AZMEX F&F EXTRA 19 SEP 2012
Note: Dial (something old folks can tell you about) 1-800-COVERUP ?
Again, civil servants, employees, et al, do not make these kind of
decisions. The politicians and political appointees do that. Have
to wonder how many of those involved have been promised pardons for
silence?
'Furious' report slams 'disregard' for public safety as DOJ officials
quit
Published September 19, 2012
FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/19/major-report-released-on-
fast-and-furious-doj-official-resigns/
A bombshell report released Wednesday on Operation Fast and Furious
faulted a range of federal agencies for the failed anti-gunrunning
program and accused officials in charge of a "disregard" for public
safety. In the wake of the report, one Justice Department official
resigned and another retired.
The sprawling report by the department's inspector general is the
most comprehensive account yet on the deadly operation which allowed
weapons to "walk" across the U.S.-Mexico border and resulted in
hundreds of firearms turning up at crime scenes in both countries.
The report says Attorney General Eric Holder was not made aware of
potential flaws in the program until February of last year. But the
report cites 14 other department employees -- including Criminal
Division head Lanny Breuer -- for potential wrongdoing, recommending
the department consider disciplinary action against them.
One congressional source told Fox News the report was "more brutal
than was expected."
The report also marked Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney
general for the Criminal Division, as the highest-ranking DOJ
employee in a position to stop the program. Weinstein, who disputes
the findings, is nevertheless resigning in the wake of the report.
Another official criticized for not asking enough questions about the
Furious operation, former ATF acting director Kenneth Melson, retired
after the report came down.
The nearly 500-page report was completed after investigators reviewed
100,000 documents and interviewed 130 people.
The report slams both ATF Phoenix and the U.S. Attorney's Office for
not taking action. The program caught the attention of Congress and
the rest of the country after weapons from Fast and Furious were
found at the crime scene of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
"Indeed, no one responsible for the case at either ATF Phoenix Field
Division or the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona raised a serious
question or concern about the government not taking earlier measures
to disrupt a trafficking operation that continued to purchase
firearms with impunity for many months," the report said. "Similarly,
we did not find persuasive evidence that any supervisor in Phoenix,
at either the U.S. Attorney's Office or ATF, raised serious questions
or concerns about the risk to public safety posed by the continuing
firearms purchases or by the delay in arresting individuals who were
engaging in the trafficking.
"This failure reflected a significant lack of oversight and urgency
by both ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, and a
disregard by both for the safety of individuals in the United States
and Mexico," the report said.
The report faults both Breuer and Weinstein for not notifying
superiors about a prior Bush-era program called Wide Receiver when
questions about Fast and Furious arose. The report also said
Weinstein knew about Fast and Furious from discussions with an ATF
official in early 2010 and his review of wiretaps that year.
Weinstein told Fox News that he's resigning so as to not "distract"
from the department's work. But he took issue with the report's
conclusions about him -- he gave the inspector general a 32-page
document laying out alleged errors and suggested changes for the
draft report, but "virtually none" of those were incorporated,
according to Michael Bromwich, who is representing Weinstein.
The inspector general's report cites a conversation Weinstein had
with ATF official Bill McMahon in April 2010.
At the time, the department was trying to bring indictments in the
Wide Receiver investigation. Weinstein said he was so upset to learn
that ATF walked guns that he met with McMahon and others on April 28,
2010 to talk with them about it. After the meeting, McMahon told
Weinstein about another operation ATF Phoenix was conducting,
describing it to McMahon as "the opposite of Wide Receiver," and
insisting it didn't involve gun-walking and that ATF was aggressively
interdicting guns, according to Weinstein. That was Fast and Furious.
Months later, according to Weinstein, McMahon told Weinstein that
some ATF officials in Phoenix felt wiretap applications were moving
too slowly and the delay was having an effect on the investigation,
so Weinstein helped push that along. Weinstein says he only read the
cover sheets of wiretap applications. But the IG report says
Weinstein was in a position to stop the program.
The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the ATF and
U.S. attorney's office in Arizona shared equal responsibility for the
gun-walking programs. It also said senior leaders did little
immediately after Terry's death to inquire about Operation Fast and
Furious. It faulted ATF headquarters for insufficient oversight of
the program. And it cited the "inappropriate" effort to encourage
dealers to sell firearms in transactions they knew were unlawful for
weapons they did not intend to seize.
DOJ officials Monty Wilkinson and Gary Grindler were also criticized
for failing to inform Holder that two guns connected to Fast and
Furious were found at the Terry murder scene.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/19/major-report-
released-on-fast-and-furious-doj-official-resigns/#ixzz26wsGSHTT
NOTE: Link to the report - if it works.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2012/09/19/review-atf-
operation-fast-and-furious/
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