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(WASHINGTON) House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today released the following statement regarding Department of Justice personnel changes involving Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley: "While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn't offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department. There are still many questions to...

Sources say ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson is being moved out of the top job at the Bureau. It's not yet publicly known where he would go, but sources inside the Justice Department believe one option is a transfer to a position at Department of Justice headquarters. The Justice Department had no immediate comment, and did not confirm the move. Melson's move would be another in a number of high-level personnel shifts, as the Inspector General continues investigating the so-called gunwalker scandal at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ATF promotes "Fast and Furious" supervisors...

Event: 'Operation Fast And Furious: The Other Side Of The Border' Full Committee Hearing Full House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing Date: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Duration: 2 Hours Contact Info: (202) 225-5074 Email: URL: http://oversight.house.gov The Full Committee hearing entitled, "Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border" will take place at 10:00am on Tuesday, July 26th in room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will be streamed live at http://oversight.house.gov.

VIDEO:Obama Orders:Launched Fast and Furious

According to a release from Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) his House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has scheduled new hearings into the on going Operation Fast and Furious scandal — this time they’ll be talking to ATF agents based in Mexico: “Operation Fast and Furious: The Other Side of the Border” will examine accounts of agents based in Mexico Washington DC– On Tuesday, July 26th, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will convene a hearing as part of the ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice’s Operation Fast and Furious, a tragically flawed effort that is connected to...

Email Confirms ‘Gunwalker’ Known Throughout Justice Department The October 27, 2009 email from ATF Phoenix Field Division Special Agent in Charge (SAC) William Newell regarded a Southwest Border Strategy Group meeting that focused on Fast and Furious. It contained a laundry list of high ranking Justice Department officials that attended the meeting, including: * Assistant Attorney General (Criminal Division) Lanny Breuer, * Kenneth Melson, Acting Director, ATF * William Hoover, Acting Deputy Director, ATF * Michele Leonhart, Administrator, DEA * Robert Mueller, Director FBI Four other Justice Department directors or their representatives came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task...

An internal ATF email seems to support the assertion that Fast and Furious was a PR stunt for gun control.PJM’s Bob Owens has long speculated that the primary reason for Operation Fast and Furious was to perpetuate the lie that 90 percent of illegal firearms in Mexico were from the United States. Owens’ assertion was buoyed on Wednesday by internal ATF emails obtained by Townhall.com. One email reads: Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a demand letter on long gun multiple...

Add lying to Congress about his Justice Department's "Operation Fast and Furious" scandal to the reasons why Eric Holder must be fired as U.S. attorney general. The idiocy of Fast and Furious -- an attempt by Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to link illegally sold guns with Mexican drug cartels -- became gravely clear when two such rifles were found at the scene of a Border Patrol agent's December murder. Mr. Holder mentioned Fast and Furious essentials at an anti-arms-smuggling symposium in Mexico in April 2009. Last September, a Justice document referenced such efforts --

Republican lawmakers are alleging that Operation Fast and Furious may have had a twin in Tampa: Operation Castaway. The new revelations have come to light as Florida Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis fired off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and acting ATF Director Ken Melson asking them for answers about the newly discovered program. “In recent days, it has come to light that the ATF and DOJ have participated in the act of ‘gun walking’ beyond the acts conducted within the scope of ‘Operation Fast and Furious,’” Bilirakis wrote to Holder and Melson. “Recent reports have suggested that Project...

Border: A 2-year-old video shows a high Justice official saying "the president has directed us," including the attorney general, to speed up Project Gunrunner and the offshoot that got a border agent killed. This tape has no 18-minute gap, and while it does not feature the president himself, the March 24, 2009, video may rival the tape that turned a "third-rate burglary" into a presidential resignation. No one died at Watergate. Agent Brian Terry lost his life in the administration's obsessive pursuit of gun control. In addition to Agent Terry, Immigration Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata was also killed in...

