| Reports Fingers Five ATF Employees Responsible For "Fast and Furious" |
| Jul-31-2012 |
| Keywords: congress, republican, investigators, report, atf, employees, fast and furious |
Congressional investigators today singled out employees for the ATF's botched gunrunning operation "Fast and Furious."
In a report obtained by Fox News, Republican investigators found that five employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are to blame for the operation that contributed to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and hundreds of Mexican citizens.
The report concludes that the five employees were responsible for an operation "marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy." All five have since been reassigned but remain employed in the agency.
For more than a year, Republicans have been leading an investigation into Fast and Furious that came to light when Agent Terry was gunned down by one of the guns put into the hands of Mexican drug cartel members.
The congressional investigative report faults Acting Director Kenneth Melson; Deputy Director William Hoover; William Newell, special agent in charge of the Phoenix Field Division; William McMahon, deputy assistant director for field operations, and Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations.
Still at issue is how much Department of Justice officials knew of the operation before shutting it down. The Republican-led House voted late in June to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler argues that the congressional report backs up DOJ officials have been saying from the beginning - "that the flaws in this operation and in previous ones had their origins in the field in Arizona and occurred in part due to weak oversight by ATF leadership."
Acting Director Kenneth Melson told investigators that DOJ is making him a scapegoat.
"I think they were doing more damage control than anything," he testified, as quoted in the investigative report. "My view is that the whole matter of the department's response in this case was a disaster."
The congressional investigators noted that Melson "was concerned that Fast and Furious did not end sooner", but they also faulted him for never ordering it to be shut down.
There are two other reports being prepared for release that will focus more on the Justice Department's oversight role in the operation and its dealings with congressional investigators. Republicans have suggested Justice officials have resorted to political stonewalling in an attempt to cover up the truth, while administration officials have described the Republican investigation as a witch hunt. |
|
|
Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 12:00 PM Email to a friend |
| < Back to Today's Issues |
|
 |
|
|
|
