Obama Denies Knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious

President Obama denies any knowledge of Operation Fast and Furious, an operation that allowed thousands of guns to be smuggled across the border to Mexico. One of those guns killed Border Agent Brian Terry, another killed a Mexican attorney. The Justice Department is now looking for a replacement for the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. No doubt they’re hoping that firing the ATF’s current head, Kenneth Melson, will make this issue go away.

The Wall Street Journal reported:

Mr. Melson is the most senior official so far implicated in a congressional probe of the Fast and Furious operation. The ATF Phoenix office ran the program in 2009-2010 to monitor weapons purchases by suspected gun smugglers. Agency officials hoped eventually to build a case against major arms smugglers serving Mexican drug cartels. The ATF has struggled to stanch the flow of U.S. weapons to Mexican drug gangs.

At a House hearing this week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, disclosed internal documents showing that Mr. Melson was closely involved in managing Fast and Furious operation. One email among ATF officials described Mr. Melson’s request for an Internet link to hidden cameras the ATF had planted in gun shops cooperating with the operation, Mr. Issa said, citing the documents. That allowed Mr. Melson to watch a live feed of suspected “straw buyers,” who purchase firearms on behalf of others, buying AK-47-style rifles, he said.

The Department of Justice denies approving the operation, but testimony of ATF agents before Congress contradicts the DOJ. The Washington Examiner reported:

Those questions gained special relevance Wednesday when four ATF agents testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and squarely contradicted a Feb. 4, 2011, claim by a department spokesman that DOJ did not approve of the program that sanctioned the illegal sale here in America by legitimate gun dealers of assault weapons to representatives of Mexican drug cartels. The idea behind the program was that the hundreds of firearms thus sold would then be traced from specific crimes, thus enabling prosecutions of the individuals involved.

The agents testified that Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley, a Phoenix-based appointee of President Obama, “orchestrated” Operation Fast and Furious. ATF Phoenix field office supervisor Peter Forcelli, for example, told the committee: “I have read documents that indicate that his boss, U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, also agreed with the direction of the case.” That direction was established sometime after Obama was inaugurated in 2009 when Phoenix ATF agents, breaking with long-established agency practice, were ordered to monitor, but not stop, gun sales to suspected gun traffickers. The agents testified that Phoenix ATF supervisor David Voth “was jovial, if not, not giddy, but just delighted” when Fast and Furious guns were subsequently recovered at multiple Mexican drug busts. And emails released Thursday by Rep. Darrell Issa,R-Calif., revealed that acting director Kenneth Melson even arranged to watch live feeds from ATF cameras in gun stores being used by the program while sitting at his desk.

The Examiner concludes that Attorney General Eric Holder either knew about this reckless operation, and if he wasn’t aware of it he should have been.

There’s more at Maggie’s Notebook.

Here’s a video report from Fox News last week, explaining that the House committee is laying the groundwork for holding the ATF leader and possibly even Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over documents.

Tags: ATF, contempt, DOJ, Eric Holder, obama, Operation Fast and Furious, video