By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The long-awaited report on Operation Fast and Furious by the Justice Department’s inspector general apparently points blaming fingers at former top officials with the Phoenix, AZ field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Fox News has reported.
However, there are also indications that “a lot of very senior people knew the U.S. was helping traffic hundreds of assault weapons to Mexico and did nothing.”
Inspector General Michael Horowitz is scheduled to testify on Sept. 19 before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA). He said that the final report should be released later in the week.
According to Fox, the draft report found no evidence that the ATF or the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix did anything during the investigation to balance public safety risks against any anticipated benefits to law enforcement.
The report points to former Special Agent in Charge William Newell, Group Supervisor David Voth and Case Agent Hope MacAllister. Their attorneys, Fox News noted, contend all three are being made scapegoats for the scandal.
Voth’s attorney noted to Fox News that he delivered a report to senior officials with the ATF and Department of Justice in March 2010, months before the operation went into meltdown following the slaying of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. His death, in the desert of Arizona about ten miles from Nogales, was linked to the operation when two guns that were purchased by one of the main Fast and Furious suspects turned up at the murder scene.
According to Fox News, the attorneys for all three ATF officials contend that the plan for Fast and Furious was not “hatched” in Phoenix, but that it was “part of the overall ATF Southwest Border strategy to deal with an international criminal enterprise engaged in firearms trafficking.”
There are allegations that the plan also was mounted in order to justify an ATF desire to require stepped-up reporting of all firearm sales by gun dealers in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
The Capitol Hill investigation of Operation Fast and Furious began in January 2010 when Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley began snooping into allegations made by ATF whistleblowers about gun walking. On-line journalists David Codrea, the national Gun Rights Examiner, and Mike Vanderboegh at Sipsey Street Irregulars initially broke the story about the ill-fated gun trafficking sting operation.
It was not long after Grassley made initial inquiries to then-ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson that the alleged cover-up began.
TGM’s predecessor Gun Week began covering the controversy in early 2010, and that probe continues today.
The story took on heavy political overtones when Attorney General Eric Holder refused to turn over thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents, and ultimately secured a presidential claim of executive privilege. Holder was then held in contempt of Congress, and the House of Representatives is now suing in federal court to force him to comply with the subpoenas.
President Barack Obama does not appear to have suffered any political damage by taking ownership of the controversy.
Some of the key figures involved in the case have retired, and others are expected to leave the agency. Former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke abruptly resigned more than a year ago, and all of the ATF officials directly linked to the case have been reassigned.
