By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Ia.) is voicing concern that guns purchased in an ATF sting in Arizona may have been used by bandits in a gunfight that resulted in the death in December of border patrol agent Brian Terry near the border town of Nogales, the Arizona Republic reported. Grassley…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Proposed deep budget cuts could undermine some key ATF programs like “Project Gun Runner”, a signature program under the Obama administration designed to crack down on the flow of weapons to Mexico and its cartels, the Washington Post reported. The Post’s James Grimaldi and Sari Horwitz report that the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com In Arizona, which is locked in an endless battle to keep guns from going into Mexico, comes the latest. Authorities on Tuesday announced indictments in five cases resulting in charges against 34 people accused of assisting Mexican drug trafficking organizations with illegally running firearms from the United States to Mexico. Authorities…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. has issued a memo calling for a temporary hiring freeze for all Justice Department employees at least until spring, saying the federal government is “facing unprecedented budget challenges”, ABC News reported. “I anticipate revisiting the Department’s hiring and staff situation in the spring, once we know…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — ATF and the NRA are two acronyms that seldom play together well. So it’s no surprise that the NRA — the National Rifle Association — and other gun rights advocates aren’t happy with the White House’ nomination of Andrew Traver to head the agency. Traver currently heads up the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Bernie La Forest, who headed up ATF offices in Kansas City, Detroit, Phoenix and Los Angeles before retiring, has just penned his second suspense novel — “In The Red Dragon’s Shadow.” The murder mystery is chock full of international intrigue and involves the ATF, Detroit Police, guns, radical Muslims from Iraq,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Robert J. Browning, Deputy Director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center at Quantico, has been named head of ATF’s Columbus, Ohio field division. A 23-year veteran of ATF, Browning worked at Quantico as part of a multi-agency organization responsible for analyzing improvised explosive device (IED) evidence, primarily from…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Federal authorities are investigating allegations that an ATF agent in Virginia stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of ATF-owned cigarettes and sold them, according to the Daily Press newspaper. The agent Clifford D. Posey, 43, who is part of the Norfolk, Va. ATF office, has not been charged, but the…
