There are now enough Operation Fast and Furious officials playing hide-and-seek in the Obama administration to fill a “rubber room.”
That’s the nickname for taxpayer-subsidized holding pens — such as the ones in the New York City public schools — where crooked employees are separated from the system and paid to do nothing. Perhaps the White House can stimulate a few construction jobs by adding an entire rubber room annex for “reassigned” scandal bureaucrats at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It’s getting mighty crowded.
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On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced it was shuffling Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, out of his job. The disclosure comes amid continued GOP investigations into the administration’s fatally botched straw-gun-purchase racket at the border and the spreading outrage over legal obstructionism and whistleblower retaliation by DOJ brass. The DOJ inspector general is also conducting a probe.
Internal documents earlier showed that Melson was intimately involved in overseeing the program and screened undercover videos of thousands of straw purchases of AK-47s and other high-powered rifles — many of which ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartel thugs, including those who murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December. Fast and Furious weapons have been tied to at least a dozen violent crimes in America and untold bloody havoc in Mexico.
In secret July 4 testimony, Melson revealed he was “sick to his stomach” when he discovered the extent of the operation’s deadly lapses. Join the club, pal.
Melson told congressional investigators that he and ATF’s senior leadership “moved to reassign every manager involved in Fast and Furious, from the deputy assistant director for field operations down to the group supervisor” after ATF whistleblowers went to the press and Capitol Hill. But according to Melson, he and company were ordered by Justice Department higher-ups to remain silent about the reasons for the reassignments.
In other words: The ATF managers in the know were “effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand,” as GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, concluded in July.
Melson has been kicked back to DOJ’s main office in a flabbergasting new slot as “senior adviser on forensic science in the department’s Office of Legal Policy.” He may have been “sick to his stomach,” but the federal careerist apparently has no intention of quitting an administration with blood on its hands. And now he’ll be advising others on how to track and handle evidence. Nice make-work if you can get it.
Others on the Fast and Furious dance card of musical-chairs losers:
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley in Phoenix, who helped oversee the straw-gun-purchase disaster. He’s being transferred out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s criminal division and into the civil division.
Assistant ATF Special Agents in Charge George Gillett and Jim Needles. Moved to other positions.
ATF deputy director of operations in the West, William McMahon. Promoted to ATF headquarters.
ATF Phoenix field supervisors William Newell and David Voth. Promoted to new management positions in Washington.
Keep your friends close and your henchmen on the verge of spilling all the beans closer.
There’s been only one visible Fast and Furious resignation: U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix, who quietly stepped down on Tuesday. One of his last acts? Opposing the request of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s family to qualify as crime victims in a court case against the thug who bought the Fast and Furious guns used in Terry’s murder.
The fish rots from the head down, of course. DOJ is run by Eric Holder, the Beltway swamp creature who won bipartisan approval for his nomination — even after putting political interests ahead of security interests at the Clinton Justice Department in both the Marc Rich pardon scandal and the Puerto Rican FALN terrorist debacle. Remember: Holder won over the Senate by arguing that his poor judgment made him more qualified for the job.
Screw up, move up, cover up: It’s the Holder way, the Obama way, the Washington way. And innocent Americans pay.
The ATF has long past its expiration date. It should be disbanded and its missions and agents dispursed to law enforcement agencies that are not entirely incompetent. Alcohol & tobacco (tax related offenses) to Treasury, and firearms/explosives to the F.B.I.
As to Holder, who would have thought that anyone could make the Janet Reno disaster look good in comparison.
The AK-47 was only manufactured for a few years, what the writer refers to are actually semi-automatic variants of the AKM, a modernized AK rifle. Further, the cartridge the AK series of rifles fires is a less powerful version of the full-size battle rifle cartridge. In essence, not high-powered by design.
@Eric Oaks - You are WRONG in your assessment of the AKM’s round. It fires a 7.62 X 39 millimeter bullet which is the identical round fired by its fully automatic cousin, the AK-47. That round will penetrate all soft body armor typically worn by most law enforcement personnel as well as penetrating the windshield and door of a car or SUV. After tours in Iraq and Afghanistan (and being on the “wrong end” of AK fire) you learn this type of stuff.
The 7.62 x 39mm is an intermediate round that is certainly powerful enough and accurate enough out to 300 to 600 m. It is roughly in the ballistic class of the .30-30 Winchester fired out of a Model 94 lever-action deer rifle.
