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“Since you are, despite the most sincere wishes of others in the Department of Justice bureaucracy, still the director of your troubled agency, I thought I would give you the chance to prove it,” Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars tells Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson in an open letter sent last night. Referencing a joint exclusive report filed with this correspondent about claims ATF's Tampa Special Agent in Charge walked guns to Honduras and a follow-up report that a cover-up is in progress, Vanderboegh tells Melson: If so, this cover-up is going...

Holder knew about Project Gun Runner before April 2, 2009. Roger Hedgecock's third hour's podcast talks about it. You can listen to or download the MP3 file and it starts 6 minutes into the podcast. Roger Hedgecock Show - 7/8/2011 Hour 3 Fast and Furious explodes again. How involved was the FBI? What did Eric Holder know and when did he know it? In his own words, its enough to lie under oath. A year after Obamacare the Democrats are admitting the way to cut costs is actually to limit care. All of Roger's podcasts are here: http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/audiogallery.asp?cchk=yesGood Hunting... from...

Scandal: The ATF's gun-running disaster was funded in the stimulus bill. Think about all the criminal and drug cartel jobs saved or created. And our attorney general once bragged to a Mexican audience about implementing it. This could be, no pun intended, the proverbial smoking gun in a growing administration scandal that deserves as much mainstream media attention as Iran-Contra or Watergate. Right there in the stimulus bill that no one in Congress bothered to read is $10 million for Project Gunrunner (aka Operation Fast and Furious), which resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and increased...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   “FAST AND FURIOUS”: BATFE DIRECTOR STARTS TALKING, WHILE WASHINGTON POST KEEPS SPINNING   Friday, July 08, 2011   Some of the firearms straw-purchased in Arizona for Mexican drug cartels, and allowed to “walk” by the  Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious, may have been paid for with taxpayer money, by paid informants of the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI, according to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).Rep. Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Grassley, ranking member of...

Grassley would be supportive of a special prosecutor in ‘Gunwalker’ Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa) ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on a radio interview today, while he’s not calling for a special prosecutor to investigate Operation Fast and Furious, the failed operation to track guns across the Mexican border, he would be supportive if Chairman Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.) of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called for one. In the interview on the Steve Gill Show, he had a couple of other interesting things to say. He said three things came out of the interviews with...

Will Barack Obama dare to appoint an independent prosecutor?As the pressure began mounting on his administration’s actions in the Gunwalker scandal last week, President Barack Obama turned once again to the Department of Justice inspector general’s investigation of the crime as cover: Today at his news conference, President Obama was asked about the unfolding gunwalker scandal, and whether ATF leadership will be replaced.Mr. Obama answered, “My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico. … I’m not going to comment on — a on a current...

Attorney General Eric Holder at the Mexico/United States Arms Trafficking Conference CUERNAVACA, MEXICO ~ Thursday, April 2, 2009 Remarks as prepared for delivery. First, let me express my thanks to Attorney General Medina Mora and Secretary of Government Gomez Mont for making this conference possible. This is my first trip to another country as Attorney General. I wanted to come to Mexico to deliver a single message: We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this fight against the narcotics cartels. The United States shares responsibility for this problem and we will take responsibility by joining our Mexican counterparts in every step...

The Puzzle of 'Operation Fast and Furious' When Will Team Obama Come Clean About Failed Gun Program? There are two puzzles in the so-called “Gunwalker” or “Operation Fast and Furious” case. This is the shocking case where Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents ordered American gun dealers to sell guns to obvious Mexican drug gangs over the objections of the gun dealers. Here are just some of the questions that the Obama administration still has not answered: 1. Why would the government go through with the policy when it was seemingly obvious to everyone that there was...

One of the original whistleblowers on Operation Fast and Furious — which allowed thousands of guns to cross the border into Mexico — said Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Ken Melson’s testimony before congressional investigators on July 4 was nothing but “smoke and mirrors.” ATF Special Agent Vince Cefalu continued: At this point he’s doing what anyone would do, he’s saving his own ass. Cefalu is one of the founders of CleanUpATF.org, a message board dedicated to addressing abuses within the ATF. He is one of the most vocal critics of the heads...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Monday, July 4, ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson testified before investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee about Operation Fast and Furious.  Following this interview, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, expressed their deep concerns about the involvement of the DEA, FBI, and other agencies – including the possibility that they were aware of and even working with people connected to Fast and Furious suspects.   In addition to these concerns noted in the...

