By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com ATF is turning to text messages to generate more tips. The agency announced this week a six-month pilot program that will allow crime tips to be submitted anonymously by text message to ATF’s Joint Support and Operations Center for review and processing. “The general public will benefit from the easy to…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — As expected, the White House gave the nod on Monday to Andrew Traver, a 23-year-veteran of ATF, as the nominee to head the agency. Traver has headed the ATF Chicago field division since 2004. From 2001 to 2004, he served as an assistant special agent in charge of the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Nearly two weeks after a U.S. Virgin Islands judge tossed out the controversial murder charges against ATF agent Will Clark, the agency said it has still not decided whether to send agents to work there again. “It’s being evaluated and no decision has been made,” Donna Sellers, an ATF…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON –– A Justice Department’s Inspector General report released Tuesday sharply criticized ATF’s efforts to crackdown on gun trafficking along the Mexican border, saying the agency is failing to share information within and outside the agency and with Mexico and is focusing far too much on smaller rather than bigger gun…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A Navy SEAL and two other men have been busted in an ATF sting in which they allegedly smuggled illegal firearms, including AK-47 assault rifles, from Iraq and Afghanistan, and sold them to an undercover agent, federal authorities in Las Vegas said Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Nicholas Bickle,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Mark Potter, head of ATF in Philadelphia, is headed to the mothership in Washington in January to become the agency’s assistant director/chief financial officer, Office of Management. Potter, who has been with ATF for more than 23 years, has headed up the Philly office for the past 7 1/2 years. At…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — A U.S. Virgin Islands judge on Thursday tossed out the controversial case against ATF agent Will Clark who had been on trial since Monday on charges of murdering his neighbor during a confrontation in 2008. The Associated Press reported that Judge Edgar Ross tossed the case on a technicality,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com ORLANDO — ATF agent Will Clark, who is on trial in the Virgin Islands for murder, is getting support from some very high places in the U.S. government. The ATF posted a photo on its webpage of Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. addressing the annual conference for the International Association of…
