Gunrunning Scandal Widens
Where to begin? Over the July 4th holiday, ATF acting director Melson met with members of the House Oversight committee, along with his personal attorney. Melson accused DOJ of obstructing the Congressional investigation, specifically newly confirmed Deputy Attorney General James Cole.
Melson said he notified the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (ODAG) at the end of March that the department needed to re-examine how it was responding to requests for information from Congress. He also said the Justice Department officials directed the ATF senior team not to respond to Congressional inquiries, and Justice took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress. The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the Justice Department wanted them to hear.
Robert Ludlum, Please call your office
One of the "big fish" targets the ATF was allegedly building a case against was an FBI confidential informant. The informant was a drug dealer deported by the DEA that the FBI converted into an informant. The FBI's stake was information related to information about "dirty bombs" and any Al Qaeda suspects moving across the border. It's reported that this informant was paid by the FBI and was using the money to finance gun buys in Arizona. The FBI knew of the ATF investigation but never told the agency of the informant's status. Not only was the U.S. government indirectly using taxpayer dollars to fund the gun buys, but their "big fish" would never be indicted because he was an FBI "asset" in Mexico. This is like something out of a Robert Ludlum novel!
Spreading like a Cancer?
Following on the heels of Melson's "interview" with the House Oversight committee comes word that "Fast and Furious" has spread to the Tampa, Florida field division!
Source say that the Tampa ATF field division was walking guns into Honduras using techniques and tactics identical to Operation Fast and Furious. Dubbed Operation Castaway, it was run by Special Agent-in-Charge (SAC) Virginia O’Brien. O'Brien was previously the Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix Field Division, was later promoted to the Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) of ATF, but then "stepped down" to the position in Tampa.
Reportedly, there are emails in existence where O’Brien has advised those involved that Tampa does not have to report their walked guns because Tampa field division is not a part of Southwest Border or Project Gunrunner. Sipsey Street Irregulars has a good write-up on "why guns to Honduras?"
As of Thursday, insider sources say that the Tampa Field division is in a "melt down" and shredders are working overtime. SAC O'Brien's partner in the bungle was ASAC Scott McCampbell, who went along with O'Brien when they decided to keep Castaway going to "get more" against the advice of their field employees and the number of walked guns got out of control. O'Brien is terrified that her intentional concealing of her walked guns is going to do her in since she disregarded orders to report to DOJ and Congress. The new player is DAD-East Julie Torres. She took O'Brien's old DAD job when O'Brien went to Tampa and has given OB carte blanche to do whatever she wants with little oversight.
This little revelation shows that the "Fast and Furious" program wasn't simply a case of one "rouge" ATF office. This plan is national in scope. Reporting from the Dallas/Houston region is sparse, but there's plenty of reason to believe they were doing the same thing.
As of Thursday, insider sources say that the Tampa Field division is in a "melt down" and shredders are working overtime. SAC O'Brien's partner in the bungle was ASAC Scott McCampbell, who went along with O'Brien when they decided to keep Castaway going to "get more" against the advice of their field employees and the number of walked guns got out of control. O'Brien is terrified that her intentional concealing of her walked guns is going to do her in since she disregarded orders to report to DOJ and Congress. The new player is DAD-East Julie Torres. She took O'Brien's old DAD job when O'Brien went to Tampa and has given OB carte blanche to do whatever she wants with little oversight.
This little revelation shows that the "Fast and Furious" program wasn't simply a case of one "rouge" ATF office. This plan is national in scope. Reporting from the Dallas/Houston region is sparse, but there's plenty of reason to believe they were doing the same thing.
We are seeing this debacle reach out to infect the DOJ, FBI and DEA. It's only a matter of time until this thing connects to the other alphabet-soup agencies -- DHS, ICE, CBP, et al. Expect that the "most transparent administration ever" will turn out to be just the reverse.
Read the entire scandal timeline at Handgunclub.com
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