(CNSNews.com) – White House Spokesman Jay Carney has failed to follow-up on a statement he made at the June 27 White House briefing that he would get back to a reporter with the exact date that President Barack Obama first became aware of “Operation Fast and Furious,” a botched sting operation in which U.S. officials knowingly allowed smugglers to buy guns at licensed U.S. firearms dealers. “I’ll have to get back to you," Carney said at the briefing. "I don’t have an exact date for you.” The operation was halted shortly after two of the guns from the operation were...

The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as "Fast and Furious," Fox News has learned. "If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively...

PHOENIX - Weapons linked to a questionable government strategy are turning up in crimes in Valley neighborhoods. For months the ABC15 Investigators have been searching through police reports and official government documents. We’ve discovered assault weapons linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial "Fast and Furious" case strategy have turned up at crime scenes in Glendale and Phoenix communities. THE HISTORY Phoenix ATF agents recently testified during a Congressional hearing that they knowingly allowed weapons to slip into the hands of straw buyers who would then distribute the weapons to known criminals. The strategy was designed...

One of the whistleblowers who brought the massive “Gun Walker” scandal to light, ATF Special Agent Vince Cefalu, was terminated after a thirty-year career last week… the day after House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a warning letter to the Bureau, demanding a promise that there would be no retaliatory firings of whistleblowers. Ironically, one of the reasons given for Cefalu’s termination was “a lack of candor.” He was previously turned into a desk ornament for daring to become a “vocal critic” of an illegal wiretap. Since he spoke up about Gun Walker, he spent most of his time...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) denounced President Obama for refusing to comment on a controversial gun-tracking program that is under investigation. Issa, who is the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Obama did not express the necessary “urgency” that is called for in investigating who approved of the “Fast and Furious” operation, which may have contributed to the death of at least one federal agent. At a press conference Wednesday, Obama reiterated that Attorney General Eric Holder did not order the gun-tracking program, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is being accused of retaliating against an agent who helped publicize the agency’s role in allowing thousands of guns to cross the U.S. border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs. The agent, Vince Cefalu, who has spoken out about the ATF's so-called "Project Gunrunner" scandal, says he was served with termination papers just last week, and he calls the move politically motivated. “Aside from Jay Dobyns, I don't know of anyone that's been more vocal about ATF mismanagement than me,” said Cefalu, a senior special agent based in Dublin, Calif....

Kenneth Melson of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms faces controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns into Mexico. He is said to be eager to testify to Congress. The acting director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is strongly resisting pressure to step down because of growing controversy over the agency's surveillance program that allowed U.S. guns to flow unchecked into Mexico, according to several federal sources in Washington.

A chief critic of ATF's gunwalking operation was reportedly briefed on the program last year --- but didn't object. That's according to unnamed sources speaking to the Washington Post about the classified briefing. The sources said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was given "highly specific information" in an April 2010 briefing, attended by members of Congress from both parties. The operation called "Fast and Furious" is now under fire by Issa and others for allegedly allowing thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. CBS News first broke the story in February. "All...

A chief Republican critic of a controversial U.S. anti-gun-trafficking operation was briefed on ATF’s “Fast and Furious” program last year and did not express any opposition, sources familiar with the classified briefing said Tuesday. Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), who has repeatedly called for top Justice Department officials to be held accountable for the now-defunct operation, was given highly specific information about it at an April 2010 briefing, the sources said. Members of his staff also attended the session, which Issa and two other Republican congressmen had requested. Fast and Furious targeted Mexican gun traffickers but was linked to the killing...

Kenneth Melson is expected to resign from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: The Chicago ATF field office head is to meet with Holder, sources say The sources say the resignation could occur in the coming days The operation allowed illegal gun purchases Some weapons ended up in the hands of Mexican cartels Washington (CNN) -- Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is expected to resign under pressure, perhaps in the next day or two, in the wake of the ongoing controversy over Operation Fast and Furious, two...