crime, unless they were killed or captured on the spot?
■Although U.S.-procured weapons account for only about 14 percent of firearms found at Mexican crime scenes, three Fast and Furious guns mysteriously showed up at murder scenes – of American agents.

A surefire way for the Second Amendment-hating Obama regime to secretly manufacture an outcry for tougher gun control legislation is to create as much news, as many deaths and as many criminal firearms traces back to U.S. gun sellers as possible.

Step one, the ATF made thousands of weapons available from gun stores across the nation to straw purchasers, who then sent them where criminal activity was most rampant, in Mexico and Honduras.

Step two, three of these weapons were deliberately left at scenes where U.S. agents had been killed.

And finally, serial number traces revealed the origin of these firearms, along with hundreds of others, to have been American gun stores.

Either that was all a remarkable coincidence benefiting a regime intent upon undermining the Second Amendment rights of the American people, or Fast and Furious/Gunrunner is an even more perverse and despicable betrayal of the public trust than anyone has imagined.

Given the histories of those involved, the choice is clear.

Congress starting ATF "gunwalker scandal" probe

(CBS News) Congress holds its first hearings Monday on the "gunwalker scandal" that CBS News first uncovered back in February.


Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) encouraged gun shops to sell thousands of assault rifles and other weapons destined for Mexican drug cartels.



On "The Early Show" Friday, CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported those who defend the strategy say their goal was to let the little fish go -- to get the big fish. But insiders say, in the process, lives were needlessly put in danger.

Last June, about nine months into the ATF operation known as "Fast and Furious," suspects had "purchased 1,608 firearms for over $1 million in cash transactions at various Phoenix-area gun shops," according to internal documents obtained by CBS News. The documents indicate ATF already knew that 179 of those very weapons had turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, and 130 in the U.S.

Yet, ATF allowed some of the same suspects -- accused of being middlemen for Mexican drug cartels -- to continue to buy and transfer assault weapons. Sometimes, agents say, they videotaped the buys, but didn't interdict the guns.


Documents indicate intentions were good. The idea, according to those documents, was to "allow the transfer of firearms" to pinpoint big cartel crooks rather than the small-time traffickers supplying them.


Former New York State Deputy. Secretary of Public Safety Mike Balboni told CBS News, "They want to change the dynamic and truly go after the kingpin, so give the kingpin something that they can't resist -- this flow of weapons over 15 months -- and then track 'em, find 'em and take 'em down."


But several ATF agents strongly objected to letting any guns "walk."

Darren Gil was ATF's lead official in Mexico during "Fast and Furious." He told CBS News, "We're in the business of interdicting weapons; we're not in the business of putting weapons out there for criminals to use. And that's what happened in this case."


Attkisson reported that sources say putting electronic trackers on the guns usually wasn't possible and the number of weapons let on the street in Fast and Furious grew to more than 2,500.


One suspect allegedly purchased 20, even 40 weapons at a time, and at least 220 over the course of about a year. That included 178 AK-47-type assault rifles and three Barret 50-caliber rifles.


"Using our sources, and reviewing documents provided to us over the past four months," Attkisson said, "we've been able to piece together a disturbing picture of where 'Fast and Furious' guns have turned up so far: at a dozen seizures and crime scenes along the U.S. border and in Mexico.


Most notably, two turned up last December at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona.


And documents obtained by CBS news indicate some of the weapons were recently found at a drug cartel shooting of a government of Mexico helicopter, as shown on a Spanish language website.


Even insiders appeared awed by the scale. Six months into the investigation, in March of last year, a senior ATF attorney under the Justice Department commented, "Every time I read this case, I am amazed at the amount of firearms we are talking about."


Acting ATF director Kenneth Melson and his deputy, William Hoover, are said to have been "briefed weekly" on the investigation.


ATF Special Agent John Dodson worried about all those guns hitting the streets.


Dodson said, "I don't think anybody really fathoms how long we're gonna be dealing with this. The gun is not gonna go away. It's not a one-time use."


Dodson is expected to testify at a hearing Wednesday along with two other special agents. Attkisson said Monday's hearing will explore whether the Justice Department has obstructed justice in withholding certain information from congressional investigators. That agency has said it's cooperating with the Inspector General's probe.

"Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge asked Attkisson if the ATF's plan of going after the big fish -- or large drug cartels -- has paid off. He asked, "Is there any proof this actually worked in any instances?"

"Not yet," Attkisson said. "The idea was to try to take down a major cartel. That didn't happen. Insiders say they still hope evidence they have gleaned from some of this operation that went on over 15 months may eventually help do that. So far, it has not done that. And the argument on the other side, from the insiders who did not approve of the strategy, said you never let one gun walk. It's too dangerous. Even if you're trying to get the big fish."