First, the Arms Export Control Act, 22 USC §2778.. It authorizes the President to define defense articles and regulate their export. In so doing, he must consider the possibility that export could "support international terrorism, increase the possibility of outbreak or escalation of conflict..." Those defense articles may not be exported without a permit, issued by the Secretary of State ( Department of State guidelines here), "except that no license shall be required for exports or imports made by or for an agency of the United States Government (A) for official use by a department or agency of the United...

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, ripped Attorney General Eric Holder again in another Monday letter. The top Republicans investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious also blasted Holder for allegations that he allowed his Justice Department to skew potential witnesses by prepping them with access to background information.In this new letter, Issa and Grassley name 12 senior Justice Department political officials they believe may have been involved in the decision which allowed guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. They asked Holder...

WASHINGTON -- In an effort to stem the illicit flow of weapons into Mexico, the Justice Department announced Monday that all gun shops in four Southwest border states will be required to alert the federal government to frequent buyers of high-powered rifles. The new policy comes amid criticism of a failed federal probe aimed at dismantling large-scale arms trafficking networks along the Arizona border with Mexico. In the probe, called Operation Fast and Furious, several agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives say they were inexplicably ordered by superiors to stop tracking some small-time "straw" buyers who...

There is one more loose end that needs to be tied together regarding Gunwalker. In the last 2 1/2 months I have heard from very credible sources, who are unconnected, the same thing repeatedly - so frequently that it is truly frightening. There have been numerous, and I mean NUMEROUS, muslim plots to wage Mumbai-style attacks against churches and synagogues that have been foiled and thwarted in the U.S. within the last several years.

I'm working on another thread about how the Elites seem to be in full Civil War right now, and the ATF is really a prime example, it looks like the current administration's open and blatant plan to grab guns is being exposed, big time. I will acknowledge a lack of sources at the moment, they all seem to lead to an Examiner story, but ATF's own site acknowledges the program. This is a developing story and I'll add more links as obtained. Operation Castaway. Used in conjunction with Operation Fast & Furious, the program has allowed the release of THOUSANDS...

On June 30th,Maryland Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings assembled gun confiscation advocates and 2nd amendment foes from across the nation to approach the Gunwalker/Fast and Furious debacle by doing what the Left does best…changing the subject. As it is not in the nature of liberals to allow truth to interfere with agenda, the Congressman decided to ignore the fact that Obama Regime members at the ATF had directed the sale of thousands of weapons to drug cartel straw buyers and assisted in trafficking those guns across the Mexican border. Instead, Cummings claimed that “no legitimate examination of [drug cartel violence and...

Eric Holder gave false info. to a Congressional Committee last May about ATF operations tied to the deaths of two U.S. Agents; we have the proof. (SALEM, Ore.) - New information indicates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's actions are squarely behind the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) operation known as "Fast and Furious", which orchestrated the delivery of almost 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug cartels[1]. Holder openly proclaimed his connection to the operation in April 2009 during a publicized speech in Mexico, then told a Congressional Committee in May 2011, "I probably heard of Fast and Furious...

Video at link

PHOENIX - The ABC15 Investigators have linked an additional 43 weapons recovered during a Phoenix traffic stop to the controversial Fast and Furious ATF case. According to court paperwork, Phoenix Drug Enforcement Administration agents discovered the guns in mid-April. They pulled over a vehicle near 83rd Avenue and Interstate 10, near the Phoenix and Tolleson border

The left-collectivist gun confiscationists, unable to ignore the Gunwalker Scandal any longer, are chanting the "Permanent Director, More Gun Control" mantra louder, longer and more frequently now. Here's Pro-Publica: "Embroiled in Controversy, ATF Has Long Been Leaderless and Hamstrung." Josh Gerstein, writing at Polico asks: "Could controversy kill the ATF?" The unfolding scandal over a gunrunning investigation allegedly botched by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could do what years of criticism of the long-beleaguered agency never quite accomplished — result in its demise. That, at least, is the view of some former ATF employees and advocates on...