The 7.62 x 39mm does not possess the range, power, or accuracy of the 7.62 x 51mm NATO round, which is fired from U.S. medium machineguns going back to the M60, and some U.S. sniper rifles (as well as many hunting rifles in .308 Winchester). It was developed because the WWII standard cartridges (e.g., .30-06 Springfield, 7.92 x 57mm Mauser, .303 British, and 7.62 x 54Rmm Russian) were thought to be more powerful than needed for most battlefield situations. The smaller round allowed a soldier to carry more adequately powerful ammo for the same weight. This is also part of the reason the U.S. adopted the 5.56 x 45mm NATO and the M16.
The 7.62 x 39mm round is certainly neither "high-powered" nor as accurate at long range compared to common hunting calibers such as the 7mm Remington Magnum and the .300 Winchester Magnum, or the current U.S. high-powered sniper rifle cartridges - the .338 Lapua or .50 BMG.
That's all a bit "techie," but the devil is in the details.
To your comment about being a little teachie. Those are the kind of facts I am interested in. Being a newer gun enthusist I understand the basics , but a widespread comparison in several chamberings is just the teaching tool I need to fully understand what type of firearm I need to buy for my purposes. If you could direct me to other types of fourms for the same type of information would be greatly appreciated. Ty
Actually, 7.62x39 is the cartidge, not the bullet. And that case is significantly smaller than the 7.62x54R cartridge of the Mosin Nagant battle rifle. But you've been to Iraq, so I guess that trumps facts.
Actually, 7.62x39mm is the size of the bullet as well as referring to the cartridge. AKMs and AK-47s use the exact same cartridge. Get your facts straight and try not to insult veterans while your at it. BTW, I've also served in Iraq (three tours), and have first-hand experience on both ends with 7.62x39 and 7.62x54R. I would consider both to be "high-powered" to different degrees, although I do not like that term.
You are incorrect in stating that it is the same for the cartrige and bullet. The 7.62 referes to the bullet diameter and the 39 refers to the cartrige lenght, both in milimeters. The 7.62-39 and the 7.62-54 both can use the same bullet but the 7.62-54 has a larger case volume due to it's being longer and thus has higher speed and impact power.
Ms. Malkin: When you say, the fish rots from its head, why did you stop at Holder? WH aides were in on this as well, and if they were, then who else do you think would be? Might his last name begin with an O?
Holder - another illustrious graduate of Stuyvesant High School and defender of the FALN terrorists. He will be remembered as one of the worst attorney generals ever. And then there is the little matter of the Marc Rich pardon . . . some of these characters belong on the tv show Breaking Bad.
It is fascinating, although not the overused "unexpected", to see the way the lapdog media coddles Thug Holder vs. the way they went after Alberto Gonzales, eventually driving him out of office.
It mattered not a bit that he was later fully exonerated of all of the spurious charges against him for the criminal act of...terminating a few appointees of the previous Administration!
What an unheard of act of recklessness! Dozens were killed or injured due to his malfeasance!
Oh, no wait - that's Holder I'm thinking of. The guys Gonzales fired just had to go back to work in other comparable high-paying government jobs back in their home states or in the private sector. Oh, the humanity!
It is gut-wrenching to think that they are going to get away with this. This scandal is so rotten and the cover up so blatant that you would think even some in the "mainstream" media would be screaming. This makes Watergate look like child's play.
Who's brilliant intellect created and launched this murderous plan? While the WH West Wing and their Marxist Media shills are questioning Perry's intellect, I ask in return to examine Barry/Eric the Red's intellects?
Call for a special Prosecutor Now, to stop the Cover-up, and get to the bottom of who approved what, who did what, and who knew what, and when!
Watergate was nothing compared to this crime, and its current cover-up! They think and act as if we are all dumb!
Holder has become one of the most invisible members of the Obama administration, and it's easy to see why.
Not one single person gets fired for this? And DOJ is in charge of the investigation of itself?
Maybe if Michelle Bachmann or Rick Perry mentions this story more, the MSM might have to start paying attention (even if it would probably be something along the lines of "Republicans are hypocrites for complaining about this, because they love guns soooooo much.")
Until the facts, which are as hard to come by as someone's college thesis are released, it seems very feasible that the POTUS has innocent American citizens' blood on his hands. Why in the world did journalism think it was in its' best interest to self-destruct.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley in Phoenix, who helped oversee the straw-gun-purchase disaster. He’s being transferred out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s criminal division and into the civil division.
