By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A report issued late Monday night by the Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform tries to debunk suggestions by Republicans that high level appointees at the Justice Department conceived and directed the very flawed ATF Operation Fast and Furious. It places the blame for the operation squarely…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com ATF had a gathering at headquarters in D.C. the other day that wasn’t typical of the ones you see in federal law enforcement. The agency on Wednesday hosted its first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month program at its headquarters, with Acting Director Kenneth Melson providing remarks along with…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Replacing Ken Melson, acting head of ATF, could get a little messy. The Los Angeles Times reports that Melson is “strongly resisting pressure” to step down over the controversy surrounding ATF’s “Operation Fast and Furious”, a flawed program that encouraged gun dealers to sell to straw purchasers with the hopes of…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Andrew Traver, the man the White House nominated last November to head up ATF, is in Washington Tuesday to speak to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. His arrival comes in the midst of a major controversy — or screw up as some might say — involving ATF’s “Operation Fast and Furious”,…
By The Washington Examiner Editorial Page WASHINGTON — Credible media reports have it that Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will get his walking papers this week as a result of his approval of Operation Fast and Furious, aka “Gunwalker.” That’s the program in which ATF purposely allowed…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley on Friday expressed concerns that ATF agents are possibly being encouraged not to fully cooperate with Congressional inquiries into a controversial ATF gun-walking program. In a press release issued Friday, Grassley said his concerns surfaced after documents released by AFT through the Freedom of Information Act…
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 — 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…
